.....







 

[apologies, but we have not yet included the footnotes]  

Question 14: Is Sabbath-keeping legalism? Have Sabbath-keepers "fallen from grace" (Galatians 5:4)?

Answer: There is a big difference between doing what God has commanded as an act of faith and trying to do obey God as an attempt to earn His favor. The Sabbath commemorates the saving work of Christ (please see the answer to Question 13). The Sabbath points us to re-creation in Christ. It points us to the everlasting gospel. We are to keep it as a sign that we are depending upon God to save us, and not upon our works [7]. Far from being legalistic, keeping the Sabbath properly will demonstrate our trust that God alone can sanctify us [9]. It is essential to emphasize that to properly worship God through the Sabbath (or by any other means) we need to have experienced Christ's healing, transforming presence in our lives. We need to have been genuinely converted. Then Sabbath-keeping will act as a memorial of Christ’s saving work in our lives.

Here is a good place to discuss the importance of renouncing all efforts to be saved by our own works. The idea that salvation, happiness, security, personal significance, identity, worthiness or spiritual greatness is based upon personal achievement is as false as it is deeply ingrained in the human psyche. In Satan’s kingdom personal value is based upon performance and achievement, but in God’s kingdom it is based on the fact that we are God’s children and members of His family. In Satan’s kingdom the currency is material possessions, personal accomplishments and worldly position or power, but in God’s kingdom the currency is character, love and righteousness. Satan’s kingdom is founded on brute force, territorial rights and dictatorship, but God’s kingdom is fundamentally a family organization.

In proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom we should tell people that they can, through Christ, experience the reality of being sons and daughters of God [27], members of His family and heirs of Paradise. They can come home to be with their loving heavenly Father (Luke 15:11-32). We can assure them that they are significant and of priceless value. We can tell them that their worth and acceptance with God are not based on performance or good works. They are valuable to God because they are His creation and His blood-bought children. God’s heart is yearning over them like the father, in Christ’s parable, longed after his son who had left home to live a wanton life (Luke 15:11-32). God is for them, not against them. He wants; He earnestly desires them to be in Heaven with Him forever. He is their most genuine Friend, wanting what is truly best for them. In the giving of this good news we are also to proclaim the falsehood of Satan’s system. In the book of Revelation Satan’s kingdom is called Babylon and in Revelation 14:8 and 18:2 the resounding cry is given that "Babylon is fallen!" This is both a cry of condemnation against Babylon’s evils and a cry of freedom. It signals that the foolishness of Babylon is at an end and that, in Christ, we are set completely free from her slavery. Yes, we can be free from the captivity and slavery of a performance-based self-esteem and so-called security. We can rejoice in the true identity and meaning found in belonging to God’s family.

The subject of "Babylon", her identity, the systems and organizations built on her principles, and the significance of her fall are too large to cover here in detail and readers are referred elsewhere for this.