How does Colossians 2:16-17 nullify the fourth commandment for the church today? This has been on my heart alot lately and while in study and prayer on the subject I have been pushed to a more intimate worship of God.
It definitely doesn't nullify it. It appears to say that the commandment is not required under the New Covenant, meaning it is not a commandment for the Christian. Doesn't mean you can't still observe the Sabbath. "Let no one act as your judge" should go both ways. But, regarding keeping the Sabbath, there is some debate on this, but the range of Paul's writings and the direction of the book of Acts, such as chapter 15, seem to indicate the Sabbath is passé. However, the spiritual truth of the Sabbath certainly has not passed. The New Testament explicitly teaches it. Blessings.
The Jewish sabbaths, not just the weekly one, were the physical sign that the nation was under God's rule. They had weekly, yearly and even a sabbath of sabbaths in the Jubilee. Circumcision was the private and personal sign of the covenant but was necessarily hidden. It was the Sabbath(s) that made the Jews conspicuously different.
philologos wrote:
The Jewish sabbaths, not just the weekly one, were the physical sign that the nation was under God's rule. They had weekly, yearly and even a sabbath of sabbaths in the Jubilee. Circumcision was the private and personal sign of the covenant but was necessarily hidden. It was the Sabbath(s) that made the Jews conspicuously different.
But the Sabbath was seen as a Creation ordinance, not for the Jews only, unlike circumcision.
I believe that Isaiah 58:13 and Hebrews 4:1 following contain the answer to this. "Sabbath" means "cessation", resting in a work that has been completed, as the Lord did at the end of Creation week. And as Jesus did on the Cross, crying, "IT IS FINISHED!!!" because the work for the New Creation was complete.
Isaiah 58:13 13 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
From doing your pleasure on My holy day,
And call the Sabbath a delight,
The holy day of the Lord honorable,
And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways,
Nor finding your own pleasure,
Nor speaking your own words...
Hebrews 4:1f
Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, 1not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest...10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
Here is the true Sabbath - ceasing from "doing our own thing"!!! It doesn't deny the weekly Sabbath but ushers in something greater - a continuous Sabbath of rest for the people of God, that we may walk in.
The problem is that we WILL keep trying to do it ourselves (or at least I do :-( )
Blessings
Jeannette
But the Sabbath was seen as a Creation ordinance, not for the Jews only, unlike circumcision.
I believe you are right in your reference to the significance of the Sabbath. The Sabbath of Rest followed the completion of the Day of Atonement. [color=0000ff]“For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD. It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.” (Lev 16:30-31 NKJV)[/color]with its counterpart in the the New Testament...[color=0000ff]“There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God.” (Heb 4:9 ASV)[/color]
This command was written with the finger of God and on the first tablet any significance to it being on the first tablet? I recently read a estensive exegesis on the subject by James Durham. Very heady, but I got alot on the way we worship out of it. Still this command must hold more than a minute bit of spiritual significance for us today? The other reasons for not following the saturday sabbath was the many references to the first day of the week in Acts like the Pentecost in chpt. 2 happing on the first day and Christs ressurection on the first day but still nothing is said concerning the abolishment of the saturday worship. By the way I am not an adventist just if your wondering.
Quote: The Sabbath was in commemoration of God's rest but there is no record that anyone 'kept the Sabbath' until the giving of the law.
But there is allusion to it in Exodus 16:22 with the mana from heaven they were allowed to gather it for six days out of the week but the seventh they were not. And on the sixth day they were given enough for the seventh.
philologos wrote:
The Sabbath was in commemoration of God's rest but there is no record that anyone 'kept the Sabbath' until the giving of the law.
I was thinking of the fact that the reason for Sabbath observance refers back to creation in Exodus 31. Although you are right (I'd forgotten!) that it's there refered to as a sign for the nation of Israel only.
In Genesis, however, Adam kept the first Sabbath, in company with God! So you might say that the Sabbath Law in the Ten Commandments was the second (more limited) institution of the Sabbath?
I know it doesn't say specifically that Adam kept the first Sabbath, but how could Adam have worked while God "rested". The day was even then declared "Holy", so the seventh day was special from the Beginning.
Genesis 2:2f "2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."
Maybe John 19:30, "It is finished!" are the words of the third and final institution of the Sabbath?
Mmmm Food for thought...
jeannette
Below is the text of a letter I wrote to a friend recently on this same topic:
"How do I keep the 4th commandment…?
I understand that Genesis 2 records the Sabbath as the climax of the creation week. God rests after six days work, not because he was tired and needed a day off, but because he had finished with his work and it was good. He is satisfied with His glory shining through the perfection of his creation.
Later he commands us to, “remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy…” in the Ten Commandments listed in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. God, through Moses, expounds upon the fourth commandment further in Exodus 31: 12-17 by revealing the Sabbath as the sign of the covenant between God and His people. Those Sabbaths foreshadowed the Sabbath rest that we have in Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath (Matt. 12: 8). They were intended to be constant reminders to the Hebrews of the ultimate Sabbath rest to come. It was “the rest” alluded to by Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30 and denied to those led out of Egypt by Moses because of their disobedience and unbelief (Hebrews 3:16-19). Hebrews 4:3 further explains that the work of the Father on our behalf was finished since the creation of the world, (a fact that just boggles my mind). Jesus is the Sabbath of every believer every day as long as we are resting from our works and resting in the work of Christ for us. Therefore, a Sabbath breaker is anyone who is depending on his or her works for salvation and/ or living in disobedience through unbelief. Anyone who fails to keep the Sabbath through repentance and faith in Jesus will ultimately suffer the death penalty prescribed in Exodus 31.
How do I obey the 4th commandment? I keep the Sabbath through repentance and faith in the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus Christ. My first Sabbath was the day I was born again. Every day since then, until I die is a Sabbath. What day of the week I observe corporate worship or the assembly of the saints is therefore irrelevant (Romans 14: 5-6)."
Respectfully,
C.M.
It is finished
the fourth commandment is still binding today but not in a seventh day adventist sense but in the sense that we are to find our rest in jesus and have a day set aside to simply worship him without normal distraction that is what i believe the new testament christians are to uphold because the spirit of the sabbath is what god commands i believe god bless you all my brothers and sisters
Just a though to consider though. The normal church service in first century Rome was that the church would come together on Sat. nite, after the jews finished thier sabboth and they would gather til Sunday morning than go out and gather thoughs who were laying drunk and hung over, beaten or injured in the highways and byways of that city and they would minister to thier bodily needs and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. It sure doesn't sound to restful to me :-o
But there is allusion to it in Exodus 16:22 with the mana from heaven they were allowed to gather it for six days out of the week but the seventh they were not. And on the sixth day they were given enough for the seventh.
Lev. 24:8 (KJVS) Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.
Is. 56:6 (KJVS) Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; [/color]In a corporate sense the Sabbath was [u]the
dohzman wrote:It is finished
WOW!!! Thanks for that, I hadn't realised that Jesus was quoting from the temple services...
Isn't it wonderful to be able to dig into the Word, and its background, and find such treasures
Jeannette
I was speaking with a Jewish christian today and he seemed to have the same convictions as I when it comes to setting one day apart from the rest. Something inside us; maybe its because the law is written on every mans heart? And again wasn't this part of the law that was written with the fingure of God on the first tablet? Again any significance here?
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