Do Christians need a day of rest?

We Christians are not under the law but under grace. The Sabbath, as the sign of the law covenant, has therefore lost its significance for us, as we see in such a Scripture as Colossians 2:16. Nevertheless there can be no doubt that a rest of one day in every seven is the wise and beneficent intention of God for man. The resurrection of Christ is the seal of our faith, and hence the first day of the week, on which He rose from the dead, became the day that Christians have from the very beginning devoted to His worship and service, and it has become the day on which we cease from our ordinary toil. Israel's week worked up to the day of rest. The Christian's week starts from the day of rest, based upon the resurrection of Christ.

We cannot be too thankful that the law of the land and the customs of the countries in which we live give us the Lord's Day free from the ordinary business of the week. While not under the law of the Sabbath (if we were, we should have most rigidly to observe the seventh day, Saturday, not the first), there is an evident necessity for a period of rest, one day out of the seven, needed by all alike, and doubly prized by the child of God as affording a cessation from that constant strain of business which is racking to nerves, mind, and heart alike.

He sums this up by announcing principles of vita! significance in verses 27 and 28. The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. It was in man's best interests to have a day during the week when he might rest, yet often he will not do this unless he is virtually forced to. God was seeking the blessing of man in providing him with one day of rest during the week. Now Pharisees were turning it into a virtual curse for man by their rigid traditions. More than this, the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath: His authority is far higher than that of the sabbath, and certainly infinitely higher than the assumed authority of Pharisees, little as the Pharisees were willing to recognize it.

If any are disposed to ask in what way these things have to say to us today inasmuch as there is no active Judaizing party at work in the church at present, the answer is that they are still very much to the point. The reason why there is not much active Judaizing is that the professing church has been for many centuries so largely Judaized. But have you never met the Seventh-day Adventists? If so you may thank God. But if you have, take special note of the way in which this Scripture negatives their propaganda, the spear-head of which is their insistence on the Jewish sabbath. They will judge you as to the sabbath, if you will let them. The word here is not exactly "sabbath days," but rather, "sabbaths," as covering sabbaths of all kinds whether of days or years.

The sabbath as a legal and Jewish ordinance is set aside, but that of course does not touch the fact of one day in seven being set apart by God from the creation as a day of rest. This is a mercy from God which we do well to esteem very highly.

Today believers are not under law, but under grace. We are not told to keep the Sabbath (Col. 2:16), but by grace the first day of the week is provided by God as a day in which believers may willingly rest from their usual employment and devote the time to pleasing the Lord. No law is attached to this at all, but willing hearts will respond thankfully to such scriptures as Acts 20:7: “on the first day of the week - the disciples came together to break bread.”

Surely, if to keep the Jewish Sabbath instead of the Christian’s First Day of the Week, was a matter of such vital importance, the writers of the New Testament would have made it plain. Yet never once in the whole of the New Testament are we enjoined to keep the Jewish Sabbath. Seeing that many Christians of that day were converted out of heathendom, and lived in countries where such a thing was unknown amongst themselves as heathen, it would have been necessary to have enjoined them as to the particular day they should observe. But Scripture is absolutely silent on the point. On the contrary, allusions to the practice of the early disciples meeting on the first day of the week are sufficient to account for the fact that so-called Christian nations observe Sunday as a day of rest, a boon for which we cannot be too thankful to an over-ruling Providence, and which we grieve to see weakened in any way.

For a week they stayed there, and on the first day of the week the disciples met together to break bread. It is interesting to note that while there is a command to keep the Sabbath given to the children of Israel, there is no command to Christians to keep the first day of the week. It is the genius of Christianity not to give commands, save those that are moral, such as believers loving each other. Yet it is happy to note the overruling providence of God that gives the Sunday to be a day of rest and freedom from occupation. The fact that the early Christians met on the first day of the week, and were in the habit of breaking bread on that day has happily given to us a good example, which we gladly follow.

In Exodus 31:13-17 God emphasizes that the Sabbath was a sign between Him and Israel, and that the children of Israel were to keep the Sabbath. This was not given to Gentiles, and it is not given to the church in the present age (Compare Colossians 2:16-17). The Lord Jesus was in the grave on the Sabbath day, and was raised “the first day of the week.” From that time scripture emphasizes the first day of the week, mentioning for instance that on that day the disciples came together to break bread (Acts 20:7). Yet no law is made at all of this matter, for we are not under law, but under grace. We should regard the first day of the week as “the Lord's Day,” and therefore be glad for the privilege of using it solely for the Lord's pleasure, without attaching any legal bondage to it.

“One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” The reason for regarding special days can easily be seen in Judaism. God had established them in that system of things — certainly only as typical of better things to come, and not in themselves of any spiritual value. Yet if souls still clung in measure to the observance of those days as something that conscience requires of them, let no issue be raised on this account. Nor on the other hand are they to be allowed to require it of others.

(Vv. 5-8). The Apostle includes also the question of regarding or not regarding special days. His argument supposes that, whatever view is taken, whether of days or meats, each one is acting as before the Lord. None of us live to ourselves but to the Lord. It is well to see that the Apostle is not speaking of the Lord's day. The observance of the first day of the week, as the Lord's day, has the sanction of Scripture, and is not left as an open matter (See John 20:19; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2; Rev. 1:10).