So much was lost when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and forfeited their ownership of the world to Lucifer—God’s enemy. Their garden home, face-to-face communion with God, and a relationship of trust with each other and nature were only a few of these losses.
Yet to us—sons and daughters of Adam and Eve—two special gifts from Eden remain to remind us of our heritage: the sacred marriage bond and the Sabbath.
Hallowed and set apart as a memorial of God’s creative power, the Sabbath was intended to be a sanctuary in time—a time for the deepest spiritual reflection and intimate communion between God and His children.
Fallen humanity still needs those 24 hours apart from the crushing cares of this life. We need the spiritual, emotional, and physical renewal of God’s re-creative power promised by the Sabbath. And we need the promise of Eden restored in the new earth.
“‘For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain…it shall come to pass that from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,’ says the Lord.” Isa. 66:22, 23.
Mark 2:27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”
Gen. 2:1–3 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
Today many people believe that the Sabbath was made for the Jews alone because God gave the Law to the Jews. But the Sabbath was a gift to humankind long before the days of Abraham.
Ex. 19:20 Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
Ex. 20:8–11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the 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.”
God Himself gave the Ten Commandments, which represent the foundation of our duty to Him and our fellow human beings. No reasonable Christian would insist that the command to honor one’s parents was given only to the Jews or that only Jewish people were forbidden to commit murder. The Sabbath command was just as universally given to the human race as were the other great moral principles of God’s law.
Isa. 58:13–14 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.”
Sabbath will be a day of delight to both us and God if we keep it holy. It will be a weekly oasis for getting closer to God and others and expressing our commitment to our Creator and Redeemer.
One of the greatest controversies among Christians today involves keeping the Ten Commandments. Weren’t they nailed to the cross? Aren’t Christians practicing legalism if they try to keep them? Let’s examine what the Bible says about God’s law.
Ecc. 12:14 For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Jam. 2:10–12 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.
Many people feel that by calling themselves Christians and doing charitable acts, they will pass the scrutiny of the judgment. But according to Jesus, not everyone who claims the name of Christ will be accepted. Only those who do the will of His Father as He did will enter the kingdom of heaven. See Matt. 7:21–23.
Matt. 5:18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
Heaven and earth have not passed away yet! Paul asked, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3:31, KJV. Faith in Christ does not result in throwing out the Law! It enables God to write the Law within our hearts. Heb. 8:10. When we want to show God how much we love and trust Him, we will gladly do what He asks. “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Rom. 13:10, KJV.
1 John 2:6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
Luke 4:16 As His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
During His life, Jesus attended and participated in Sabbath worship. Even in death, Jesus kept the Sabbath as He rested in the tomb.
Matt. 24:20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.
This prophecy was not fulfilled until the destruction of Jerusalem in ad 70, thirty-nine years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Yet He commanded the disciples to pray that they would not have to flee on the Sabbath. If He had meant Sunday, certainly He would have explained the change to the disciples.
Acts 18:4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.
Acts 13:42, 44 So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. …On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.
After Christ ascended, the disciples and apostles continued to keep the whole law of God, including the seventh-day Sabbath.
Isa. 66:22–23 “For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord, “so shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord.
After sin has been eliminated, God will re-create the earth—Eden restored—and we will continue to honor Him on the day He created for spending with us.
The Sabbath is a gift to all humanity for all time. It’s an enduring part of God’s moral law, kept by Jesus, our Savior and example. It’s also an important sign of human recommitment to God and His unbroken commitment to us since Eden.
I understand that God expects us to live by “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” and not man-made traditions. Matt. 4:4. I also recognize that to break one of God’s Ten Commandments is to break them all. Jam. 2:10–11. Therefore, I choose to keep the seventh-day Sabbath as a sign of my allegiance to God, who made me and loves me. Eze. 20:20; Rev. 14:7, 12.
All verses quoted are taken from the New King James Version of the Bible.4:7, 12.
