ON THE SABBATH AND THE LAW


I have been asked by one of my friends to explain to him the changeover from worshipping the Sabbath on the seventh day, which is found within the Law, to that of the Christian worship which is to worship the day of resurrection, the mystical eighth day (which is also the first day of the week). The Lord seems to work some interesting providence in connection with this, helping prepare me to do this, by having to go through some of the basic rudimentary ideas behind this change to someone else, and seeing that perhaps it would be best suited to offer up a treatise which can help one and all, and not just one person alone.

When bringing up this topic, many are easily confused because they have not had the time to study Scripture well enough to solve this problem, nor able to study the history of the Christian Church to answer any allegations which have been made by those who are not of good will. It has been the claim of several, that the changeover occurred during the reign of St. Constantine the Great-- an absurd claim, but one which those who have not studied history would not be able to refute too easily. Instead, these new Judiazers of the faith, want to reinstitute a shadow of the New Covenant, instead of worshipping with joy the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Indeed, the main principle upon which the change from the seventh day to that of the eighth, is that of Christ. Christ, who has ushered in a new, everlasting covenant, with His own blood, has also ushered in an age, which fulfills all the types and shadows found within the old Covenant, which all point to Christ and His mission. So, in order to best understand this question, it would be best to first address the question of the significance of the Law, and what we can easily find within Scripture to answer this question, if we diligently search the texts.

First, we must understand that the Law was concerned about us, and our own life. It was not some sort of slavish system, which tried to over-ride man with burdens, but instead, it proscribed many examples of a righteous and happy life, and to provide the path by which we can understand what man is best suited for. The two primary teachings of the Law, is of course what our Lord has said, "To love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, mind and soul", and to "Love our neighbor as ourselves." Far from burdensome, this heart of the Law, is one of joy and lightness. However, many people have wanted to look at the Law, and view it only with a carnal, literal sense. This, of course, is not the view of the Apostles, as we shall see, by examples of regulations found within the Law, and the understanding which the Apostles themselves gave to them. First, is that of circumcision-- which, like the Sabbath, was given long before the Law itself was given to Moses. Even within the earliest times of the Church, several people have looked upon the Old Testament, reading the requirement of circumcision, and consider that, because it was proscribed, we as faithful Christians should have all males (and for some groups of such thinkers,even females) circumcised. What do the Apostles say to this? At the Council of Jerusalem, in Acts chapter XV, the question of the need of circumcision was asked, and the answer which the Council gave, was that there was no need for one to be circumcised to be part of the faith-- but one is required to abstain from fornication and to abstain from idolatry. What was the reason behind this monumental decision of the Apostles? Was it some sort of fundamental turn from the Law of God, or was it something else? St. Paul answers this question. St. Paul in his epistle to the Romans wrote, "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God."(Roman 2:28-29). The problem with circumcision is that people take it as an external act, which must be performed.. like many other external acts within the law.. but instead fail to understanding, the true meaning is Spiritual, and not by the letter. We need to open our hearts to the Lord, to let it be surrounded by the Spirit; the significance is within, of which the external was at one time, but a sign thereof

Another example, this one from the Law itself, is one which will bring about a better understanding of the principle being explained. In a rather straightforward text in Deuteronomy, it states, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain" (Deut 25:4). If one just looks at this command to the letter, it seems quite forward and simple. However, what does St. Paul make of the verse? Does he go along with what seems so evident from just a cursory look at the Scripture, and think it has to deal with an ox? No. " Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law also say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, 'You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.' Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Or does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was indeed written for our sake, for whoever plows should in hope and whoever threshes should thresh in hope of a share in the crop. If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits?" (I Cor 9:8-11). St. Paul makes the connection between the oxen who treads grain, with his own mission. And, one is not to muzzle the ox, that is for St. Paul, not leave at the material benefits needed, for an honorable treading out of the grain-- that is, the harvest of the Lord. Such an interpretation of the Law, looks beyond the mere letter of the Law, but looks for what is behind it, what is being expressed, but is also one which one would be unable to obtain, if one looks at the Law as some sort of mere regulations, without a Spirit to give them life.

Within the writings of St. Paul, as well as that of the Church itself, one can find a principle in understanding the Law. The Law is something which is Spiritual, not slavish. It is something, especially within the freedom of the New Covenant of Christ, which is looked upon for its significance in our life, but not something which one must automatically assume has to be taken in its most literal rendition. St. Paul expresses this principle with great beauty. "But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit" (Romans 7:6). He also said, of the new covenant, that it is "not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (2 Cor 3:6). This principle, which is found throughout St. Paul's wonderful epistles, but also throughout the New Testament-- and prefigured in the Old Testament (as we shall soon discover) is the one which should guide us in our understanding of the Law. This is not that we should reject the Law, just as St. Paul is shown not to have rejected it-- but we must understand it properly, in the way which gives life. It is a tool, a trainer, and a preparer for Christ; it is also a tool for the Christian, especially in learning moral precepts, in learning of sin (and thus, in his continual fight against sin and the passions). The Book of Hebrews, looks at the Old Law as a shadow, which prefigured that which was to come. Just as the Temple and the Sacrifice, temporal as they were, existed in the Old Law, we have seen that what it prefigured has taken place through the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. The Sabbath itself is a reflection of the New Sabbath of the New Covenant; the old Sabbath was a temporal rest for all-- but Christ has brought in with the New Covenant, an eternal rest-- paradise regained. As a shadow, the Sabbath itself was on the 7th day, behind the glorious 8th day, the day of the resurrection of Christ, to which the Lord's Day, Sunday, represents.

Now, we have finally entered into the question which has been asked, that of the Sabbath itself. But to do this, we must investigate what the Sabbath itself was, and what we can find in prophecy about the Sabbath. It is true, that the Lord had established the Sabbath as a day of rest, a great moral precept: give everyone rest. It was a day given for man, as a day which he can regain the energy which he expends throughout the rest of the week, and a day which he can seek after God, and grow in strength and grace from due worship of the Creator. Such a moral precept behind the giving of this Law. In connection with this, the Lord reaffirmed with Moses on Mt. Sinai, the need for this day to be observed and to be a day of rest. This was not meant to be taken as some sort of law which one pushed upon others, as some sort of demanding regulation one must be careful to follow to the most exacting detail, so that one would not be allowed to lower one's arm to lift up a boy fallen into a well. Such work is good and holy saving work, even upon the Sabbath itself. It is, as our Lord said, a day meant for man.

Having just placed what was behind the Sabbath regulation, and how it was not an exacting discipline but a life-giving freedom established by the Lord, many people have forgotten what was behind the Sabbath itself, and have instead of looking upon it for the freedom and rest it produces, have looked upon the Sabbath as some sort of demanding Law, meant not for the rest of man, but for a strict schedule which can not be changed, can not be forgotten. In doing this, the Rabbis made many "interpretations" of the Law, showing what one was allowed to do or not allowed to do on this day; for example, they said one was not allowed to light a candle on this day because it would be considered too much work. Such is the attitude, who want to be a slave to the pre-Resurrection shadow of things to come. Instead of noticing it is a day of rest and celebration of the Lord's bountiful gifts, they see the most important aspect of the day was the day of the week itself, and something which could not be changed. Such was not the Lord's intent, and this attitude-- as well as Israel's laxness to the real, Spiritual faith, has been seen as something which angered God. In the prophet Hosea, one can thus read, "I will put an end to all her [Israel's] mirth, her festivals [those which prefigured the New Covenant], her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed festivals" (Hosea 2:11). As had been promised by God from the flight out of Egypt, if they failed to keep to the Covenant given at Mount Sinai, if they broke their side of the Covenant, God would cease its promises. However, instead of telling them to give up hope, He also promised something greater in the future, the New Covenant, a restoration of what was lost-- and beyond, but first there would be the great retribution to their failings (cf. Ex 9:8-12; Deut 28:15-68; Lamentations 2; Ezekiel 20:33-41).

Now that we have entered the New Covenant, we have the Old to look back to, to understand it, and with the way which it was originally meant to be looked over, which is by the Spirit. Having established what the Sabbath was originally about, we must now look upon why the new Sabbath is Sunday, instead of being just the exact same day as the Jews. First and foremost, as Christians, we celebrate the day which Christ was resurrected upon, which was the first day of the week-- a celebration which is so fundamental to every Christian heart. We look back on the 7th day, and see our Lord had not yet risen; paradise had not yet been made (cf. Gen ch. 1 and 2). The Sabbath was a temporal feast, with a temporal rest-- but it foreshadowed the great and eternal rest, which is within Christ. On the eighth day, not on the seventh, was paradise formed; what rest is complete outside of paradise, outside of the tree of life? Having understood the Sabbath as a temporal feast, as a shadow of the resurrection itself, the Apostles, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, saw it just and fitting to move the day of celebration to that of the 8th day (or the first day of the new week, right after the Sabbath, representing the new creation!). We can see, for example, in the book of the Apocalypse, that St. John the Apostle mentions the "Lord's day" (Rev 1:10), which is the name the early Christians gave to the resurrection-- it was a common bond which St. John the Apostle expected with those who he had written the Apocalypse for. Indeed, that this is the meaning and understanding of the Lord's day, we can find from the writers of the early Church, like St. Ignatius of Antioch (who was a disciple of St. John the Apostle, and was martyred in the early 2nd century). St. Ignatius wrote, " If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death--whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master--how shall we be able to live apart from Him, whose disciples the prophets themselves in the Spirit did wait for Him as their Teacher? And therefore He whom they rightly waited for, being come, raised them from the dead" (St. Ignatius, Epistle to Magnesians ch. 9). As can be seen, St. Ignatius contrasted the Sabbath with the Lord's day, and said (this disciple of St. John the Apostle) that from old (that is, the earliest times of the faith), the Apostles had moved from the strict Sabbath regulations, to that of a masterful celebration of the resurrection!

That the early Christians were upset at some trying to place the strict Judaic observances upon the Church, instead of following the Spirit of the Law, one can look at the Epistle of Barnabas, which expresses the sentiments which I have already expressed: "Further, He says to them, 'Your new moons and your Sabbath I cannot endure.' Ye perceive how He speaks: Your present Sabbaths are not acceptable to Me, but that is which I have made, [namely this,] when, giving rest to all things, I shall make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, a beginning of another world. Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead" (Barnabas Chapter XV).

Also, expressing an interest in explaining the Sabbath, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "For worship under the Law prepared the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured aspects of Christ' (CCC 2175), and "The celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to God an outward, visible, public and regular worship 'as a sign of universal beneficence to all'" (CCC 2176). What needs to be done with Sunday worship is understand that it is the Spiritual fulfillment of the Law, retaining what is at the Spirit of the Law-- while, at the same time, points to the fulfillment of all the Law in Christ, instead of trying to be re-enslaved by the passion to follow the Law to the most exacting, and hence unchristian, understanding of it. That such a change was foreknown and predicted can be seen in the quote from Hosea; that we are not to abandon the Law (as some have tried to do), but to keep it in is most Spiritual meaning, the meaning which was originally behind it!



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