Genesis 2:2-3: “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it (holy), because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done”.
Exodus 20:8-11
God makes the Sabbath a command, saying, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God”.
Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28). By keeping this day we are declaring that Jesus is our Lord. It is a way we honor and worship Him.
The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). We are physical creatures and we often find ourselves tired or weary from the challenges of life. The Sabbath was created to give us rest. It gives us opportunity to recharge so that we can function correctly the other six days of the week. It is how the Creator made us. It is a wonderful gift from God that we should rejoice at the wisdom He had in its creation. Importantly, you can only understand how great this gift is by keeping it.
Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures” (Acts 17:2). On several occasions we see Paul keeping the Sabbath. This is the same man who wrote 28 percent of the New Testament. In his letters he continually emphasized the importance of keeping the law for Christians. Not for the purpose of salvation but in response to our salvation through Christ. “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12). He was a Sabbath keeper and understood its importance in our relationship with Jesus.
In the book of Luke we learn that the women who were at the crucifixion of Jesus afterward prepared spices and fragrant oils to anoint His body. Then “they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56). Luke wrote this account at least thirty years later. Notice that he does not refer to it as “the former Sabbath” or “the Jewish Sabbath” but as a commandment in the present tense. And this was after His crucifixion, a point in time where some believe the commandment was changed.
In referring to the future event that will precede the great tribulation, Jesus advises to “pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath” (Matthew 24:20). If there was no longer going to be a Sabbath command after His resurrection, why would He make this statement? The answer is simple. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
I suggest you read Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 5:1-11) is only the beginning. The Ten Commandments are eternal. Read Genesis, and you will find that people were judged before the tablets were engraved. The Ten Commandments had to be obeyed in the Old Testament, but that was changed when Jesus gave His life for our sins.
Matthew 11:28 is His invitation to us, and John 3:1-15 tells us what is required from us, while John 3:16-21 tells us what and how God has done to make it possible.
I have started putting together a study of the New Testament using the
New American Standard Bible 1995 (this is considered the most accurate English translation) while replacing chapter and verse numbers with an outline.
It feels nice reading the full account of a teaching or event.
At 88 yo I don’t expect to complete it.
Actually, Deuteronomy says otherwise. And if that’s not enough, Christ taught the 10 Commandments. In fact, He created them, taught them, obeyed them perfectly (as an example to us of how to live righteously) and His closest followers (the 1st Christians) obeyed them even after His death on the Cross - specifically the Sabbath Commandment.
Why do you say the 10 Commandments are eternal and then say that they don’t have to be obeyed anymore after Christ’s death? Quite a contradiction. The 10 Commandments are the foundation of the Christian Faith. Christ made it very clear that all Christians are to obey them, just as He did.
Are we not to live and walk as Christ did? Did He not obey them perfectly as an example to us?
This position on the Commandments is taught in most churches, but it is not taught anywhere in the Bible. Jesus did not teach this at all. On the contrary, He taught that the 10 Commandments were to be obeyed by anyone who calls themselves after His Name: Christians.
The 10 Commandments are NOT the foundation of the Christian Faith! Jesus Christ is the foundation for all Christians.
The OT law, including the ten commandments, is not applicable to Christians. You can’t be under the law and have God’s grace in your life simultaneously. Galatians 2:19
25 And Moses goes down to the people and speaks to them. 1 And God speaks all these words, saying, 2 “I [am] your God YHWH, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of a house of servants.
Exodus 19:25 - 20:2
These laws bind the descendants of those whom YHWH brought out of Egypt. No others. And though YHWH did bring ancestors of my own flesh out of Egypt, Christ the Lord commands us to consider otherwise for our identities:
and you may not call [any] your father on the earth, for one is your Father, who is in the heavens,
Matthew 23:9
Well, it looks like there’s a bit of confusion in that understanding. Christ is 100% the foundation of the Christian Faith. We can agree there. Are you not aware of Christ’s teachings about the 10 Commandments, and what is taught in the Gospels concerning that?
Here again, we have a problem with your statement relative to Biblical doctrine.
Nowhere did Christ teach that obedience to God’s Commandments places us under the Law. And not only did Moses make clear that the Decalogue, given at Sinai, was for all who would ever come to love and follow the God of the Bible, but Christ made it absolutely plain.
Shall we venture into all the verses that develop those facts?
I’d rather not be present for yet more piles of reasonings. I would much rather read that which is written, where it is written that those laws are between God and the children of Israel and no one else.
You are quoting a verse and then making claims about the verse afterward that aren’t supported by the verse.
Observe the presentation of the 10 Commandments by Moses at Sinai. Look at what he actually says here:
Deut. 29:10-11, 14-15
Blockquote
"10 Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water:
14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;
15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:"
Blockquote
(I don’t understand how the quote format works here)
It is very evident that Moses specified in these verses that the 10 Commandments given at Sinai were not given only to one race of people. They were being presented even to “the strangers” who were present (non-Israelites) and to all who were not present that day - to all who would ever come to love and seek the God of the Bible and would intend to follow His Law.
Ok, JB, so you don’t agree that the OT makes any case that the Decalogue was given to anybody but the Israelites present at Sinai, despite the verses that I posted. (Deut. 29:10-11, 14-15)
So what is your position on Jesus creating them (Jn. 1:1,3,14), teaching them (Matt. 5:19-20; 23:1-3) and obeying them (Jn. 15:10) and His followers obeying them after His death on the Cross (Lk. 23:54-56)(Acts 21:24)?
To be honest, we could effectively throw out all of the evidence from the OT and just go by what Jesus said and did regarding the 10 Commandments and still have a rock solid case for the obedience of all Christians to the 10 Commandments.
It’s very interesting to observe, how absolutely none of your quotations describe Christ the Lord obeying, citing, or recommending obedience to the Ten Commandments.
It’s useful to note, that the first and second greatests commandments according to the Lord, are none of the Ten.
No. I understand the new covenant. Christians are not under the law. We have a new covenant, purchased with Christ’s blood, which sets us totally free from the law.
We are IN CHRIST so if we are under the law, so is He. Is that what you believe?