Question 117. How is the Sabbath or Lord's Day to be kept holy?

 

Question 117. How is the Sabbath or Lord's Day to be kept holy?

Answer. The Sabbath or Lord's Day is to be sanctified by a holy rest all the day; not only by ceasing from sinful works, but also from worldly employments and amusements, which are lawful on other days; but by delighting to devote the whole time, except such as are spent in works of necessity and charity, to the public and private worship. To that end we are to prepare our hearts, and to regulate and properly dispose of our worldly business beforehand, so that we may be more free and moderate in the duties of the Lord's Day.

 

In Exodus 31:12-14, it says, "Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Say to the Israelites, 'Verily my Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath day, because it is holy to you. Everyone who defiles it shall surely be put to death; whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from his people."

Numbers 15:33-36 says, "So those who found the man gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation, but they were not told what to do with him, so they put him in custody. Then the LORD said to Moses, 'The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.' So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD had commanded Moses."

In Matthew 2:23-24, “As Jesus was walking through the grainfields on the Sabbath, his disciples began to pick heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look! Why are they doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?’”

The Pharisees are saying that Jesus' disciples broke the regulations of the law. However, Jesus said in Matthew 12:8, "For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." Those who are in Christ have already entered the Sabbath. Therefore, those who say, "We must keep the Sabbath day holy" will surely die by the law if they break it even once.

Through the provisions of the Sabbath in the law, believers must realize that all people do not have true rest, repent, and enter into Christ. Jesus was born into this world according to the requirements of the law, died according to the requirements of the law, and was resurrected, so he cannot come again according to the requirements of the law to save people.

Therefore, those who believe in Jesus believe that they died with Jesus according to the law and that they will be resurrected. Those who still think and act according to the law are admitting that they did not die with Jesus under the law. The apostle Paul said that being baptized means being buried with Jesus Christ on the cross and being united with the resurrection to receive new life. Those who believe in Jesus believe that they died in union with Jesus Christ. The death is death under the law.

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