Putting your faith in Christ means that you utterly renounce any other hope of being counted righteous before God. Do you find yourself trusting in your own good works? Faith means admitting that they are woefully insufficient, and trusting Christ alone. Do you find yourself trusting what you understand to be your good heart? Faith means acknowledging that your heart is not good at all, and trusting Christ alone. To put it another way, it means jumping off the edge of the pool and saying, “Jesus, if you don’t catch me, I’m done. I’ve no other hope, no other savior. Save me Jesus, or I die.” That is faith.

- Greg Gilbert, What Is The Gospel?

Traditionally, in the Reformed world, the Sabbath has been held in high esteem.  The 1689 London Baptist Confession (which I substantially agree with) states:

As it is the law of nature, that in general a proportion of time, by God’s appointment, be set apart for the worship of God, so by his Word, in a positive moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men, in all ages, he has particularly appointed one day in seven for a sabbath to be kept holy unto him,28 which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week, and from the resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which is called the Lord’s Day:29 and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath, the observation of the last day of the week being abolished.

28 Exod. 20:8

29 1 Cor. 16:1,2; Acts 20:7; Rev. 1:10

Personally, I agree with the early church fathers as well as  contemporary theologians who believe Scripture teaches that the Sabbath, as a day, is no longer binding on the believer. The observance of an actual Sabbath day is no longer mandatory for believers. Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath (Col 2:17, Hebrews 4). Jesus is our Sabbath rest.

That said, I do believe there is a Sabbath principle that believers are wise to apply to their own lives.

The London Baptist Confession goes on to state:

The Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering their common affairs aforehand, do not only observe a holy rest all day, from their own works, words and thoughts, about their worldly employment and recreations,30 but are also taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.31

30 Isa. 58:13; Neh. 13:15-22

31 Matt. 12:1-13

While perhaps some have applied the Sabbath principle legalistically and rigidly, that doesn’t mean we should throw it out all together. We do well to observe it. We do well to observe a day of rest from our ordinary employment and recreations. We do well on this day of rest to give ourselves to public and private acts of worship. We do well to carry out duties of necessity and mercy.

Notice, the emphasis of the Sabbath isn’t “enjoy recreation” (though that is not excluded). The emphasis is worship.  Therefore,  as an act of worship, it is right and good to serve Jesus together on the Lord’s Day. It is right and good to show mercy and kindness to others. It is right and good to spend the Lord’s Day with fellow believers  – resting in Jesus together.

To wrap up – hear these words from John Piper:

We taste the final rest only in part as we trust in Christ. Therefore the Sabbath principle was not abandoned by the early church. The shadow of Christ across this weary world still offers shade, namely, the first day of the week—the Lord’s day. And the meaning of that day is that Jesus is risen and Jesus is Lord and Jesus is Creator and Jesus is Redeemer and Jesus is the only place of rest for the soul. It’s a day for worshipping Jesus. It’s a day for saying by what we do and don’t do that Jesus, not our work and not the money we get from our work, is our treasure and our meaning. It is a special day for the honor and the glory of the Lord. A day for mercy and for man.

May we  enjoy the Sabbath, the Lord’s Day – not to earn God’s favor or love, but for the good of our souls, the building of His church and the glory of His name.

Chris

Note

See Great sermon from John Piper here on the Sabbath.

The sermon ends with these recommendations

1. Accept the gift of one day’s rest a week. Humble yourself to believe you need it. And be willing to admit that your wealth and your significance and your true advancement in life depend far more on God’s labor than on yours.

2. Devote one day a week to focus your attention on God in a special way. Keep a holy day and devote yourself to those things that deepen your love for God.

3. Except where you think obedience to God requires otherwise, let that day of rest and Godward focus be on the first day of the week as a witness to the world that Jesus Christ is the Lord of your sabbath and of your life.

4. For those of you who are free in your conscience to extend your holy exercises forward into Saturday night, let’s dream together of new ways to sanctify Sunday morning. Could it be that the Lord is leading you to new dimensions of prayer, or new hours of personal Bible study, or new deeds of mercy for the poor, or Sunday morning visitation to a shut-in, or perhaps a home evangelistic Bible study for neighbors who would not come to church but might come to your home? Can you think of any better time to reach your neighbors with the gospel than between 10 and 12 on Sunday morning? Who knows—maybe the city will find its way to Bethlehem on Saturday night, or maybe Saturday night will free up the saints to reach the city on Sunday morning? If any of you has a sheep that falls into a pit on the sabbath, will you not reach in and pull it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good—all kinds of good—on Sunday morning.