Question:  Dear Greg,

            What is the new covenant Sabbath?

            B.

Answer:

           There are, as with many questions, several levels of answers I could supply for you.  Perhaps it would be best to give you a brief answer, then if you have further related questions, I would be happy to help you with those.

            The new covenant Sabbath is the rest in Christ, given by God’s grace, to all who accept and believe him.  The sabbath was a time of rest under the old covenant and a sign of the Jew’s identity.  As one of the commandments, the seventh day sabbath is part of the old covenant, and there is no automatic carry over into the new covenant requiring or obligating Christians to observe or “keep” the seventh day sabbath.  Rather, Jesus makes all things new.  He gives us new commands.  He transformed all of the old, very much as he transformed the Jewish Passover into the Lord’s Supper or communion.  Christians “keep” or “have” the rest in Christ.

            Many of the sabbath controversies Jesus had with the Pharisees of his day pointed toward his Lordship over the sabbath and his transformation of a day into a way of life—24 hours into a relationship with him.  Matthew 11:25-28 and continuing into Matthew chapter 12, verses 1-13 is but one of these passages.  Mark 2:23-28 is another, a passage that concludes “…the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”  The term “even of” is instructive, giving us a clue that the Sabbath was not just one commandment for the Jews, but assumed a supreme status above all else.  It was for this reason, as well as the fact that Jesus claimed to be God in the flesh, that the Jews wanted to kill Jesus.  “For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18).

            The book of Hebrews gives further instruction about what resting in Christ means—contrasting the old covenant sabbath rest with the new covenant rest in Christ.

            Please let me know if this helps, or if you have further questions.  May God bless you.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht