Even
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Frequently Asked Questions
About The Sabbath
9. Didn't Jesus replace the Ten Commandments with just one new one in John 15:12?
11. Didn't Jesus himself break the Sabbath in John 5:18?
13. Why keep the Sabbath, but not the festivals of Israel or other parts of the Law of Moses
8. Doesn't Romans 14:5 say each man is free to keep whatever day he wants, whether Sabbath or Sunday or another day?
Neither Sabbath nor the first day of the week is mentioned in this passage. Since the verse is sandwiched between verses dealing with the issue of vegetarianism (v.1-3 and v. 6), perhaps some believers were regarding certain days as "special" (v. 6) in the sense of being dedicated to the eating of vegetables only (meat being considered by them, "unclean," v. 14). Or this could be another reference to the Judaizing tendency to insist on the observance of Old Covenant feast days, with vegetarianism being combined with this practice (in the kind of syncretism that existed at Colosse). The overall principle is stated in Rom. 14:17, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking." The 4th Commandment was never a matter of eating and drinking, but ceremonial practices of the Old Covenant were. It is they which are, again, being addressed. Back to Top
9. Didn't Jesus replace the Ten Commandments with just one new one in John 15:12?
Even if that were true (which it is not), 1 John 5:2-3 reminds us that loving God's children means loving God, means obeying what God commands. Back to Top
10. What about 1 John 3:23? Doesn't it say Jesus' commandments today are only to believe in Christ and love one another?
Taking that verse to be
exclusive (i.e., to mean that all Jesus requires
of believers is to believe in him and love one another) would be making
Jesus say we should ignore what he himself identifies in Matt. 22:37-38
as the "greatest commandment": "Love the Lord your God."
Obviously the words in 1 Jn. 3:23 mean something like, "This is
one of the commandments I'm giving you," not, "This
is/these are all the commandments I'm giving you."
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11. Didn't Jesus himself break the Sabbath in John 5:18?
This verse merely states the opinion of the Scribes and Pharisees, who were angry with Jesus because he had healed a man on the Sabbath. Jesus had not broken God's Sabbath. He had broken theirs. (In Matt. 12:2 they accused Jesus' disciples of breaking the Sabbath because they had picked some heads of grain to eat. Again, this was breaking their rules for the Sabbath, not God's. Jesus said they were condemning "the innocent," v. 7.) Back to Top
12. How does law-keeping square with the NT emphasis on Grace? And aren't Jesus' commands "higher" than the Ten Commandments?
Salvation is by Grace, but discipleship is a matter of obedience. The NT emphasizes discipleship, and sanctification and obedience--as well as salvation. Shall we not obey God, who loves us, and Christ, who died for us? It comes down to what Jesus said: "If you love me, you will obey what I command" (John 14:15, and see v. 21). Chief among Jesus' commands were those two by which he summarized "all the Law and the Prophets" in terms of love for God and love for one's neighbor (Matt. 22:34-40). Love for one's neighbor "sums up" the last six commands of the Ten Commandments (Rom. 13:8-10), just as love for God sums up the first four. So if we love Jesus, we will obey the Ten Commandments in the spirit in which Jesus summarized them--including the 4th Commandment to, "remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy" (Ex. 20:8).
Jesus' commands are therefore
not in opposition to the Ten Commandments. They summarize
the Ten in terms of the deeper heart-motivation which the New Covenant
enables believers to show in keeping them. A summary does not
contradict what it summarizes, and neither does Jesus' command to love
God contradict those first four Commandments by which love for God is to
be shown. To set the Son's commands against the Father's is to
reject the direct teaching of Jesus, who said, "If anyone loves me, he
will obey my teaching... These words you hear are not my own; they
belong to the Father who sent me" (Jn. 14:23-24).
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13. Why keep the Sabbath, but not the festivals of Israel or other parts of the Law of Moses?
(Also see answers to questions #6 and #7, above.)
The Ten Commandments and other moral teachings of the Old Testament (Deut. 6:5, Lev. 19:18, Matt. 22:24-40) have their permanence in the character of God. They deal directly with right and wrong, good and evil, and with spiritual values like love, faith and hope. Such values have their source in God, whose goodness is unchanging (Psa. 119:89-91, 144; Lk. 18:19; 1 Jn. 1:5 & 4:7-8). That is not equally true of the ritual and ceremonial aspects of the law of Moses. At the heart of them were the Temple sacrifices and the feast days designed around those sacrifices, by which Israel was cleansed of sin (Lev. 23:4-37). Though the Sabbath temporarily shared ritual offerings with these days, it was always distinguished from them (Lev. 23:3-4, 37-38).
Believers today no longer need to approach God through these cleansing rituals (Heb. 10:1). In Christ's sacrifice, the Passover lamb was offered once and for all time (1 Cor. 5:7, 1 Pet. 1:18-19), and a blood better than that of the bull and goat of the Day of Atonement was shed, ending the need for such sacrifices to ever be made again (Heb. 9:11-14, 24-26; Heb. 10:18). The ceremonial prohibitions accompanying these have also ceased to be necessary: "They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings--external regulations applying until the time of the new order" (Heb. 9:10). Believers today owe no obligation to such regulations, which are "weak and useless" (Heb. 7:18). We relate to God under the New Covenant in Christ. "By calling this covenant 'new,' he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear" (Heb. 8:13).
The coming of Christ marks a change in the Law (Heb. 7:12). The results can be seen in such places as Acts 15:10-11, 2 Cor. 3:7-17, Gal. 4:8-11 and Gal. 5:2-4. The Sabbath, however, was not changed--except that the Temple offerings, which it shared with New Moons and feast days, were made no longer necessary (Col. 2:16). Back to Top
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