By: General James Green
“The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). It was made for man’s benefit. Nothing wrong with that! But to say that the weekly sabbath commandment is a universal command for all time, is going farther than any definition Jesus intended to give it. Yet some go so far as to claim that the weekly sabbath commandment was made for ALL men—the WHOLE human race; some even say it will remain a command for eternity. Referring to the word “man” in Mark 2:27, they claim that the original Greek is in “generic” form, which means it signifies “mankind”—ALL men, rather than just certain men. Their claim is faulty for two main reasons:
(1) They are not studying the sabbath commandment from its foundation or first institution.
(2) They are not aligning their interpretation to the other New Testament Scriptures that speak about the sabbath.
First of all, they are not considering the context of the Old Testament, which clearly establishes the weekly sabbath commandment as a special commandment for the ancient nation of Israel. Look at the first Biblical reference on the weekly sabbath commandment. It is not Genesis chapter one, for there you will find nothing about a “commandment” (as we have studied already). Turn to Exodus 16, and there you will discover that the weekly sabbath commandment was instituted for ancient Israel; it was thus given specifically to ancient Israel.
Dishonesty and ignorance motivate those who do not base their interpretation of the sabbath law on the law itself. Study the law and see that the LORD gave it especially and ONLY to ancient Israel! Nothing in the Old Testament points to a universal weekly sabbath commandment.
Second of all, they are not considering the context of the New Testament, which clearly shows that the weekly sabbath commandment is not binding and is not obligatory for the Christian to maintain. Jesus came to fulfill the sabbath. By His suffering, death, and resurrection, He brought us into a new and living way—into the spiritual reality of the sabbath (see Hebrews 4). As the New Testament Scriptures say, the sabbath was merely a shadow and Christ Jesus is the substance: “…the sabbath days…are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17). CHRIST IS OUR “SABBATH”!
Jesus Christ the Lord is the one we worship EVERY DAY, not just on a Saturday or Sunday. Jesus was sent so all men could find daily rest and spiritual reality in Him. It is in Him that ALL men may experience the substance of the sabbath, and in that way, since Christ is accessible to everyone, the sabbath was made for universal mankind; but this fact still denies the claim of those who try to make the Old Testament commandment a universal one. Nothing in the New Testament points to a continuation for the Old Testament weekly sabbath commandment, but rather shows its clear fulfillment, and so nothing points to a universal weekly sabbath commandment.
Matthew 12:8 is a relief to us. Yes, Jesus is Lord of every day! As we are in Him, we may follow Him in the substance of the New Testament rather than be bound to the observance of an Old Testament shadow. Still the religious people are telling us that we have to go back under the shadow or we are committing some unnamed sin! LIARS! We say again, we have our sabbath substance in Christ.
How vain for a man to give himself bodily rest by religiously observing a “sabbath” one day a week, when he does not fellowship, pray to, and worship Jesus Christ the Lord every day! Some so-called sabbath-keeping is really stupid, anyway. People go to ball games; they eat out at restaurants or in the parks among the sinful men of the world; in fact, they do whatever pleases the flesh—whatever is “rest” to them.
We are not saying that Christians should not “rest” or have specific times dedicated to special services and worship. We are saying that there is no scriptural backing for the belief in a universal/remaining sabbath commandment. Find your rest in the substance, not the shadow. Follow Jesus every day, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.