Christ our Sabbath Rest

WHY JESUS ALONE IS OUR SABBATH REST

By Ezekiel Kimosop

Have you ever met someone who told you to your face that worshipping God on Sunday is in breach of the Sabbath law?

Please don't panic or be confused about it. Here is what I consider as biblical truth that the Bible teaches regarding this controversial issue.

Genesis 2:2 teaches that God rested from His works on the seventh day. This is not to suggest that God was tired like us so that He needed some vacation but that He had accomplished all that He had divinely determined to do during the Creation week.

The law of Moses later required that the Jews should observe the Sabbath on the seventh day and this day was hallowed unto the LORD (Exodus 20).

In the New Testament, Jesus taught that He was the Lord also of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8), meaning that He had divine authority to exercise discretion over its interpretation and that He came to fulfill the requirements of the law.

Jesus was reacting to the legalism of the Pharisees who had questioned Him regarding His healing ministry on the Sabbath.

So how should we understand the Sabbath?

Hebrews 4:9-11 says "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience"

Whose example is under reference here?

It is the example of the Jews who even after receiving the law continued in disobedience to God.

The law was not a cure for their sinfulness but was simply a shadow of things to come when Christ shall be revealed.

The Jews practiced a religious system that never brought them into a lasting relationship with God despite the ritual sacrifices of bulls.

The Pharisees of Jesus' day best exemplified the futility of human rituals by men when their hearts were far from God! This is what is commonly meant by the word "lip service".

The passage of Hebrews 4:9-11 reveals the divine connection between Christ's atoning death and the fulfilment of the Sabbath law.

My biblical deduction is therefore that believers can and should be free to worship God on any day of the week because Jesus became our true Rest when He paid the ultimate sacrifice for our reconciliation with God.

Those who are in Christ have entered His Rest once and for all.

There is nothing more that we need to do beyond what Christ has accomplished at Calvary through which we have obtained divine freedom from the curse of the law. Ours is to submit fully to His lordship.

Those who insist on keeping a ritual Sabbath or "seventh day" worship are doing so purely out of their religious convictions and should not impose their doctrine on other believers who hold a different view.

To teach that it is a continuing biblical requirement for believers to observe the Jewish Sabbath, is to attempt to turn back the divine clock past Calvary!




© Ezekiel Kimosop Teaching Series 2016