The Biblical Case for Observing the Sabbath Today
Made for Worship
When we look at the Scripture’s case for observing the Sabbath, I think it’s best to move from beginning to end. So in the beginning, in Genesis 2, we see God setting apart that seventh day as a day of holy resting. It’s a day of worship, and that is for the good and betterment of his image bears. We were made to work, but we were made for more than work. We were made for worship—fellowship in communion with the living God.
The Sabbath as Rest and Hope for the People of God
Guy Prentiss Waters
In this addition to the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series, Guy Prentiss Waters provides a study of the Sabbath, from creation to consummation.
This is confirmed in the New Testament, and it’s confirmed especially in the law of God as he gave it in Exodus 20 and the parallel in Deuteronomy 5, where God makes explicit that he wants his people to observe one day a week for worship and for rest, remembering that God has made us and remembering that God has redeemed us.
So this command, which God gave at creation for the good of all his image bearers, takes on special meaning for the redeemed. When we remember our God—who he is and what he’s done for us—and then we come to the ministry of Jesus and see he is very critical of the Jewish leadership of his day, not because they’re keeping the Sabbath but because they’re not keeping the Sabbath. They’re breaking both the spirit and letter of it by adding what God has not commanded in his word and making it a crushing burden. But Jesus affirms the Sabbath. The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.
We are pilgrims in this world and there remains a Sabbath rest for us. It lays ahead of us in glory.
Nurture Your Hope
And then finally, we move to the end of the Scripture and we see the apostles, under the authority of Christ, gathering the church on the first day of the week, the Lord’s day, remembering that Jesus has been raised from the dead for us. The hope of the resurrection is nurtured every Lord’s day. And we remember, as Hebrews reminds us in chapter four, we are pilgrims in this world and there remains a Sabbath rest for us. It lays ahead of us in glory. This world is not our home.
And so we get a wonderful gospel reset each Lord’s day as we come together. From Genesis to Revelation, we see that God has always called his people one day a week to come together, to glorify him, to remember him—giving him the worship that’s his due.
Guy Prentiss Waters is the author of The Sabbath as Rest and Hope for the People of God.
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