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The Lord’s Day is kept holy when the Lord’s people embrace His holy purposes – remember and guard the Sabbath as a day to rest in God’s creation, providence, and redemption. There is nothing tedious or “boring” about this – unless, of course, being in the unobstructed presence of the Lord with heightened focus and extended duration is somehow not a delight to you.
From creation to the resurrection of Jesus Christ the Sabbath – a holy day for resting in the Lord’s finished work on our behalf – was observed on the seventh day of the week. Jesus was raised on the first day, and thus ushered in the full rest of God and brought His saving work of bringing new life to the world to the first stages of its completion. At the Feast of Weeks, which was celebrated fifty days after the Passover, an offering of new grain was made to the Lord on the day after the seventh Sabbath – the first day of the new week (Lev. 23.9-16). Did the first believers see in this a foreshadowing of the work of Christ sufficient to encourage them to move the day of rest to the first day of the new week?
The eternal Sabbath awaits us in the new heavens and new earth. For now, the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, has been the Christian Sabbath from the earliest years of the Church.
Although the early Christians worshiped on both Saturday and Sunday, the Church ultimately found its fullest rest on the first day of the week, and has done so for 2,000 years. Just as Jesus ushered in a change in the priesthood, so He brought a new Sabbath – a new rest – to the people of God. Sunday is the Christian’s day to remember and celebrate – in corporate and private expressions – the glorious and gracious work of God on our behalf.
T. M. Moore
The Law of God is the soil which, fertilized by the rest of God’s Word and watered by His Spirit, brings forth the fruit of Christian life. If you’d like to understand this process better, and how to make best use of the Law in your walk with and work for the Lord, order the book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, from our online store.
Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.