This post is part of my series Life as a Calvinist in the SBC.

A few days behind schedule, but here at long last is the fourth point from the T.U.L.I.P. acronym. The post for the final point has already been written and will be posted tomorrow at 6:30 am. After that, just a few more posts to tie up some loose ends, and this series will be history!

I once heard the story of a man who had faced a lifelong addiction to cigarettes. From time to time he would try to quit, but every attempt would result in quick failure. Then one day he changed his approach and began to pray earnestly for God to remove his taste for cigarettes. To his delight, God answered his prayer and what he once found irresistible he now found revolting. Whereas once he could not help but pick up a cigarette, now he could not make himself smoke one.

We hear stories such as these and rejoice at God’s mercy to remove sinners from their sins and temptations. Rarely will anyone say, “What? God changed this man’s desires so that he hates what he once loved and thus compelled him away from cigarettes? What a violation of this man’s free will!” Yet this is precisely the charge often leveled against Calvinists for their doctrine of irresistible grace.

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When I look back over the last decade-and-a-half of my still short life I am often amazed by all that has taken place. God’s grace is best understood against the backdrop of life and certainly my life is overflowing with evidence of his grace.

I spent some time last night watching a video of three emergents babble on about emerging spirituality in American culture. The emerging church is a movement that started as an way to merge Christianity with postmodern ideas, an attempt to update Christianity, demonstrated by Brian McLaren’s book A New Kind of Christian or Doug Pagitt’s book, A New Kind of Christianity.

In the video, the discussion revealed a combination of old school liberalism and new age, relativistic spiritualism, a convergence of ideas that defines the religious belief of many young people today where truth has little value and what matters is what you feel, what you experience, what belief fits your self-perception. I was particularly impressed that Tony Jones came out and admitted that this new notion of spirituality is little better than invent your own religion – take this element you like from this group, that element from that religion, mix it all together, and call it your own.

This is the same error committed by ancient Israel when the people of God, chosen by God to be a light to the nations, instead hid their light and adopted the religious beliefs and practices of their neighbors. God was not pleased with their open-mindedness and progressive ideals.

What the video demonstrated was the pridefulness of man, the enormous hubris we display when we declare that God is pleased whenever we disregard his revelation, the Bible, and invent for ourselves what we think makes for a good religion. Proponents of the emerging church do not believe they are acting in rebellion against God. They believe God wants them to conform Christianity to a modern age, changing beliefs and teachings to fit what the world finds acceptable, to bring in to Christianity tolerance of other religious beliefs and moral practices. But continuing in such folly can only have one ending: God’s judgment.

But what really struck me as I watched the video was that their story should be my story. I am the man who has committed tremendous quantities of time walking in folly. While some of my greatest periods of rebellion centered in my early college years, my foolishness has never really abated. And yet again and again God has kept me from plunging beneath the waves. I spent years playing with drugs and alcohol – mildly, but still involved; I had periods of deeply unhealthy curiosity in the occult; I toyed with the claims of other religions; the list of my foolishness could go on and on and on and on.

Even once I had reached a period of relative stability, it was not very stable. There was a time, not so long ago, when I was inches away from universalism, heavily influenced by the writings of George MacDonald who said that everyone will go to Heaven. And yet I found universalism so incompatible with the Bible’s teachings, but its claims so compelling, that I almost went crazy with the thought that perhaps the whole God thing was a sham.

At another time, I was deeply fascinated with Eastern Orthodoxy and medieval western mysticism. (I once met Orthodox speaker and writer Frederica Mathewes-Green and from our discussion she predicted that I would be Orthodox within a year.) This was before I had heard anything about the emerging church so it has been interesting to observe that many emergents claim a deep appreciation for Orthodoxy and mystical theology. I consumed many of the mystical writings emergents now champion. What they find appealing I also found appealing – a mystical practice of spirituality that centered more attention on how my emotions and thought life could shape my religious experience than on how the dogmatic truths of religion should shape my thinking and feeling.

Mysticism tells us to base our religious knowledge on subjective feelings and experience but the God of the Bible tells us to base our knowledge on his objective Word. The Bible is the standard of truth. My feelings and opinions must be brought into conformity with the Bible.

By rights, I should be one of three things: a burned out addict on the streets; an angry atheist consumed by nihilistic depression, since with no god there could be no meaning and no hope; or a postmodern emergent with no real grasp on truth since I would hold that truth is essentially unknowable or that it changes from person to person. But while Satan’s onslaughts against me have continued unabated, what was true during those past struggles continues to be true now: God has never released his hold of me. This is absolutely due to grace.

Even if I had never read what the Bible has to say about God’s sovereignty in my salvation and in my perseverance, I would have hints of the truth of Calvinism. If my unchanged will played a roll in my destiny, I would be Hell bound. Time and again, my will, my choice, my desire was to flee into destruction. But God grabbed me and rescued me from the pit of darkness and never let me go. I have deserved none of the good that God has done to keep me on his path. During many periods of my life, I did whatever I could to flee from his grace, but God never loosened his hold. The words of the song Always Thou Lovest Me are true of my life:

I sought the Lord and afterward I knew
He moved my soul to seek him seeking me
It was not I that found O savior true;
No I was found of thee!

I find, I walk, I love, but O the whole
Of love is but my answer, Lord, to thee;
For thou wert long beforehand with my soul
Always thou lovest me!

Thou didst reach forth, thy hand and mine enfold
I walked and sank not on the storm vexed sea
Twas not so much that I on thee took hold
As thou, dear Lord, on me.

I have cast myself into many a stormy gale. I made Satan’s work easy – I sought the struggle. Time and again, the ship of my soul was dreadfully tossed about. But by God’s grace, the anchor lines ran deep and strong and the storms were weathered.

Those anchor lines ran to the bedrock laid down from childhood onward. I am so very, very grateful to have been raised in a church that taught the Bible in its fulness, in its depth, in its breadth. I am grateful that biblical truth was never dumbed down, that we were not fed a superficial spirituality which left the door open for postmodern platitudes or the squishiness of America’s #1 Christianish religion, moralistic therapeutic deism. Moralistic therapeutic deism is held by many who call themselves Christian and proclaimed by many who call themselves pastors. It is the belief that if we live a basically good life, stay out of trouble, go to church from time to time, then we will be okay when we die. I am grateful for parents who often seemed overbearing and unreasonable and yet laid a foundation with which God would hold me fast. A foundation built on God’s Word and deep, rich, theological teachings about what his Word says. I am grateful that my mom sat me down time and again and drilled into me the catechism so that I would never forget rich truths of the Christian faith. And I am grateful that God orchestrated it all, for without his hand, his plan, his guidance, his Spirit, his Word, I would be utterly, irretrievably lost.

Instead of leaving me lost, God took me and changed me and saved me and filled me with himself and has given me work to do in his kingdom. The job he has given me is to shepherd his people, to help lay the same foundation in others that has been laid in me. That foundation is his Word, his truth, his revelation to us. God gave us his Word as the anchor for our souls. If we cast aside that anchor, we will be dashed upon the rocks. This is why I find it so distressing that many Christians, many churches, many pastors, many seminaries, many publications, many lectures, many conferences, many church growth methods, many Christian leadership seminars, produce something that resembles little more than a soupy mess. We marvel that the church is in decline, that young people are jumping ship, that so many people embrace movements like the emerging church, that so many have fallen into scandal, and we wonder what to do about it, yet we seem reluctant to return to the foundation of revelation given to us which would rescue many from the darkness.

This revelation is one aspect of God’s grace. He did not have to give us the Bible. He did not have to preserve it through the centuries. He did not have to convict men with the need to know it and translate it and protect it and pass it on. And yet he has done so. We don’t need to hold panel discussions to try and decide what the future of spirituality should look like. We have God’s Word to tell us what has been, what is, and what always will be.

Because of these things, I hope and pray that mine is always a ministry of the Word. It has caused me a great deal of pain and distress to know that so many in our churches today see the pastor as the chief motivator or innovator or coordinator of the church. The pastor is seen as the charismatic leader of a great self-help, motivational speaking organization, and he goes to the people to make them happy and he holds the events that make them feel good and if he would only not meddle too much, he will do okay. But such is not my ministry, nor is it the ministry of any who have been called to shepherd the people of God. The winds are blowing against the sails, the waves are beating into the hull, sharks are circling in the water, and nothing but God’s Word will give us a safe, steady course. And God, by his Spirit, has given us his Word. By his Spirit he has preserved it. By his Spirit he changes our hearts to receive it. By his Spirit he gives us understanding. By his Spirit he instructs those who will instruct us with it. By his Spirit he calls certain men to use his Word to lay a bedrock foundation into the hearts and minds of countless saints so that when they face their storms, they will not sink into the darkness.

And so, may I be able to say of my ministry what Paul said of his in Acts 20:26-27: Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Paul was not concerned with whether people were made to feel comfortable with their lives. Rather, his ministry usually led to people feeling quite uncomfortable. He was not concerned with whether he won the affection of the churches or was seen as the most dynamic speaker. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 1:17 he argues that preaching is not about fancy speech: For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. His goal, his concern, his ministry objective was to deliver to the people of God the whole counsel of God. Only the whole counsel of God, found in his Word, is sufficient to save sinners and build saints.

Thanks be to God who gave me his Word throughout my life as he preserved me safe through many storms. Thanks be to God for his grace. Thanks be to God for the work of his Spirit. May God preserve his church to pursue deeper knowledge and depth of his word and to have greater faithfulness to obey what he has instructed. May we be known as a people who love the Word of God and stand on God’s unchanging truth as we live it out every day of our lives.

There are four things that stand out in this passage:

…that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment…

Paul does not pray for simple love. The modern notion of love says love is blind and free otherwise it is not love. But even as Paul prays for the love of believers to abound, he prays that it would abound with knowledge and all discernment. This does not mean believers can ever be stingy with love, but it does mean that as believers exercise their love, they are to practice discernment informed by knowledge. Our hearts must be connected to our heads as we seek to exercise love in a way that is pleasing to God. So true love does not engage in sin and true love does not give approval to sin.

…so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ…

Related to what was just said, the love believers are to have will ultimately give approval to that which is excellent. Excellence is determined by knowledge and all discernment which is grown through prayer and is given through the Word of God. But this means things are not determined to be excellent just because individuals approve of them, but Christians only approve of those things discerned to be excellent by the standard of Christ. And so the result for us of this love which abounds in knowledge and all discernment is that when we arrive at the day of Christ we will be found pure and blameless. This means the abounding in this kind of love and the right judgment of what is excellent and what is not is part of God’s sanctifying work in our lives. Through Christ God is purifying his bride, making us spotless so that one day Christ will present a spotless bride to his Father.

…filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ…

And here we see Christ’s work most clearly. A growing love that exercises knowledge and all discernment, giving approval to that which is excellent, will lead a person to be filled with the fruit of righteousness. This fruit can come only through Jesus Christ, so it must be Christ who works in us to abound in love so that we can then be filled with his fruit.

For the believer, there is a long-term goal of sanctification: that we might be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. But there is also a daily goal: that Christ’s sanctifying work in us might lead to fruitfulness. Being filled with the fruit of righteousness on the day of Christ requires bearing fruit each day. We normally think of fruitfulness as tangible results – how many people you led to the Lord, how many homeless people you helped, how much time you spent with your family, etc, but that isn’t really the point. Tangible results are a result of fruitfulness. The fruit of righteousness is the fruit of the Spirit – bearing in our lives the very character of Christ as found in passages like Galatians 5:22. So as we abound in the love of God we become more like Christ and will demonstrate his character when he returns. In the meantime, the daily outworking of our growth in Christ will be increased obedience to God’s commands such as love, justice, proclamation, service, etc.

…to the glory and praise of God.

The ongoing purpose of abounding in love is that we grow in our fruitfulness. The eventual purpose is that we be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. But the ultimate purpose is that God will be glorified and praised. We are not out of the spotlight of God’s work, but nor are we in the center. The spotlight is on God. We are mirrors that magnify the light shining on him and through Christ’s sanctifying work we are enabled to reflect him all the better. But God is the goal. We exist to give glory and praise to God. Our question each day cannot be whether the events of our lives give us personal fulfillment and the satisfaction we think we deserve but whether the events in our lives help us grow in Christ so that we might better bring glory and praise to God. And as we grow in Christ, we will find that our satisfaction is no longer in personal fulfillment on the world’s terms but personal fulfillment in the cause of bringing glory to God.

The greatest satisfaction in our lives should come as we, in all things, give glory and praise to God.

Having just discussed the difference between monergism and synergism, it is now time to explain what brought these to mind.

While studying Ephesians 6:23-24, I was surprised to note two demonstrations of monergism. Now, biblical evidence of monergism can be found over and over again, I just did not expect to find it here:

Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.
Ephesians 6:23-24

Take a moment and see if you can spot the two ways this passage presents monergism, the belief that salvation is entirely the work of God. Need a hint? The first way is found in verse 23; the second way starts with verse 24 but reaches back to verse 23.

Monergism in the gifts of grace

The first way is fairly straightforward. In blessing the Ephesians, Paul calls for them to receive peace, love, and faith. These would each be given to us by God’s grace – that is, we do not merit them; God gives them to us freely by his own good pleasure. Peace and love would be two-dimensional: peace between man and God, love between man and God, peace between man and man, love between man and man. Faith is one-dimensional: faith in God. Paul describes each of these as gifts coming from God. Neither faith nor love nor peace come as a result of our own free-will decision for Christ, nor as a result of our effort or achievement. Even saving faith comes as a gift from God (see also Ephesians 2:8-9). And love, which demonstrates the work of God in us (see Romans 5:5 and 1 John 4:12), is given to us from God.

So here is monergism. It is as Peter says in 2 Peter 1:3-4: God has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Every bit of it comes from him, none of it comes from us. We do not cooperate in any independent sense, for any effort we perform is carried out through the strength he gives us. Paul reinforces this point over in Philippians 2:13: …it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Salvation belongs to our God, and praise be God that he has given us salvation, making us his children.

Monergism in the qualification for grace

The second example of monergism is harder to spot, so bear with me. In verse 24 Paul says, Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. In verse 23 Paul already blessed them with gifts of grace, so in a sense Paul goes from being specific in verse 23 to more general in verse 24. “I bless you specifically with these aspects of God’s grace, but more than that I bless you with the full measure of God’s grace.”

In verse 24, this blessing of grace is qualified with the limiting phrase, all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. While God extends some grace to everyone, the grace Paul has in mind (God’s covenant blessings for his people) is only for those who love God with true, lasting love.

On the surface, this might look like evidence of synergism. “See!” a synergist might note, “Paul says we have to love God in order to receive grace! We cooperate with him!” The problem with this argument is what Paul has just said in verse 23. We already noted that love comes as a gift of God. Romans 5:5 helps illustrate this when Paul says, …God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. This does not just mean God’s love for us, it also means our love for God. The Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts and with that love we love God. 1 John supports this point over and over again, as in 1 John 4:19: We love because he first loved us. His love is the source of our love.

So love itself is a gift from God, but we cannot receive gifts from God (grace) until we love him (Paul’s limiting statement in verse 24), but we cannot love him unless he gives love to us. Is there any way to receive God’s grace? There are two parts to resolving this dilemma.

God extends grace

Simply put, unless God extends grace to us and pours his love into our hearts, we are hopeless. We cannot love him unless he fills us with his love. The monergistic system becomes necessary: it is impossible for us to love God; we cannot cooperate to receive his grace. He must do it, or we are hopeless.

With grace comes love

And in fact, he does do it. God extends grace to those he chooses to save. Among other things, he pours love into the hearts of his elect, giving us his grace. But verse 24 seems to indicate that love must be present in order to receive grace, so I must love God to receive grace from God. What actually happens is that love and grace are born in us simultaneously. Immediately as God extends grace to us, our hearts fill with love for him. It is inevitable: his grace to us creates our love for him. We cannot receive this kind of grace and still refuse to love him.

This is like someone opening his eyes. Assuming you are not blind (a safe assumption, unless someone is reading this blog entry to you), when you open your eyes, you immediately begin to see (yes, you were already seeing the back of your eyelids, but that doesn’t count). You will not see unless you open your eyes, but sight comes immediately as the eyes open. We can say that sight comes because we opened our eyes, but we cannot say that it comes after we opened our eyes. As you open your eyes, you are able to see.

Another illustration is fire. When you strike a match, which happens first, light, or heat? We might say that the light comes from the chemical reaction caused by the heat, but light and heat are simultaneous products of fire. (Both illustrations – fire and eyesight – come from John Piper.)

So it is with this love (and faith and peace) and God’s grace. As he gives us his grace, we are filled with love for him, faith in him, and peace with him. They come immediately with his grace. Now, growing in Christ is a process that will take the rest of our lives, but the process is begun in an instant when God, completely on his own (monergistically), works salvation in us.

Bad news for those who think God rescues and rewards all regardless of righteousness:

The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did not put away from me. I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from my guilt. So the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
Psalm 18:20-24

Good news for those who feel they can never satisfy the standard of God’s righteousness:

For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? – the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless.
Psalm 18:31-32

God shows favor to the righteous, but it is God who equips, strengthens and makes the sinner into a saint, makes the unrighteous man into a righteous man. It is all of God, not of me.

Christian, do you follow the law?

On Sunday nights I am preaching through the Sermon on the Mount. This past Sunday our text was Matthew 5:17-20, dealing with Christ and the law (audio of the sermon available at the link).

I want to focus on one of the points brought up in the sermon. Christians often wrestle with the relationship between Christians and the law. We know we are not under the law (Romans 6:14) and that Christ has in some sense been the end of the law (Romans 10:4) but we also know that this does not release us from God’s moral commands and that Jesus taught the law would not pass away (Matthew 5:18).

It was this last verse that puzzled me as I prepared to preach. There are two things Jesus says in Matthew 5:18:

1. Not even the smallest part of the law will pass away, even if the world passes away.
2. Nothing in the law will change until everything is accomplished.

On the one hand Jesus says the law will not pass away. Then he immediately turns around with the caveat, “until all is accomplished.” Something will happen that will cause at least some change in the law.

To determine what Jesus meant it is helpful to take a closer look at the law. When we talk about the Old Testament law we usually refer to the covenantal law established through Moses. The commands of the Mosaic law can be grouped into three categories or three kinds of law:

1. The judicial law. This was the law governing the people of God as a political assembly or nation. God’s law did not just govern individual life, it also governed the political and judicial life of the people. These commands gave instructions for how to behave in war, how to punish various sins, etc.
2. The ceremonial law. This law guided the religious life of the people. In the ceremonial law the people learned about the feast days, rituals and sacrifices to be carried out before God. The centerpiece of the ceremonial law was first the tabernacle then the temple.
3. The moral law. Here we have the commands that governed individual life. Through the moral law God revealed to his people how he wanted them to live their lives and interact with one another. The moral law is generally summarized in the ten commandments.

Looking back at the words of Jesus, in what way does the law not pass away and in what way is it accomplished? I argue that the whole law is fulfilled in Christ (as he himself states in Matthew 5:17) but the first two types of law have been altogether accomplished while the third type, the moral law, will never pass away. Look at the three types again:

1. Through the judicial law God emphasized the seriousness of sin against a holy God and he taught that sin will be punished (these are also taught in the ceremonial law but from a different slant). It was also through the judicial law that God laid down the framework for life in his kingdom: his people would be obedient to him and his rule. The judicial law was fulfilled in Christ who by his death serves as the greatest demonstration of just how great an offense sin is. He has also transformed the judicial landscape. The people of God are no longer defined as a geopolitical entity but as a body, the church, the bride of Christ. The reign of God is no longer centered on a throne, whether the throne of God at the Ark of the Covenant or the throne of a king in a palace. The reign of God comes through human hearts by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not just fulfill the judicial law, through Jesus the judicial law has accomplished its purpose. It was given as a pointer and when the One it pointed to arrived, its purpose was completed.
2. Through the ceremonial law God taught the people that sin must be paid for. Sin requires blood. Either your blood or the blood of someone else. The Old Testament sacrifices did not themselves accomplish any atoning work – the blood of bulls and goats will not cover our sins – but they served as a symbol of the One who would come, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law by perfectly following every one of its precepts. And like the judicial law, through Jesus the ceremonial law was accomplished. It was no longer necessary once the eternal Lamb had come.
3. With the moral law we have something a bit different. The moral law existed before the judicial or ceremonial. Even in the garden Adam and Eve were guided by God’s expectations for how they should behave. Jesus fulfilled the moral law by living without sin. He was holy and righteous, never doing wrong. But the moral law was not accomplished with Jesus. The judicial and ceremonial laws were pointers to Christ but the moral law points not to Christ but to his expectations for us. These expectations did not end with the birth of Jesus or at his cross or resurrection or ascension or the giving of the Holy Spirit. God continues to expect all humans to live according to his moral commands.

The judicial and ceremonial laws have been accomplished and have passed away but the moral law remains binding on humanity. This is why in Matthew 5:19 Jesus says the people of God ought to be both doing and teaching the law of God. He does not mean we ought to do and teach that which has been accomplished but we should do and teach that which remains of the law.

Christians are not antinomian, anti-law. We believe that we are not made righteous by the law but we also believe we are still subject to the law’s commands. The law ought not be a burden. Whenever we find God’s commands burdensome it is not because of the command but because of our continuing sinfulness. We are not free to live life as we please but follow the instructions of our Master, knowing that only by his will and by his way and by his power will we live life to the full.

As promised, here is a fuller treatment of the subject.

What does the Bible say to Christians about the Sabbath? Quite a bit, but not necessarily what many Christians expect. I will discuss this under four headings: Beginning of the Sabbath; Meaning of the Jewish Sabbath; The Christian Sabbath; and Personal Practice.

Beginning of the Sabbath

The Sabbath practice originates in the Old Testament and is connected with God’s work in creation. Genesis tells us that in six days God created all things and on the seventh he rested. Genesis 2:3 tells us 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. The command to honor the Sabbath day is later found in the Mosaic law as one of the primary requirements for the people of Israel. The command is found in Exodus 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 a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 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.

The Sabbath becomes a very important sign for the people. Like circumcision, it was a sign that these are the covenant people of God. In Exodus 31:12-17 God gives a longer explanation about the Sabbath where he shows it to be a sign for the people. Verses 16-17 read: Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. The Sabbath was an eternal sign, something about Sabbath observance was to always be a part of the people of God.

The word Sabbath is from the Hebrew tB’v; which means rest or cease. The Sabbath was not a day of worship for the Jews, it was a day of rest. A day of reduced activity. Throughout Old Testament history the Jews had no regular, uniform day of worship. Everything centered around the feasts and sacrifices on various days throughout the year. Uniform, regular worship doesn’t occur until the synagogue appears during the inter-testamental period. As part of the Mosaic law there was a Sabbath sacrifice (Numbers 28:9-10) and the sacrificial system was itself an act of worship and obedience, but no sort of Sabbath worship that we would be familiar with began until the synagogues.

Commands for the Sabbath included: no buying or selling (Nehemiah 10:31); no burdens carried (Nehemiah 13:19); people could not travel far (Exodus 16:29, the Sabbath journey in Acts 1:12). This last one has been hard to nail down – how far were the people allowed to travel? What the teachers of the law changed some over time. Early on the allowed distance was 2,000 cubits from home (or, later, from one’s home city; later the distance was also expanded based on various arguments from outside the Law) based on Joshua 3:4-5. 2,000 cubits is just over a half mile. Assuming God intended for the Israelites to remain close to their houses, by Mosaic law most people would not be able to attend church because of the distance involved.

By the time of the New Testament there were many restrictions on Sabbath observance. The Pharisees were good at two things: (1) expanding the Mosaic law so that even those laws intended to benefit the people became a burden; and (2) finding loopholes so they did not have to carry the same burden as the people.

Meaning of the Jewish Sabbath

The Jewish Sabbath practice seems to have been intended to communicate three things to the people. First, it showed God’s care for his people. As strange as it might sound to us today, the establishment of the Sabbath was not so much to get the people to spend the day focused on God as it was so the people would receive rest. God should be the focus of all we do, but the Sabbath was not specifically set aside as a day of worship. It was a day of rest, a day to protect the people by giving them a break in their week. I am not aware of any other culture in history that set aside one day each week so the people could rest. Even our weekend is based on this practice, the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Lord’s day.

Second, the Sabbath was a way of reminding the people of who created them. Every week they had a day of rest. Why a day of rest? Because on that day God rested from his creating work. The God who cares enough for them to give them rest each week is also the God who loved them enough to create them. He is sovereign over his creation and every week they had a reminder of their creator God.

Third, the Sabbath showed the people of God to be distinct. No one else had a Sabbath. No other society gave a day of rest. This showed something different about the Israelites. Since that time many people have copied the practice, but it originated with God’s command to the Jews. Surrounding nations knew who the Jews were since they were the ones who stopped any activity on the Sabbath, refusing even to travel on the last day of the week.

The Christian Sabbath

So how does all of this carry over to the church today? I have two primary responses to this question.

First, it carries over – but is fulfilled.

This follows from the Sabbath being part of the Mosaic law. There is a reason Christians don’t hold to the Mosaic law – it was fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Christians are not free to live any way we please, we must still obey God’s expectations for human behavior, but we are not bound to the regulations and principles of the Mosaic law. In Matthew 5:17 Jesus says, Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. We do not have to fulfill the law since Jesus has fulfilled it for us. The law of Moses has not passed away, it has not been discarded, but it has been fulfilled. The law continues to exist for Christians but we are not under the law since it has been fulfilled for us by Jesus Christ. As such we live not bound to the requirements of the law but living in liberty and freedom. This is why we do not offer sacrifice. This is why we can eat shellfish and pigs and other foods forbidden in the law. This is why we are not required to circumcise our sons, why we do not have to have a beard or keep it cut a certain way. We can wear clothing with more than one type of thread in it. On and on – all of the requirements of the law are lifted for us because Christ has fulfilled those requirements. One of the requirements is Sabbath observance. We do not have to observe the Sabbath because it has been fulfilled in Christ.

There are a few places where we can see this in Scripture. One of the clearest is the practice of the Christians throughout the New Testament. Christians worship on the Lord’s Day, Jews gather on the Sabbath. The Christian Lord’s Day practice comes from the fact that Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. Many Jewish believers in the New Testament continued to participate in the Jewish Sabbath, so we find them in the synagogues with the Jews, but this is never commanded. Gentiles who come into the church are never expected to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and they are never commanded to treat the Lord’s Day as though it were the Sabbath.

Paul must have shocked some of his Jewish readers when he wrote in Romans 14:5: One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. Sabbath observance becomes a matter of conscience, not a matter of command. Those who wanted to continue observing the Sabbath were permitted to do so. Those who did not feel it necessary were not required. The Old Testament Sabbath practice was no longer a requirement on the people.

There is something else at work here as well. We are very inconsistent when we seek to follow the Sabbath. Earlier we saw a few of the requirements of the Sabbath, things that could not be done. Most Christians are not consistent in following these. Even driving to church violates the Sabbath for most of us. There is no merit in keeping only part of the law. Likewise there is no merit in keeping only part of a command. Those who want to continue to observe the Sabbath should do so completely. Even a small violation of Sabbath practice means one has violated the whole Sabbath.

So we see that the command to observe the Sabbath is still in effect as part of the Mosaic law, but Christians are not under the law and do not have to fulfill the requirements of the law. If we were obligated to observe the Mosaic Sabbath then we would be obligated to observe all aspects of the Law. Anything else would be inconsistent.

Second, it carries over – and takes on new meaning.

The author of Hebrews wants Christians to understand how the requirements of the Mosaic law are fulfilled in Christ and what this fulfillment means for believers. One of the topics that comes under discussion is the Sabbath. We find this in Hebrews 3:7-4:14.

The passage focuses on 3:11, As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’. This comes from Psalm 95:11 and is a reference to God judging the Israelites in the wilderness by keeping a generation of them out of the promised land. The author if Hebrews makes a connection between the rest we can have as the people of God and the Sabbath, the day of rest given by God. Those who refuse the blessings of God – in this case, those who refuse Jesus Christ – will not enter his rest. But we are told in Hebrews 4:3, For we who have believed enter that rest.

Some have entered that rest, some have not. Those who rebel are not in his rest, those who believe have entered that rest. From all of this we learn that the Old Testament Sabbath points toward a new experience for the believer. There is an eternal Sabbath rest for God’s people. In the discussion on the Jewish Sabbath we noted that Exodus 31:17 speaks of the Sabbath as an eternal sign. This is how the Sabbath carries into eternity. Our rest now as Christians and later in Heaven is an experience of the eternal Sabbath rest God promised in Exodus 31:12-17.

As Christians we live in tension, what has been called the already-but-not-yet. We already experience the joys of eternal life with God but we have not yet entered into it completely. We have already entered into our Sabbath rest but we are not yet enjoying it fully, in Heaven with God. Living now as those who have entered our Sabbath rest, we see that we are already able to rest from our work (4:9-10). The work in mind here is not worldly striving and labor, it is the work of salvation. There is no work for us to do so that we might be saved. We have entered our Sabbath rest, we have entered the grace of Jesus Christ who accomplished for us everything necessary to be saved. We still anticipate the great celebration and full rest of entering Heaven and seeing all striving come to an end, but even now we enjoy the joys of Sabbath rest.

This means we already and always experience a degree of Sabbath fulfillment. We don’t rest on Saturday because every day is our Sabbath. There is something confessional in this. Why don’t we celebrate the Jewish Sabbath? Because for the Christian every day is a day of rest. We have true rest in the Lord every day of the week. We do not enter that rest once a week, but as the writer of Hebrews says, all who believe in Jesus Christ have already – and from now on – entered that rest. We anticipate with eager expectation the full consummation of the Sabbath rest with God in Heaven, but we rejoice that even now we are in our Sabbath rest.

Personal Practice

From all that I have said I hope it is clear that I do not believe there is any expectation in the Bible for Christians to observe the Jewish Sabbath. What Sabbath observance actually serves to do is to place on us a restriction of the Jewish law. It is like the Galatians who wanted to force the issue of circumcision. We are free from the law! Put that requirement down.

That said, I do believe in the value of worship on the Lord’s Day. I appreciate businesses like Chick-fil-A that do not open on Sunday. This allows workers to attend church. I have no general objection to people working on Sunday but I do have a specific objection to people being unable to attend church. This is one reason it is good to have multiple church services throughout the week. Those who are unable to come on Sunday will have other opportunities. Still, I wish more people kept Sunday available as a day of worship. Not as a matter of lawful obligation but as a matter of joy, of privilege, and of necessity. Christians need fellowship with one another, and we need times of community worship. Sunday offers a good opportunity for that.

So I have no issue with someone wanting to do work on Sunday if it does not interfere with church. Work would violate the Jewish Sabbath, but we are not under that law and at any rate have already entered our eternal Sabbath rest. But I have been reminded of another principle of Christian living: thinking not just of what you find acceptable but also of what others find acceptable.

Earlier I quoted Paul in Romans 14:5 where he leaves Sabbath observance as a matter of conscience. But he goes on in Romans 14:13-23 to instruct believers to avoid doing those things that might cause another person to stumble. Some other specific examples he cites are those who object to eating meat and those who object to certain drinks. As Christians there is no biblical prohibition against such things but Paul knows many believers would have a hard time seeing other Christians eating pigs or some such thing. So he says in verse 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. Later, in verse 20, he says: Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. Applied to the Sabbath we could say no day is more significant than another, but do not for the sake of lawn care make another stumble.

Since many do believe Christians should observe the Sabbath and would be distressed by those who do not observe the Sabbath, wisdom and love should lead us to be careful in how we act. I hope and pray Christians come to a biblical understanding of the Sabbath but it will not help people have that understanding by displaying my liberty without explaining it. Much better to restrain the exercise of liberty – to treat the Sabbath (or, more specifically, the Lord’s Day) as they expect me to while I try to help them see what the Bible says about Christians, the law, and the Sabbath. In the future I will be more careful with what I do on Sunday.

One of my very favorite songs, unfortunately I have trouble finding anyone singing it. But that doesn’t stop me from singing it to myself! And now, dear reader, I sing it to you.

I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me.
It was not I that found O Savior true;
No, I was found of Thee.

I find, I walk, I love, but oh, the whole
Of love is but my answer, Lord, to Thee!
For Thou wert long beforehand with my soul
Always Thou lovest me.

Thou didst reach forth Thy hand and mine enfold;
I walked and sank not on the storm vexed sea
‘Twas not so much that I on Thee took hold,
As Thou, dear Lord, on me.

I find, I walk, I love, but oh, the whole
Of love is but my answer, Lord, to Thee!
For Thou wert long beforehand with my soul
Always Thou lovest me.

You can find the music and a demo track here.