The Sabbath Trap

A friend told me this recently. “From what I can see, Christians are still supposed to be keeping the Sabbath. The Sabbath in Old Testament times always meant the seventh day of the week, Saturday. I have studied and studied this topic. I read that in the year 312 Constantine changed the actual day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. Is this so? If it is, it would seem to me that we are breaking God's fourth commandment. I can't find any answer that says otherwise. I know we are in an age of grace, however, there still are New Testament scriptures that say we are to keep the commandments of God. Do you think we are keeping the fourth commandment by calling Sunday the Sabbath?”

I was ensnared by the "Sabbath trap" for a number of years. Here's the short version of the Sabbath trap:

1) The first step is to insist that Christians must still keep the Ten Commandments (as well as, depending on the group or church one believes and teaching one accepts, some other stipulations of the old covenant). For example, as one sabbatarian said, the weekly and annual Jewish holy days stand or fall together. If one accepts someone's authority - someone who would not be our risen Lord - that Christians are required to obey the seventh day Sabbath, then Christians must also keep and observe all the Jewish holy days. It's a small step from there to add any number of other old covenant stipulations - such as keeping kosher food laws. Sooner or later this quest stops, on the authority of some human religious leader, because no one that I know of who says they are Christian proposes that we stone offenders, sacrifice sheep and doves, keep the year of jubilee, etc. The problem with this first step is accepting the premise that Christians must obey the Ten Commandments. That idea, which is a legalistic teaching, is taught in many Christian churches. But it is absolutely wrong. The New Testament talks about commandments - but the commandments it talks about are the new commandments of Jesus Christ. Many Christians – including both Saturday and Sunday Sabbath keepers - read these passages as if the word "ten" should be inserted before the word "commandments." But take a look - the word "ten" is missing! We must ask why!

2) The second logical misstep in this decidedly un-Christ-like reasoning further sets the Sabbath trap. Once the person who is about to be trapped accepts the premise that Christians are obligated to keep the Ten Commandments - then the plot thickens! The Sabbath trap then proposes that it's not enough to keep just nine of the commandments and ignore the fourth one.

3) If the unsuspecting continues to nibble at the bait, they are lured deeper into legalism. The Saturday sabbatarians will then question the validity of those who call themselves Christians, who say that they "keep" the Sabbath on Sunday. But the Saturday sabbatarian argues, the Sabbath is the Sabbath -- no one has ever been empowered by God to "change" the day of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is Saturday.

4) Therefore, reason Saturday sabbatarians, with their final step of legalism, which denies Christ and the power of his cross, and the gospel of grace, is this: Unless you go to church on Saturday you are spiritual toast (and of course there are usually, depending on the brand of sabbatarianism, a number of activities which are forbidden on the Sabbath, because it is so-called "holy" time). As to the second part of my friend’s statement "there are New Testament Scriptures that say we are to keep the commandments of God" - where are they? There are New Testament passages, after the Cross of Christ, within the new covenant in his blood, within the covenant of grace, which explain the behavior that Jesus produces, as he indwells believers. These lists are often called, negatively, "sin" lists - explaining behaviors which will not be habitual for Christians, if the risen Lord lives in them. Positively, they are called "virtue" lists. Search all these lists and no where will you find "Sabbath keeping" or "Sabbath breaking" to be a behavior which is a hallmark and "sign". We must ask why?

Law & Grace: A Tale of Two Covenants

Trying to live the Christian life by focusing on the Ten Commandments is a little like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. Paul said in Romans 7:9: “Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.”

What if you were to begin each day with repeating “Keep off the grass” ten times? This would tempt you to walk on grass that you had hardly noticed before. Hammering away with oughts and ought nots is not God’s plan for stimulating Christians to do good works today.

But it WAS God’s plan back then under the Old Covenant when He gave the Ten Commandments PLUS over 600 other requirements of the law. His purpose, as we look back in hindsight, was to show humanity that focusing on keeping law in our own human strength was IMPOSSIBLE!

So, what exactly is the purpose of the law if it is not to be the focus of the Christian life today? The law can be harsh, demanding and intimidating for us flawed human beings. It’s no wonder – it represents the fullness of God’s demands for righteousness! This is why some of the sayings of Jesus of Nazareth are so very, very hard.

Jesus’ preaching was meant to bring the people of His time to the end of themselves – to leave them desperately looking for another way to be saved other than by keeping the law.

And then, at just the right time, the gospel of the New Covenant was preached, and people began to be saved by it. Jesus did all the work, and Peter and Paul and John got all the credit.

Jesus’ preaching took place under the Old Covenant – under the law. The New Covenant was instituted by the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and not a minute before. Jesus said, “Don’t think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).

He fulfilled the law in two ways – in His preaching and in His life. In His preaching He raised the bar so high that there could be no mistaking that God’s salvation would be by grace alone. As defined by Jesus’ preaching, there would be no chance of attaining eternal life by works. He would make it as impossible as a camel going through the eye of a needle.

He also fulfilled the law in His life. He lived a perfectly righteous, self-controlled life. He spoke nothing and did no actions of His own – He always followed the will of His Father dwelling within Him. He was the unblemished, precious lamb of God.

If you’ve ever wondered why some of Jesus’ sayings seem so harsh and Paul’s, on the other side of the cross, seem so full of grace, this is the answer.

Exit Law, Enter Grace

The Old Covenant law, including the Ten Commandments, was fulfilled and ended at the cross (Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 8:13). (Although there continued to be a mixture of law and grace for about 40 years from the cross to the destruction of the Jerusalem and the Jewish temple in 70AD.)

So if the Ten Commandments are not supposed to be the focus of the Christian life, what then? In a word, it’s JESUS. Jesus is the only one who ever kept the law perfectly. He put His Spirit into you when you were saved so that you can keep HIS commandments. This requires a fundamental shift in your thinking, which by the way, is the nature of repentance.

In the book of Galatians, Paul delivers a blistering rebuke to the churches in Galatia, but mostly, his harsh words are directed toward the legalistic teachers who were leading Paul’s precious flock astray. These new Christians had abandoned living by grace and had made the focus of their Christian life the law. Paul was livid. And, by the way, those words in Galatians aren’t just Paul’s words; they are the words of God.

The Christian life is to be lived by walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16). It is a moment-by-moment dependence on Christ within to live the Christian life through us. It is not an easy thing to get your arms around sometimes. I’ll admit a system of dos and don’ts is at least a little easier for me to understand (infinitely harder for me to live under, though).

My attempt to lead the Christian life by keeping the Ten Commandments was a monumental failure. How’s your progress? Ready to try a different approach? There is one true test of the system that I just described to you. Does it work? Will it bring victory over sin in my life? Will it help me to face each day of my life with a sense of peace and joy? My answer to these questions is a resounding, whole-hearted “Yes!”

My new understanding of the New Covenant was a godsend to this recovering legalist. If you have a warped view of God and Jesus from religion and legalism, it will be to you too. You see folks, the Ten Commandments are indeed the greatest laws ever written. They represent moral virtues that are excellent and praiseworthy. But they were for a time when God wanted to expose humanity’s weakness for sin.

But that is all they are, they are not a SAVIOR! We are now in the age of grace, in the age of the New Covenant where we have the strength of God in Christ right within us in a living union.

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life – not the Old Covenant including the Ten Commandments.

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