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The Lord's Day in the New Testament

Professor Alexandre de Araújo
March 29, 2017
Observance of the seventh day of the week as a holy day remains in effect in the new covenant.

Jesus not only kept the Sabbath, but He also taught the right way to observe this day. He said that the Sabbath was established for the good of mankind (Mark 2:27). Jesus performed many miracles on the Sabbath. With this, He demonstrated that the Sabbath is a day especially suited to alleviate people's suffering: "How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath,"(Matthew 12:12).

 

At no point in His ministry did Jesus condemn the observance of the Sabbath as something of the past. The discussion with the religious leaders of His time was not about whether this commandment should be kept, but about how it should be observed. That is why, even after His death, the disciples continued to observe the Sabbath: "And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulcher, and how His body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment,"(Luke 23:54-56). The author of these words, Luke, the beloved physician, wrote this thirty years after the events described. He would not write this note of clarification if the Sabbath was not being observed by the church of that time.

 

There is evidence in the New Testament that the disciples continued the practice of resting on the Sabbath. The apostle Paul went to the synagogues on the Sabbath (Acts 17:2). This was his day of worshiping the Lord. When he arrived at a city that did not have a Jewish house of prayer, the apostle would seek a place in nature to worship God: "And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither," (Acts 16:13).

 

When he made his defense before the governor Festus, Paul explained: "Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all" (Acts 25: 8). His enemies could not find anything against him. The Jews who persecuted him could not accuse him of trying to divert the people from keeping the whole law of God (see also Acts 26:4-6, 29:17-20).

 

The perpetuity of God's law
Some Christians claim that the Gospel releases the Christian from observing the law of God in general and the Sabbath in particular. This is not what the New Testament writers teach. In the book of Romans, Paul makes a clear defense of the Good News of salvation in Christ, which guarantees that "man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." (Romans 3:28). However, the apostle is careful to make it clear that this fact does not relieve the Christian from obeying the commandments of God: "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law" (verse 31).

 

In the new covenant inaugurated by Christ on the cross, obedience to the commandments of God continues, just as in the old. The prophet Jeremiah explains:

 

"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more," (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
 
Such are the clauses of the new covenant: first, people would know God (John 17:3); secondly, He would offer full pardon to all, and thirdly, the Lord would write His Law in the believer's heart. This means holiness of life, being in harmony with the will of God as expressed in the Law of the Ten Commandments. Did that include the Sabbath? Certainly. As the apostle James explains, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10).