Sabbath

Introduction

Seventh-day Adventists keep the Sabbath because Jesus proclaimed Himself "Lord of the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:8). He created the world in six days and rested the seventh day in memorial of His finished work. Every Friday sundown, when we set aside our unfinished works for the week and enter into Sabbath rest, we express faith in the completed accomplishments of our Lord Jesus Christ.

At Calvary, Jesus completed another life-giving accomplishment for us on the sixth day of the week: His finished work of salvation. As the Friday afternoon sun was setting, Christ proclaimed with His dying breath, "It is finished!" (John 19:30). This was not a cry of despair but the triumphal announcement of His victory on our behalf over sin and death and the devil. Then once again He rested on the seventh-day Sabbath in honor of His finished work. And again, when we set aside our works every week on Friday sunset and enter into His rest, we express our solidarity with Christ's accomplishments for our salvation.

The Sabbath is like baptism--an expression of identification with Christ for our salvation. Whereas baptism is a once-in-a-lifetime expression of our solidarity with Christ, the Sabbath is a weekly expression of the same faith.

Some Christians say we don't need to keep the seventh-day Sabbath because "Jesus is our Sabbath." We ask: "So is Jesus your baptism too? Do you believe that you don't need to believe in baptism because Jesus is your baptism?"

No, baptism and the Sabbath are not Jesus Himself (let’s not Deify them) but symbols of entering His salvation.

Many Christians stumble over certain texts in the New Testament that I explain in the following posted chapters, "Sabbath Rest in Christ" and "Cathy the Hostage Housewife.” “Toxic Christianity” explains how the early church lost its experience of seventh-day Sabbath rest because of backsliding into legalism.