Every day to the believer is one of Sabbath rest. We have ceased from our spiritual labor and are resting in the salvation of the Lord (Hebrews 4:9-11).
The following quote may surprise a good number who read it for varied reasons.
There were three reasons for giving this [fourth] commandment: First, with the seventh day of rest the Lord wished to give to the people of Israel an image of spiritual rest, whereby believers must cease from their own works in order to let the Lord work in them. Secondly, he wished that there be an established day in which believers might assemble in order to hear his Law and worship him. Thirdly, he willed that one day of rest be granted to servants and to those who live under the power of others so that they might have a relaxation from their labor. The latter, however, is rather an inferred than a principal reason.
As to the first reason, there is no doubt that it ceased in Christ; because he is the truth by the presence of which all images vanish. He is the reality at whose advent all shadows are abandoned. Hence St. Paul (Col. 2:17) that the sabbath has been a shadow of a reality yet to be. He, I say, is the true completion of the sabbath: "We are buried with him by baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life," (Rom.6:4). Hence, as the Apostle elsewhere says, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holiday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ," (Col.2:16,17); meaning by body the whole essence of the truth, as is well explained in that passage. And he declares elsewhere its truth when in the letter to the Romans, ch. 6:8, he teaches us that we are buried with Christ in order that by his death we may die to the corruption of our flesh. And this is not done in one day, but during all the course of our life, until altogether dead in our own selves, we may be filled with the life of God. Hence, superstitious observance of days must remain far from Christians.
The two last reasons, however, must not be numbered among the shadows of old. Rather, they are equally valid for all ages. Hence, though the sabbath is abrogated, it so happens among us that we still convene on certain days in order to hear the word of God, to break bread, and to offer public prayers; and, moreover, in order that some relaxation from their toil be given to servants and workingmen. As our human weakness does not allow such assemblies to meet every day, the day observed by the Jews has been taken away (as a good device for eliminating superstition) and another day has been destined to this use. This was necessary for securing and maintaining order and peace in the Church.
As the truth therefore was given to the Jews under a figure, so to us on the contrary truth is shown without shadows in order, first of all, that we meditate all our life on a perpetual sabbath from our works so that the Lord may operate in us by his spirit; secondly, in order that we observe the legitimate order of the Church for listening to the word of God, for admin-istering the sacraments, and for public prayers; thirdly, in order that we do not oppress inhumanly with work those who are subject to us. But the sum of what He says to us amounts to this: that the sabbath is a sign by which Israel might know that God is their sanctifier. If our sanctification consists in the mortification of our own will, the analogy between the external sign and the thing signified is most appropriate. We must rest entirely, in order that God may work in us; we must resign our own will, yield up our heart, and abandon all the lusts of the flesh. In short, we must desist from all the acts of our own mind, that God working in us, we may rest in him, as the Apostle also teaches (Heb.3:13; 4:3, 9).(From John Calvin's Institutes, ca. 1537)
Another couple of points on why we don’t keep the Sabbath as they did under Old Covenant.
Exodus 31:13-14 But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, “You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Therefore you are to observe the sabbath for it is holy to you.” The Sabbath was to be the one day of the week that they were to be totally set apart to God and not pursuing their own intersts and also we see here that the Sabbath was the OT picture of sanctification that would be fulfilled in the New Covenant. We see further evidence of this in Isaiah 58:13-14 “If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the height of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
In the promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31:33 God says, “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it….” So we see here that in the new covenant that God will write His law in our heart and we know that the sabbath is part of that law. We keep the sabbath every day now as we are sanctied positionally, and through the power of His Spirit no longer seek our own ways, our own pleasure, our own word, but seek to please Him who died and rose again on our behalf, which is our progessive and practical sanctification. What man could not do under the Old Covenant God has done for us in the New Covenant. What a great salvation, what a complete salvation!
His rest which His people have entered into is not a day but a Person.The Person of the LORD Jesus.We are complete in Him. It is the promised faith-rest of Hebrews 4.
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Jesus
(quoted from Matthew 11:28)
