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

Answer: This question introduces the subject of the new covenant and its relationship to the seventh-day Sabbath. What is the new covenant? And if there is a new covenant, what is the old one?

The Bible speaks of two basic covenants or testaments:

1. The everlasting or eternal covenant (Genesis 17:7, 19; Hebrews 13:20), which later became known as the new covenant (Hebrews 8:8-13; 12:24; Matthew 26:28; 1 Corinthians 11:25).
2. The old or first covenant (2 Corinthians 3:14; Hebrews 8:7; 9:1).

The everlasting or new covenant is the one that was ratified by Christ’s blood. In New Testament times the everlasting covenant became known as the "new" covenant because its ratification had occurred after that of the old covenant at Sinai (Luke 22:20; Exodus 24:7, 8).

The everlasting covenant is essentially the plan of redemption based on the sacrifice of Christ (Hebrews 13:20; Matthew 26:28). It was first given to Adam and later repeated to Abraham. Thus it is also sometimes called the Abrahamic covenant. The everlasting covenant represents the plan whereby men and women may be restored to the wonderful position that God originally intended for them, but which was lost by transgression [5, 11]. It is based on Christ and is the only means of salvation (Acts 4:12; John 14:6).

In the course of history the everlasting covenant has been administered to people in two different ways. One system was before the cross and the other after the cross. The administration of the everlasting covenant before Christ’s sacrifice consisted of promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the Passover Lamb and other types and ordinances delivered to the Jewish people, all pointing forward to Christ. These administrations were for that time sufficient, through the aid of God's Spirit, to instruct and build up the true people of God in faith in the promised Messiah by whom they could have full remission of sins and eternal salvation.

When Christ came, died and rose again the administrations and ceremonies that had previously pointed forward to these things were naturally superseded [25] by different administrations that pointed back and commemorated His life and sacrifice. Thus the everlasting covenant was now to be administered by gospel preaching and teaching, baptism and the Lord's supper. These administrations, though fewer in number and with less outward display, are more appropriate to the realities and privileges made available in Christ and apply to all nations, both Jews and non-Jews.

The old covenant or Siniatic covenant was an agreement at Mt Sinai that God entered into with the nation of Israel shortly after they had come out of Egypt (Exodus 19:4-8; 24:7, 8). It was designed to lead the people into receiving the everlasting covenant.

The old covenant at Mt Sinai was neither to take the place of the everlasting or Abrahamic covenant, (Galatians 3:16, 17) nor to provide another means of salvation. Its sole purpose was to enable the people to understand and enter into the everlasting covenant. The people of Israel, who had spent hundreds of years in the midst of Egyptian idolatry and error, were greatly ignorant both of God's great holiness and of their own inability to do what was right without a new heart and divine grace. Therefore God chose to speak His law in great majesty to impress the people with the holiness of His character (Exodus 20:18-20). He also chose to let the people enter into an agreement to keep His law knowing that they would attempt to do this in their own strength saying, "all that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient" (Exodus 24:7 c.f. 19:8). He did this so that they might discover their inability and thus be led to rely upon the provisions of the everlasting covenant. The agreement the people made with God at Sinai, in which they promised to keep God’s law, was the old covenant and could also be called the covenant of works because it was based on the people's works and not God's grace. In contrast the everlasting covenant is based on God’s grace and is sometimes referred to as the covenant of grace.

While the people of Israel were left to try and keep the covenant of works that they had made with God, Moses was called up to Mt Sinai to receive the tables of stone and the details of the sanctuary service (Exodus 24:12–31:11). The sanctuary service was designed, in a very simple and beautiful way, to point the people to the coming Savior that they might find in Him forgiveness and power to overcome sin. The services of the sanctuary were designed to introduce the people to the everlasting covenant. Its sacrifices pointed forward to Christ "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Its priests pointed forward to the "great high priest…Jesus the Son of God" (Hebrews 4:14). God obviously knew that the people would not be able to keep the covenant of works and therefore was getting His "gospel" message ready. After Moses had come down from the mountain and punished the people for their rebellion in worshipping the golden calf they would be convinced of their weakness and guilt and be receptive to the gospel message of the sanctuary services.

As can be seen from the above, the old covenant was simply a part of "gospel evangelism" at Mt Sinai. First the people had to realize their need of a Savior. Then the Savior was introduced to them. This is the way gospel evangelism works today. The evangelist first helps the people to appreciate their need and then gives them the good news about God's provisions through Christ.

Sadly, despite God's repeated appeals through Moses and His prophets, Israel, as a nation, never received the everlasting covenant either at Sinai or at any subsequent time. Before the Babylonian captivity God made the following hopeful promise:

31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people.

34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

(Jeremiah 31:31-34).

This promise could have been fulfilled to the Israelites on their return from the Babylonian captivity, but unfortunately, due to their unbelief, this did not happen and its fulfillment had to tarry until the time of Christ’s first coming. It was at that time fulfilled in the experience of spiritual Israel, the Christian church, as shown by the words of Hebrews 8:6-13. The new covenant spoken of in Jeremiah chapter 31 and Hebrews chapter 8 is the everlasting covenant which, as has been mentioned before, was ratified by blood after the old covenant at Sinai.

One of the purposes of the book of Hebrews was to help Jewish people turn away from the covenant of works (the old covenant) that had always proved inadequate. Even at the time the book of Hebrews was written (most probably late 60’s AD) the Jewish people were clinging to the failed ideas of the old covenant. More than this, they had turned the old administration of the everlasting covenant, as revealed in the sanctuary and ceremonial system, into a part of the covenant of works. Instead of using these symbols and services to exercise faith in the Redeemer, they performed them in an effort to earn favor with God. This is why the author of Hebrews (in chapters 8-10) describes the sanctuary services as part of the old or first covenant. The other reason he did this was because, at that time, these services had already been fulfilled by Christ and had therefore been superceded by the new administration. Hence these services were "old" -- and that which "waxeth old is ready to vanish away" (Hebrews 8:13).

Question 20 says, "Has not the new covenant done away with the observance of any particular day by Christians?" and then mentions two texts to support the claim, namely, Romans 14:5-6 and Galatians 4:9-11. We will look at these two texts shortly, but first will address the question of the new covenant’s relationship to the seventh-day Sabbath. The promise of the new covenant is, "I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more" (Hebrews 8:10-12). How are God’s laws written on a person’s heart or mind? By the Holy Spirit:

"Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart" (2 Corinthians 3:3).

So instead of the Ten Commandments being written on tables of stone, as at Mount Sinai, the Holy Spirit writes them on the human heart. The Holy Spirit also empowers us to keep them:

3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

 

11 But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.

12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
(Romans 8:3, 4; 11-13).

If the Ten Commandments are written on the heart by God’s Spirit, instead of being written on tables of stone by God’s finger, does that do away with the Fourth Commandment? Obviously not. Instead it is the very thing that makes it possible to keep this commandment properly "in the spirit, and not in the letter" (Romans 2:29).

In the new covenant the Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts (Romans 5:5). This love is the underlying motive and principle that enables us to keep all of God’s commandments, which is why Jesus said "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matthew 22:37-39). Jesus, knowing that the Holy Spirit would put God’s love into the hearts of all true believers, said, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15; 15:10). The apostle John echoing these words said, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous" (1 John 5:3).

A proper understanding of the new covenant reveals that the Ten Commandments are still of vital importance. If the Ten Commandments are still essential then so is the Fourth Commandment with its specific call to keep holy the seventh day as God’s Sabbath. Thus, the idea that the new covenant does not command any particular day to be observed by Christians is false.

We will now consider the two passages that have been sited in support of Question 20, namely Romans 14:5-6 and Galatians 4:9-11.

Romans 14:5-6 needs to be studied in the context of the whole of Romans chapter 14, which says:

1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.

3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.

4 Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

7 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.

8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.

10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

15 But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat [food] now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat [food], for whom Christ died.

16 Let not then your good be evil spoken of:

17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

18 For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.

19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.

20 For meat [food] destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.

21 It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.

22 Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

What is this chapter about? The first thing to notice is that it does not say anything about the Sabbath being abolished. In fact the word Sabbath is not even mentioned. Secondly, a careful study of its words and phrases will reveal that the chapter’s emphasis is on a non-judgmental approach to others and on not giving unnecessary offence in the matter of innocent personal preferences concerning dietary matters. In this context it can be seen that verses 5 and 6 may be referring to personal preferences about fast days. "He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks" (vs. 6). Since the seventh-day Sabbath of the Jews was never used as a regular fast day, Romans chapter 14 cannot be referring to it.

Romans chapter 14 indicates that some of the Roman believers had been adversely influenced by non-Biblical Jewish sectarian beliefs that were leading to a spirit of division and condemnation. That these beliefs did not strike directly at justification by faith is evident by the way that Paul dealt with them. Rather than condemning them outright, as he would have done if they were being used as a means of trying to earn salvation, he counseled mutual tolerance, avoidance of making the weak in faith stumble, and for each one to "be fully persuaded in his own mind".

Non-Biblical Jewish sectarian beliefs certainly did include the matter of fast days (Matthew 6:16; 9:14; Luke 18:12) and, as stated above, this may well be what Romans 14:5, 6 is referring to. However, there is another possible interpretation that needs to be considered. Romans chapter 14 admonishes us not to judge others in matters that relate to food, drink or certain days (vs. 3, 4, 10, 13). Colossians 2:16 says the same thing: "Let no man therefore judge you in meat [food], or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days".

The first thing to mention about these passages is that they are not directly about the Sabbath. They are instructing Christians not to judge others. The Bible teaches that we must not judge our brother (Romans chapter 14; Colossians 2:16; Matthew 7:1, 2). However, the Bible also teaches that there are times when we must judge a brother (1 Corinthians 5:12 - 6:5, c.f. Luke 19:22; John 7:24; Matthew 7:15-20). What makes the difference? If it is a matter of personal preference we must not judge. We are also not to judge in the sense of comparing ourselves with others and measuring ourselves by their behavior. But if it is a matter of open sin or deadly heresy some judgment must be made. Of course, in all matters we are never to consider ourselves superior to another, and the church has special rules for dealing with members living in open sin or teaching deadly error. However, the Bible clearly teaches that we are to rebuke open sin and resist teachers of malignant heresy. To do this we must inevitably make a judgement about them. From this we can see that Romans chapter 14 and Colossians 2:16 cannot be referring to breaches of the moral law (the Ten Commandments, including the Sabbath commandment) or deadly heresy, matters about which, as we have said, some judgment must be made. Instead, these passages are concerned with ceremonial matters and related personal preferences that are not sinful in themselves if done in good faith and without causing others to stumble.

So rather than fast days Romans chapter 14 may, in a similar way to Colossians 2:16, refer to personal preferences about ceremonial feast days or festivals. It will be noticed that Colossians 2:16 does, unlike Romans chapter 14, mention the word "sabbaths" (the Greek is plural). This verse and others in Colossians chapter 2 are discussed in more detail in the answer to Question 19.

Question 20 implies that the new covenant excludes the observance of any particular day by Christians and then mentions Romans 14:5-6 as allegedly supporting this. We hope from the above that readers will be able to see that Romans chapter 14 is not about our obligation or not to observe a weekly Sabbath, but about personal preferences concerning fast days or ceremonial festivals – matters that do not involve the moral law unless we become judgmental or cause another to stumble.

Let us now take a look at Galatians 4:9-11. This passage says:

9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

The problem that the Galatians suffered from was more serious than that discussed in Romans chapter 14. Instead of counseling mutual tolerance and not judging or putting a stumbling block in front of others, Paul strongly rebukes the Galatians accusing them of following "another gospel: which is not another" (Galatians 1:6, 7). They were involved with a false "gospel" based on trying to be saved by their own works or deeds (Galatians 2:16; 3:2, 5, 10). Thus when Paul accused them of observing "days, and months, and times, and years" he was doing so because they were keeping these days with the motive of earning favor with God. They observed days as part of a false system of trying to be justified by the works of the law. Paul’s rebuke of the Galatians is not for the purpose of doing away with the Sabbath, but to reprove the use of special days as a part of a vain attempt to be saved by works. As mentioned previously (in the answer to Question 14) there is a big difference between doing what God has commanded as an act of faith and trying to do what God has commanded as an attempt to earn His favor. We are to keep the Sabbath as a sign that we are depending on God to save us rather than our own works [7]. Far from being legalistic, keeping the Sabbath properly will demonstrate our trust that God alone can sanctify us [9]. We are to obey God’s Sabbath commandment because of the love He has put in our hearts. Jesus says, "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me" (John 14:21).

Thus Question 20 is incorrect in using Galatians 4:9-11 to claim that under the new covenant there is no particular day to be observed by Christians.