The Sabbath was once a very important day for those who were under the Old Covenant. The keeping of the Sabbath was explained at the receiving of the Ten Commandments.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day isthe Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Exod 20:8-11 NKJV
The keeping of the Sabbath is given within the Ten Commandments, which clearly identifies the keeping of the Sabbath as being part of the Old Covenant (Deut 4:13). As given in the writing of stone by God (Exod 31:18), the day was to be kept holy and free from work as God rested on the seventh day of creation. The consequence of violating the Sabbath was punishable by death (Exod 31: 13-16; c.f. Num 15:32-36). However, the priests worked very hard on the Sabbath doing certain forms of work, such as preparing sacrifices (Num 28:9-10), and men also performed other religious works such as circumcision on the Sabbath when necessary (John 7:21-24). The Sabbath was something created by God for mankind and not mankind for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). Jesus, in His teachings concerning the Sabbath, goes beyond just the physical action and into the purpose behind God’s instructions. The Sabbath was a day of rest for the creation and not the Creator, which was also evident by including the requirement of rest for the stranger and the beast (Exod 20:10; 23:12; Deut 5:14).
Should Christians Continue to Keep the Sabbath?
So why are we not worshiping on Saturday, the seventh day, today? “Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant” (Exod 31:16). From the originating of this commandment. It has been stated that Sabbath practice would only exist “throughout their generations,” the generations of the Israelites. Of all the nine times the phrase “throughout their generations” is used in the New King James Version, it is always in reference to a practice no longer given today in Christ’s Covenant (c.f. Gen 17:9; Exod 12:42; 30:21; 31:16; 40:15; Lev 7:36; 17:7; Num 15:38; 1 Chron 9:34). The Old Covenant, which included the handwriting on stone, The Ten Commandments, ended at the cross (2 Cor 3:6-14; Col 2:14). The Old Covenant was replaced by the New Covenant making the Old Covenant “obsolete” (Heb 8:7-13). The Sabbath, as given in the Ten Commandments, was never meant to be in practice forever.
The Consequence of Continuing to Keep the Sabbath
All of the Ten Commandments have been given to us again, in the New Covenant, to keep today except for the Sabbath. We have a different day witnessed to be honored in the New Covenant. It is no longer the last day of the week but the first day of the week. On the first day of the week, Sunday, we have in Scripture the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Mark 16:9), the establishment of the church on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), and the day Christians assembled (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2). Today, we assemble as the Christians in the Bible did on the first day of the week, Sunday, to worship in keeping with His covenant that He established for us, and not the Law of Moses by keeping the Sabbath. In fact, if a Christian were to keep the Old Covenant by holding to the Sabbath instead of the Lord’s Day. This would cause them to fall from grace (Gal 5:1-6). Instead, do not forsake all the good we accomplish in the assembling of the saints (Heb 10:24-25), which the saints did on Sunday.
