LIE # 48 - SUNDAY IS THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH

Many Christians grew up being taught that Sunday is the Sabbath. Not only did they have to “go to church,” but they also needed to observe the day in other ways. Some wouldn’t eat in restaurants on Sunday. Others wouldn’t allow their children to play outside on Sunday. When I was a child, we were taught it was wrong to wash the car or mow the lawn on Sunday. There are still many ways that some people mark Sunday as a Sabbath day in the modern church world.

To understand this subject, it’s important to clarify what we’re talking about when we discuss the Sabbath. What is the Sabbath, anyway? Is it something we need to respect as new covenant believers? Do we truly have a holy day during the week we must set apart for special observance?

Among the peoples of the ancient world, only Israel had a Sabbath day. It was one of the Ten Commandments, and was specifically required under the Law of Moses.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy (Exodus 20:8-11).

Notice some things about this requirement. First, it says nothing about “going to church” (or tabernacle, temple, or synagogue). It is a command to refrain from working. To make sure nobody found a loophole, the Lord made it clear that this meant everybody—you, your wife, your children, your slaves, and even Gentile strangers.

Second, the Sabbath day was what we know today as Saturday. But to be accurate, the Jewish people have always counted the Sabbath as beginning at sundown on Friday and lasting until sundown Saturday. Saturday is the “seventh day.” Sunday is the first day of the week.

Third, the Lord was so serious about this command that violations of it were a capital crime: “Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people” (Exodus 31:14).

Fourth, notice that this commandment was for Israel alone. Nowhere in Scripture are any of the Gentile nations told to keep the Sabbath (except those living within the geographical boundaries of Israel). Neither are they criticized for not keeping it. This helps explain why the penalties were so severe: the Sabbath served as one of the most important “boundary markers” separating Israel from the rest of the world. It was quite successful at doing so. Other nations, such as the Greeks and Romans, found the Jewish practice of Sabbath-keeping hilarious and absurd. “How lazy those Jews are,” they said, “who take a day out of every seven and refuse to work!”

The Truth Is So Much Better!

Even with all this Old Testament support, it is evident from the New Testament, and from the history of the early church, that Christians deliberately chose not to worship on the Sabbath. From the earliest records, Christians have gathered for worship and celebration on the first day of the week, which we call Sunday.

Acts 20:7 records an occasion when Paul met with and taught the church at Troas. It says, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them.” Note that it wasn’t the last day (the Sabbath day) but the first day that the church met.

Another time, when he was gathering his collection for the saints in Jerusalem, Paul gave these instructions: “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week each of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come” (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).
Finally, we have the account of John’s vision of the glorified Christ. It begins with this: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet” (Revelation 1:10).

How did the early church get this freedom to no longer keep the Sabbath commandment, which had been so strictly enforced? The main reason, as we have seen so many times in this book, is because they knew that they were under a new covenant and that the Law of Moses was no longer in force. Why did they choose to worship on Sunday?

Most believe it’s because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead on the first day. That’s why Revelation 1:10 refers to it as “the Lord’s day.” Two thousand years later, although we rejoice in His resurrection every day, we still celebrate the Lord’s resurrection in a special way on Easter Sunday. Even so, Sunday is not a Sabbath. By that I mean, God has not simply changed the day of the week while keeping the same requirement.

Spiritually speaking, the meaning of the Sabbath is that the work of Jesus Christ is finished and He is now our resting place. We don’t work to gain God’s acceptance. Because of the finished work of Christ, all of life is an enjoyment of a Sabbath. The Bible says, “The one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His” (Hebrews 4:10).

For the Christian, the Sabbath is not a day—not Sunday, not Saturday, not another day. The Sabbath for the Christian is a person named Jesus Christ. The Bible invites us to enter into the Sabbath as believers. Enter into Sabbath rest. Jesus is your Sabbath. It’s not a day of the week; it’s a life. Jesus Christ is the rest, the Sabbath for those of us who believe.

Clarify Your Thinking

So to suggest, then, that Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, is just an attempt to bring the Old Testament law and superimpose that on New Testament Christianity, and the two do not mix. The real Christian Sabbath is Jesus Christ. There is no greater rest.

Written by Steve McVey in "52 Lies Heard in Church Every Day", Harvest House Publishers, USA, 2011. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.