Not under Law but under Grace

Part Seven

by G. A. N. James

This is the seventh part of the series of messages on the subject of Law and Grace, entitled “Not under Law but under Grace.” We have already established the limitation of the Law of Moses in fulfilling God’s aim to deliver humanity after the Fall from the bondage of death and sin into Life and righteousness. We have also dealt with the purpose of the Law in God’s unfolding plan of salvation to foreshadow and point to the true Life and righteousness which Christ would bring to humanity. We examined the fulfilment of the Law in Christ who came to reveal the true substance or body of Life and righteousness, which the Law foreshadowed. We examined the truth that Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one who believes and accepts Him. In our last mesage, we examined the truth that the righteousness of God apart from the Law is now manifested. In this seventh part of the series, we will examine the Sabbath under grace.

The Sabbath under Grace

A fundamental truth which we may derive from this series of messages on Law and Grace is that virtually all the ordinances and statutes which constitute the Law foreshadow the substance or reality of the righteousness of God in Christ. Col 2:17 states that the ordinances and rituals of the Law “are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.” Also we read in Heb 10:1: “For the Law which has a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, appearing year by year with the same sacrifices, which they offer continually, they are never able to perfect those drawing near.” We also read in Jo 1:17: “For the Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” In other words, the Law was a shadow of a reality which Christ brought to mankind in Himself. Therefore, an important question we must ask in understanding and interpreting any aspect of the Law is what is the substance or reality or truth does this aspect of the Law foreshadow in Christ.

We thank God that we who have come to believe in Christ are not under the Law with its shadows and types but under grace and truth or the reality and substance which the various aspects of the Law foreshaowed in Christ. Therefore, letting go of shadows and trypes, we must seek to know and embrace the substance and truth into which God has brought us in Christ.

Of all the statutes of the Law of Moses, the observance of the Sabbath became an aspect of continual controversy from the days of Jesus’ ministry on earth and the emergence of the New Testament Church up to this day. In fact, in the New Testament era, except circumcision, no other statutes and rituals of the Law is identified so intensely with keeping the Law by the upholders of the Law of Moses as the observance of the Sabbath Day.

Under the Old Covenant, the observance of the Sabbath, like all the other statutes and rituals in the Law of Moses, as we have already established, was symbolical of a more profound reality which God intended His people to grasp through faith in Christ. Therefore, in addressing the subject of the observance of the Sabbath in this series of messages on Law and Grace, which we have entitled “Not under Law but under Grace”, we must first identify, as we have done in examining the Law on a whole, what is the meaning and purpose of the Sabbath. Why did God institute the observance of the Sabbath Day? What is the substance or truth in Christ does the Sabbath foreshadow? How does the meaning and purpose of the Sabbath, like all the other aspects of the Law, become fulfilled in Christ? We will address all of that as we examine what the Scriptures teach on the subject of the Sabbath.

Like all the other aspects of the Law, the Sabbath was instituted by God to foreshadow during the Old Testament era a specific truth which would be realized in Christ under the New Testament era. God’s institution of the Sabbath is recorded in Gen 2:1-3:

And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He had rested from all His work which God created to make.

The Sabbath became a statute in the Law of Moses to be observed by the children of Israel. We read in Ex 20:8-11:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger within your gates. For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and sanctified it.

What then did God intend the Sabbath, as an ordinance in the Law of Moses, to foreshadow in Christ under grace? Since God entered into rest on the seventh day of the week of His creation activities, He demonstrated that all the work of creation was completed by Him and that nothing more could be added to God's completed work of excellence. The seventh day of the week was set aside or sanctified by God for man to recognize and remember that God is the Creator of all things. The Sabbath, therefore, was instituted to signify the omnipotence and sovereignty of God. The observance of the Sabbath was established as a memorial of the accomplishment of the work of creation by God at the beginning of creation.

Hence, it is obvious that God intended the observance of the Sabbath to signify a more profound act of Divine worship than merely laying down one’s tools and resting on the seventh day of the week. The truth is that God declared plainly that the Sabbath Day was instituted to be observed as a sign which signified God entering into His rest. Therefore, right at the genesis of the Sabbath Day, we see being revealed God’s intention that the objective of the observance of the Sabbath being, in a profound sense, to worship God by recognizing His Deity as Creator of all things and acknowledging that men can contribute nothing of themselves to assist God in His plan and purpose. God and God alone had done it all and entered into His rest, and, hence, the Sabbath became of sign of that.

For instance, we read in Ex 31:12-13: And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak also to the sons of Israel, saying, Truly you shall keep My Sabbaths. For it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, to know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Therefore the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant. It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed.

Also, the Lord declares in Eze 20:12: “I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah who sets them apart.”

Hence, the institution of the Sabbath was meant to remind the Jewish people of the sovereignty of the Lord in all creation and that the Lord Himself having accomplished all the work of creation had entered into His rest. Therefore, Sabbath signifies to God’s people that there is a place or point where there is Divine rest – the rest of God – where the labours of man must cease because it can add nothing to the accomplished work of God. It is a place into which man can enter and experience and enjoy the accomplished work of God in all that he needs for life.

In other words, the observance of the Sabbath was clearly meant to be more than just a weekly day of rest and cessation from work, but, more profoundly, the Sabbath pointed to a reality of Divine rest into which God had entered and which man must recognize and honour by acknowledging that his own works contribute absolutely nothing to the accomplished work of God. This is a profound truth that is overlooked in the shallow controversies and debates about the Sabbath, such as whether the Sabbath should be observed on either a Saturday or a Sunday.

The observance of the Sabbath as a weekly day of rest could at its best only foreshadow or symbolize the reality of Divine rest. The rest of God has no time definition. It is an aspect of the eternal. God certainly intended for the reality of Divine rest to be to mankind a deeper timeless experience than merely shutting down earthly productions and activities on a particular day of every week. A proper understanding of the teachings of the Scriptures on the subject of the Sabbath reveals that far more than a ritual observance of a weekly day of rest, the Sabbath of God or Divine rest is a reality of an eternal experience left for the people of God to enter into by faith. In other words, true Sabbath, signifying the reality of the eternal God at rest, transcends time and the periodical observance of days.

Therefore, the observance of Sabbath days in their temporal and repetitious rituals, as prescribed in the Old Covenant, was actually a limited type or shadow which pointed to the eternal reality of the Sabbath of God or Divine rest. And God intended the Sabbath to be for man, not merely a ritual time-bound observance to be repeated again and again as a memorial of His rest, but rather an experience of the eternal reality of Divine rest opened for man to enter into in Him through faith under grace.

The truth is that the Sabbath under grace is the eternal and heavenly substance of a reality which the observance of the Sabbaths under the Law merely foreshowed. The Scriptures are quite explicit on that perspective of the Sabbath. We will explore it in our next message.
 

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