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

Answer: This answer is divided into two sections as follows:

1. The seventh-day Sabbath and God’s original design for mankind.

2. Christ and the Sabbath in the Gospels.

 

God's original design for mankind was that he should bare the divine image or likeness and be in close communion with Himself (Genesis 1:26, 27; 3:8, 9). During the sixth day God created man in His own image. After the sixth day of labor "God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). On the seventh day God celebrated His creative work and His future plans for humanity. He rested on, blessed and sanctified this seventh day, thus setting it apart as a memorial of His creation of the Earth. Sadly, the fall of Adam and Eve into sin resulted in God's original intentions for humanity being postponed. The purpose of the plan of redemption was to restore to men and women the divine image and communion that were lost at the fall and thus see God’s original purpose for mankind fulfilled (Colossians 3:5-11; Romans 8:12-29; 1 John 2:28-3:10) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 27].

It is crucial to understand that the seventh-day Sabbath celebrates God's original intention and plan for mankind. This is made clear by Genesis 2:2-3 which records God resting on, blessing and sanctifying the seventh day following His completed act of creation. On the sixth day He had created Adam and Eve in His own image and on the seventh day He gave them a gift of time. This precious gift was an opportunity to experience God’s rest, commune with Him, grow more like Him, reflect on what He had created and receive His blessing. Thus, in a special sense, the seventh day was to be a day to experience and celebrate God’s plan to have upon the Earth a people who reflected His image and who were in close communion with Him. For further comments on Genesis 2:2, 3 please see the answer to Question 8, part 1.

That the seventh-day Sabbath celebrates God’s original intent for mankind is also shown by several other passages of scripture as follows:

a). In Exodus 31:13 and Ezekiel 20:12 God tells us that the Sabbath is a sign that He is the One who sanctifies us. The Hebrew word for "sanctify" (qadash) in these verses means to set apart or consecrate as sacred and is basically equivalent to the Greek word for "sanctify" (hagiazo) used in the New Testament.

There are two aspects to sanctification. Firstly, there is the ongoing state of being set apart and dedicated to God. This is our state as long as we are abiding in Christ (as the branch is to the vine, John chapter 15). To be a saint in the Biblical sense means to be "in Christ" and thus set apart by Him as someone belonging wholly to God. Therefore all true Christians are saints on the basis of what Christ has done. Secondly, sanctification involves a process of being purified and made more like Christ.

It is the sacrifice of Christ that sanctifies believers [9]. Hebrews 13:12 says, "Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate" (see also Hebrews 10:29). Thus when God says that the Sabbath is a sign that He sanctifies His people He is associating the seventh-day Sabbath with Christ whose sacrifice and work are responsible for restoring the divine image in believers. And the restoration of this divine image is fulfilling God’s original plan for mankind.

b). Deuteronomy 5:12-15 is about the Sabbath commandment. Verse 15 says, "And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day". The seventh-day Sabbath commemorates the deliverance of ancient Israel from Egyptian bondage so that they could enter and enjoy the Promised Land. This Old Testament redemption is symbolic of spiritual Israel’s deliverance from the bondage of sin (please see the answer to Question 9) in preparation for inhabiting the Earth made new (2 Peter 3:13, 14; Isaiah 66:22-24; Revelation 21:1-8). In the New Earth will be realized the fulfillment of God’s original design for mankind.

c). The message of Isaiah 58:13, 14 connects the Sabbath with the promise of partaking in the eternal kingdom God where the original design for mankind will be fulfilled. This passage says:

13 If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

As discussed in the answer to Question 6 (part 4, point "e") the heritage of Jacob is Christ and His everlasting kingdom.

In summary, the seventh-day Sabbath celebrates the fulfillment of God’s original plan for mankind that is, and will be, accomplished through Jesus Christ. Knowing this enables us to correctly understand how Jesus related Himself to the seventh-day Sabbath in the Gospel accounts.

The Gospels reveal how Jesus affirmed His Messiahship by identifying His mission with the weekly Sabbath (and also with the Jubilee sabbath). Let us explore this fascinating subject:

a). Jesus declared His mission to be the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1, 2a. These verses read as follows:

1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me; because the LORD hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD…

Jesus Christ began His ministry in Galilee by reading Isaiah 61:1, 2a in the synagogue at Nazareth on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16-21). This is an example of how Jesus’ ministry fulfilled Old Testament prophecy [26]. The "acceptable year of the Lord" quoted by Jesus and declared by Him to be now, "this day", fulfilled, is the year of the Jubilee sabbath. The Jubilee was a sabbatical year that occurred every fifty years during which slaves were allowed to go free and land reverted to the ownership of those who held its ancestral rights (Leviticus 25:10; 27:24). In identifying His mission with this year of release Jesus was declaring Himself to be the One who delivers from the bondage of sin and who will restore mankind to the original Edenic state [4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 31, 37]. Unfortunately, as a people, the Jews were only interested in a "Messiah" who would deliver them from the bondage of their Roman governors and restore Israelite sovereignty. They did not understand that the kind of bondage to be most feared was the bondage of sin [1, 12] and the kind of restoration to be most earnestly desired was the restoration to Edenic perfection. Let us not be like these Jews who rejected Christ. Let us accept Him and rejoice in the assurance of a future restoration to Edenic perfection. This restoration is guaranteed because Christ, by His life, death and resurrection, redeemed Adam’s failure, became the new successful head of humanity, and bore the curse of sin upon Himself [4, 5]. Let us surrender our lives to Jesus and abide in Him. Then we will not miss out.

b). Not only did Jesus declare His mission to be the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1, 2a, but He went on to prove His point by His actions. In other words Jesus affirmed His Messiahship by doing the very things described in Isaiah 61:1, 2a. This passage in Isaiah describes preaching the gospel to the poor, releasing captives and restoring the brokenhearted. Jesus ministry consisted largely of these things. He preached to the poor, set Satan’s captives free and healed the downcast and brokenhearted. By doing these things Jesus identified Himself as the Redeemer and Restorer anticipated by the Jubilee sabbath.

c). When Jesus initiated a person’s healing He usually did it on the Sabbath (please see the answer to Question 23 for a more detailed discussion of this point). By doing this He identified Himself as the Restorer and Redeemer anticipated by the weekly Sabbath.

d). Jesus affirmed His Messiahship in John chapters 5 and 9 by declaring that His Sabbath works were the redemptive works of the Father (John 5:16-18, 36; 9:1-7, 14).

e). In John 7:21-23 Jesus compares His work of healing on the Sabbath with circumcision. The Jews were happy to circumcise an infant on the Sabbath because it was regarded as a redemptive act mediating the benefits of God’s covenant. Why then, Jesus argues, should they be angry with Him when He has made a person completely whole on the Sabbath? Why should they be angry with Him for performing on the Sabbath a more significant and greater redemptive act than that of circumcision?

f). In Matthew 12:1-8 Jesus compares His mission with the Sabbath services of the temple, and effectively claims to be the fulfillment of the temple services by declaring, "in this place is One greater than the temple" (Matthew 12:6). In the Old Testament sanctuary service the daily offerings on the Sabbath were double the usually prescribed amount (Numbers 28:9, 10 c.f. 28:4). This should have taught the priests and people that the Sabbath day was especially appropriate for ministering to the redemptive needs of others. Thus, in Matthew chapter 12 Jesus points out that He and His disciples were engaged in a redemptive work which was wholly appropriate for the Sabbath, as shown by the example of the temple priests, and that their ministry was, in reality, more important than the priests. Again Jesus is revealing His Messiahship through identification with the redemptive theme of the Sabbath.

g). In Mark 2:27, 28 Jesus identifies Himself as the mediator of the Sabbath blessings. The Sabbath was made as a blessing to man. Therefore Jesus the Son of Man, through whom all man's blessings come, is naturally its Lord.

In declaring that He is Lord of the Sabbath Christ is saying that He is Lord of the redemption of man. This is quite logical since the Sabbath is the day that celebrates man's redemption.

h). Jesus rested in the tomb on the Sabbath after completing His earthly redemptive mission (see, for example, Luke 23:50 through 24:1). As mentioned previously in the answer to Question 9, there are parallels between Creation Week and the final week (prior to His resurrection) of Christ’s earthly ministry. In the beginning Christ, as Creator, rested on the seventh day and celebrated His beneficent purposes for mankind. When mankind fell into sin it seemed that God’s plans had been thwarted. But Christ came to Earth and died so that He could restore mankind. After His death Christ again rested on the seventh-day Sabbath. He had died victorious and now it was certain that His original plans for the human race would be fulfilled. On that Sabbath after Christ’s death all Heaven must have rejoiced [29], knowing that the enemy had been defeated and that Christ had won the victory (Revelation 12:10-12) [17, 31]. The relationship between the seventh-day Sabbath and the events of Christ’s death and resurrection is further evidence that Christ is the true Messiah, the Redeemer of the world.

In summary, Christ related to the seventh-day Sabbath by upholding it as a true divine institution that celebrated the hope of mankind’s restoration. He linked it closely with Himself, His redemptive mission and His identity as the true Messiah.

Question 25: Did Christ abolish the seventh-day Sabbath?

Answer: No He didn’t. Please consider the following:

1. The "Sermon on the Mount" recorded in Matthew chapter 5 through 7 proves that Christ did not abolish the seventh-day Sabbath. This sermon of Jesus' parallels the giving of the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapters 19 and 20 (please see the answer to Question 8, part 2, point "d"). If Jesus were going to replace or abolish any of the Ten Commandments this is the time it would have been done. But He does not do this. Instead He upholds and magnifies them.

2. How can it be claimed that Jesus abolished the Sabbath when He said, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27, 28)? Why would Jesus say that He is Lord of something that He had abolished or was going to abolish? And why would He say that the Sabbath was for mankind, that is something needed by humanity, if it was to be annulled?

3. In Matthew 24:20 Jesus says, "pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day". Why would Jesus have said this if the Sabbath day were not still an important day for Christians to observe in AD 70? For a more detailed discussion of this text please see the answer to Question 8, part 4.

4. If Jesus had planned to abolish or change the seventh-day Sabbath as part of the new covenant that was ratified by His blood at Calvary, He would need to have done it before His death. However, He did not do this. Jesus introduced all the new administrations of the new covenant before He confirmed it with the shedding of His blood. The Lord's supper, foot washing, the ministry of preaching, the promise of the Holy Spirit [36] and baptism were all instituted before the cross. But there is no mention of any new Sabbath or any abolition of the original Sabbath before Calvary, and we obviously cannot add new conditions to a covenant or contract once it has been ratified or signed.

5. In His teaching and example Jesus exhorted the people to flee from sin and to obey God's commandments (John 5:14; 8:11; Matthew 5:17-48; John 14:15; 15:10, etc.). Why then, would He have abolished the Fourth Commandment? The fact is, of course, He didn't.