Our Sabbath Rest is only in Jesus Christ

Hello,

My name is Robert, I'm a Baptist from the UK. Here is a post which I posted in another chat room forum about keeping the Sabbath. if anyone can add to it or improve it, or refute it, I'd like to know.

thanks

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“28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, KJV).


The fourth commandment however, was completely unique because its only function was to firstly remind Israel about God’s rest (Exodus 20:11) and then secondly to also remember Israel’s deliverance from bondage in Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:15), from which God alone was their deliverer. This bondage represents our sins, and so this second aspect of the Sabbath teaches us that just as God alone delivered the Jews from Egypt, so too, it’s only God who alone can deliver us from our sins.

Therefore the whole point of the Sabbath isn’t to teach us that we can attempt to keep it by our doing various things, or by adhering to a long list of do’s and don’ts. The intention of the Sabbath was to get us to rest in the coming Messiah (Jesus Christ), for only in Christ can a human ever keep the Sabbath. Secondly, just as Israel’s bondage represented their sins, so too does our Sabbath rest (in Christ) signify his propitiatory work on the cross, which has redeemed us from our sins when we come to him in faith at the moment of salvation. This is the point of salvation by grace through faith, we can’t add to our own salvation or even contribute to it (Ephesians 2:9), for it’s only though our faith in Christ, which echoes the Sabbath rest that we are saved.

So in the light of this, when Christ said: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28), he was directly applying the Sabbath rest, which is the entire principle of the fourth commandment, to believing and trusting in himself alone for salvation. And so when we do trust in Christ, at the very moment of our conversion, this repentance which is itself a gift from God (2nd Timothy 2:25), becomes the New Testament fulfilment of the Sabbath rest. For out of every man who has ever lived only Christ has fully kept the fourth commandment. And as we can’t keep the Sabbath ourselves by doing various things, for the principle of rest is the very antithesis of doing good works or of doing anything, therefore the only way in which we today can keep the Sabbath today is by trusting in Christ, that is by resting in him, at the very moment of our conversion.

I will have to come back and check this thread out in the near future. It will be interesting to see how those who so quickly opposed homosexuality in a recent “Deep Waters” discussion, by citing OT Law, will reason their way out of the fact that they do not honor the Sabbath of the OT.

I was raised in an Apostolic/Pentecostal church and home and have, for the past three years, been attending a Seventh Day Adventist University. As a result, I have had many opportunities to discuss Sabbath keeping with many of my college friends and have found Paul's teaching regarding the keeping of the Law by the NT Church to be the only compelling argument for not following a Seventh Day Sabbath in this present age. It seems that all the other arguments are easily written off as good theories that lack biblical soundness.

We can argue all day long that the "rest" found in Christ somehow substitutes the Sabbath but where does the Scripture actually say that? It does not. What the NT writings do say, however, is that we are no longer under the Law and that it has been fulfilled in Christ. So, it doesn't matter whether the rest found in Christ replaced the Sabbath or not because the message of the NT is that Christ Himself replaced and fulfilled ALL THE LAW.

[ILG]

Iron Bladder. Why would anybody pick that for a username?

[Sam]

Originally Posted by brad2723

...
We can argue all day long that the "rest" found in Christ somehow substitutes the Sabbath but where does the Scripture actually say that? It does not. What the NT writings do say, however, is that we are no longer under the Law and that it has been fulfilled in Christ. So, it doesn't matter whether the rest found in Christ replaced the Sabbath or not because the message of the NT is that Christ Himself replaced and fulfilled ALL THE LAW.

Hebrews chapter 4 speaks about resting in Christ's work and ceasing from our own works and compares that to a sabbath rest.
Colossians chapter 2 tells us that the Old Testament feasts, sabbaths, etc. were a shadow of things to come but Jesus is the real thing.
Romans chapter 14 says if a person wants to keep a sabbath they can but a sabbath keeper should not judge one who doesn't keep a sabbath, and one who doesn't keep a sabbath should not judge one who does.

[Felicity]

Iron Bladder?!!

Originally Posted by Sam

Hebrews chapter 4 speaks about resting in Christ's work and ceasing from our own works and compares that to a sabbath rest.
Colossians chapter 2 tells us that the Old Testament feasts, sabbaths, etc. were a shadow of things to come but Jesus is the real thing.
Romans chapter 14 says if a person wants to keep a sabbath they can but a sabbath keeper should not judge one who doesn't keep a sabbath, and one who doesn't keep a sabbath should not judge one who does.

Sam I was interested in yoru coments, I'll look at these chapters when I get home, but do you have any specific verses which you can name which confirms my theory that the sabbath rest is now in Christ.

thanks

Originally Posted by ILG

Iron Bladder. Why would anybody pick that for a username?

I live in the UK where we have a rotten public health service, after a recent operation, they'd run out of proper bladders and so all that was left for me was a huge mechanical Iron Bladder weighting about 20 pounds, hence my terrible nick name. I guess that its my thorn in the flesh!!!! I'm also a baptist by the way and live in the south western part of the UK.