Christ, the Hope of the Sabbath

When God had put everything in its place: the heavenly host, the creatures populating the water and dry land, he ceased from his labors. All was perfect. The human beings were directed to take hold of the potential of what God had made and use it wisely for creation’s benefit and God’s glory. Alas, they were not content with what had been granted them and they rejected God’s story for their own. But God always has the first word and the last. He intends to re-establish, and even surpass, that original peace when he dwelt in perfect harmony with all that he had made.

To carry out that plan he initiated covenants. Promises made to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Israel, and David, all led to the coming of the Redeemer, the one “born of the seed of the woman.” The particular covenant made with Israel had a unique component. They were told to keep the Sabbath, not doing any work on the seventh day, for the LORD “blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:11). God gave two rationales for expecting this of them: he had ceased from his work on the seventh day, and they were to remember that he had delivered them from the bondage of Egypt. As such, the Sabbath represented on the one hand the rest that had been scorned and on the other the gracious hope that had been set before them in the gospel. When they obeyed the Sabbath, they declared to all the world that they knew where history was headed.

When the promised Redeemer came, he declared himself “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28). His lordship was evident in his correcting the accretions to the command made by the Pharisees. Most importantly, his lordship over the Sabbath was realized in his being the one to whom the command pointed, for the hope of dwelling in perfect harmony with God is possessed by all who believe in him (Hebrews 4:11). In the blood of the Promised One a New Covenant was initiated. And as the redemptive purpose of the Sabbath had been fulfilled, its demands were nailed to the cross. 

Though the Sabbath no longer binds the people of God, the consummation that it pointed to is yet to be realized. The church, like Israel before her, has an obligation to direct people’s eyes toward the end of all things. Our faithful participation in the worship of the Lord of the Sabbath, and our persistent pursuit of our new selves, will direct our watching neighbors to the reality of the hope set before them in the gospel. Let us not, therefore, neglect “to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25).

A Christmas Primer: Lesson 4, The Mystery and Mercy of Christmas

We know from personal experience the outrage felt when laws are wantonly disobeyed and the disobedience is met with a shrug. It roils the soul. We instinctively know that lawbreaking should not go unpunished otherwise laws would be meaningless. What is true in earthly justice, is true in the heavenly. From the beginning human beings have been breaking God’s law, and to allow such lawbreaking to go unpunished would make a mockery of the law and of the One who established it.

Though everyone from the first has been receiving the just penalty for lawbreaking, death, there is yet a day when the full force of the sentence will be carried out. When will that be? On the Day of Judgment. On that Day all lawbreaking will be brought before the Judge and dealt with according to the rule of His law. Every person will have to give an answer, to make a defense, and none will be found righteous, “no, not one” (Romans 3:10). Unless . . . unless they are found to be “in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

God has acted to provide evidence that the guilty can present to the Judge to escape condemnation. He has sent His Son to fulfill the law and allow those who place their trust in the Him to have His fulfillment of the law put on their account, therefore wiping out their record of lawbreaking (Romans 8:3). This representative accomplishment of the law’s demands is a gift of God’s mercy.

But what kind of person could this be who could actually accomplish all righteousness and so stand in our place on the Day? It would have to be one, as the Heidelberg Catechism teaches, who is “a true and righteous man and yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is at the same time true God” (Q. 15). This is the mystery and mercy of Christmas. The baby born in Bethlehem had been sent to be Immanuel (God with us) so that he might be Jesus (Yahweh saves). God seeing our lost condition fully enters into our existence to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. In this, God is shown to be “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). May we give thanks this Christmas for his grace.