Gospel Grace and Sabbath Rest

This month in our pastoral letters, we’re thinking about the rhythms of rest and work that God has built into His created order.  This week, I want to discuss one of our Lord’s sweetest gifts to His people: the rhythm of six days of work and one day of rest.  The day of rest is known in Hebrew as the Shabbat, meaning “ceasing or stopping,” from which we get our word “Sabbath.”  

Because of the Judeo-Christian influence on our world, it can be easy for us to take this pattern of rest and work for granted.  For a moment, rather than looking at this through the lens of 21st century America, let’s go back to the middle of the 1400’s BC, when Israel was in Egypt.  After Joseph and his brothers settled in Egypt, the land was increasingly being filled with Israelites who had been fruitful and multiplied, echoing God’s command (Gen. 1:28; 9:1) as well as His promise to Abraham and His chosen descendants (Gen. 17:6; 35:11; 47:27).  As long as Pharaoh knew who Joseph was, the Israelites had permission to live freely in the land and to work it. But when a new king of Egypt arose who did not know Joseph (Ex. 1:8), he saw the people who had once saved his nation now as a threat to national security, and he established a harsh form of chattel slavery.  Ruthless taskmasters heaped upon them two awful burdens: First, they must make bricks without straw (Ex. 5:10), and second, they did not have a day off.  Scripture is descriptive about their experience in Egyptian slavery: Their lives were “bitter” (Ex. 1:14), with “hard” (Ex. 1:14; 6:9) service resulting in “misery” and “suffering” (Ex. 3:7) and a “broken spirit” (Ex. 6:9).

Now fast forward to around 1440 BC as God delivers His beloved people out slavery, and now gives them His Law.  And what command does He give?  “Six days you shall do all your work, and the seventh shall be a Sabbath to the Lord your God.”  Following such a miserable existence in Egypt, one can hardly imagine the joy of hearing that their new King, Yahweh, would actually require that they rest for one full day out of every seven!  It was to be a vacation every single week, and more importantly, a regular reminder that the yoke of slavery had been broken.

Nothing has changed in the last 3400 years: The command to keep the Sabbath holy is still an incredibly gracious gift.  Let’s take some time together to explore this liberating commandment.  

On the Seventh Day, God Rested

The story of the Sabbath doesn’t start with weary slaves but with a sovereign God.  After six days of awesome creative power, we are told that “on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.  So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation” (Gen 2:2).  This God, who neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps. 121:4), chose to rest after His work of creation.  He did so, not out of necessity (for God needs nothing outside of Himself) but in order to mark creation’s completeness and to enjoy the satisfaction of His creative work.

God’s Sabbath was not a one-time event, but rather a creation ordinance, woven into the fabric of God’s world. The fourth commandment not only requires that we follow this work-rest rhythm but also gives us the rationale: “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Ex. 20:11).  God’s pattern established creation’s rhythm.

Just as God had surveyed the creation and rested satisfied in it, the Sabbath was set apart for man to rest satisfied in God.  What a gift: A day to set aside all the labors of other days, and to be reminded of the truths of the nature and character of God!  God’s design for humanity is that we live slowly enough to think deeply about Him.  He created us to enjoy Him, and yet He also knows that there is a tyranny of the urgent which often engulfs our plans and distracts our hearts.  This is something God has never experienced- He’s never been subject to mis-prioritized schedules.  But we are.  And He gave us this wonderful gift of one day in every seven just to think about Him.  It is no wonder then that Scripture exhorts us to call the Sabbath a delight (Isa. 58:13)!

Sinclair Ferguson says that in the Sabbath, the Christian:

was called to live on the basis of a day when he could reflect on God’s creation, God’s goodness, store his mind with reflections on who God is and how great He is, and then work through the rest of the week on that basis. And that rhythm is really very important. We need that space to have our minds decluttered and to have our minds filled with the truth of God’s Word. It’s the day when our whole beings are intended to be recalibrated into this weekly rhythm of rest and work and rest and work.

Sinclair Ferguson, “Sabbath Rest,” Ligonier Ministries, accessed February 14, 2023 from  https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/sabbath-rest

Sabbath Rest and the Gospel

Many believers today recognize the role of the Sabbath under the Old Covenant, but believe that it no longer applies to us in the New Covenant age.  I have always found this a peculiar line of thought because the Sabbath is not a binding and oppressive requirement; it is a gracious gift! Far from nullifying the fourth commandment, the Gospel transforms the Sabbath, making it an even greater blessing to our souls!

Under the Old Covenant, the pattern was this: work six days and rest one.  In that paradigm, work precedes rest, which was a picture of the righteous requirements of God’s Law.  How could we ever rest, knowing that there was always more work to be done, more law to be kept?

But in the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, our debt is fully paid and our sins are forgiven.  His precious words “It is finished” speak not only of His sacrificial work, but of His fulfillment of every single demand that the Law had put upon us.  Through Him, our souls are able to experience true rest, and the Sabbath transforms from burden to blessing. This transformation is marked by the transition from the Sabbath coming at the end of the week to now coming on the first day of the week.  Following the resurrection on the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1; John 20:1), the Church made it her rhythm to worship on Sunday as well (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:1-2).

Rather than the old rhythm of working for six days and then finally receiving rest, the New Covenant brings rest first, followed by six days of work.  Like the Israelites who were to be reminded every week of how they had been liberated, the New Covenant Sabbath gives us rest first, a weekly reminder that, indeed, “It is finished.”  Every week begins with the poignant reminder that we can set aside one day to do no work, and yet we are still utterly loved and accepted by God.  

In other words, Christ has purchased our Sabbath for us.  

Sabbath Rest and Sanctification

In one of His many engagements with Pharisees concerning right use of the Sabbath, our Lord set before us one overarching principle: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).  The Sabbath is for man’s good, and what higher good does man have in this world than to grow in sanctification and in the enjoyment of God?

Yet such growth does not happen spontaneously.  While Christian conversion is instantaneous (like an earthquake), God has ordained sanctification to be a process of growth whereby we learn to “do natural things spiritually, and spiritual things naturally.” (William Still: Collected Writings of William Still, Volume 2, 326).

What is the key to this process?  It’s not a matter of just trying harder, but rather sanctification is the product of deliberate, holy rest and contemplation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  As we live slowly enough to think deeply enough about these realities, they become impressed upon our souls in such a way that it transforms our character to become more like that of the Lord of the Sabbath.  

To be clear, there have been many throughout history who have outwardly observed the Sabbath, but have never experienced the wondrous contemplation of the face of Christ.  The Pharisees were a perfect example: At least on one occasion, they spent the Sabbath plotting how to kill Christ (Matt. 12:14)!  This is the very definition of legalism: They observed laws, but didn’t adore the Lawgiver.  Regardless, abusus non tollit usum: abuse is no argument against proper use.  The Sabbath, when used as a day of worship and contemplation, has deeply sanctifying effects on the Christian soul.

A Well-Spent Sabbath

As we do business day after day with the world, the flesh, and the devil, it wears upon our souls.  How frequently do worry, angst, people pleasing, and the tyranny of the urgent sap us of the very energies God has given us for the tasks to which He has called us?  A well-spent Sabbath is intended to restore to us those energies.  

There is a misconception that the Sabbath is to be a day of idleness, for as we have already seen, our greatest need isn’t mere physical rest; it is the spiritual rest that we find in God alone.  And the Sabbath gives us an entire day set apart for that purpose. 

So how can we do that?  Here are a few things I’ve learned from watching others who love the Sabbath: 

• Keeping the Sabbath really starts earlier in the week: Get all your work done in six days so that the Sabbath can truly be a day to focus on God.  If you can’t get all your work done in six days, you’re probably doing more than God has called you to do!  
• Use the time before morning worship to prepare to meet with God.  Review the Scripture passages and hymns for worship in advance.  Here are five practical thoughts on how to be “ready” for worship: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/ready-present-worship/. 
• Disconnect from the daily distractions that tether our minds to this world.  Turn off the news and close the newspaper; the world will get along just fine without us knowing what’s going on in it for a day. 
• Be intentional to keep your mind set on things above (Colossians 3:2).  This is not a one-time action, but an entire attitude of beholding God and His Word.  As we seek to delight in the Sabbath in this way, it helps train our minds to think this way the rest of the week. 
• Take time to connect the morning and evening sermon with your own life, and then consider how you can make application of what you’ve heard. 
• Fellowship well!  Get to know your church family- especially those who may be lonely or need to feel more connected with the church. 
• Use a day off from normal activities as an opportunity to visit the sick and shut-in. 
• Enjoy God’s creation!  

Conclusion:

Dear ones, I doubt it is possible for me to overstate the importance of the Sabbath in the Christian life.  Not only does Scripture testify to that, but so does history: when Israel was at its best, they kept the Sabbath as a day to worship and contemplate the glory of God.  So too for the church: when Christians observe the Sabbath as a day of worship and resting in Christ, we are at our best.  But as goes the Sabbath, so goes the Christian, and as the Christian, so goes the church.