Here are 12 biblical arguments for the perpetuity of the Sabbath Day throughout human history.
1.) God’s act on the seventh day of creation set an example for all mankind to follow.
Someone may be thinking, “God may have rested on, blessed, and sanctified the seventh day of creation. But that was only for Himself. He nowhere says His creative action becomes our moral example to follow.” Genesis 2 may not explicitly tell us this. But other places of Scripture shed additional light on Genesis 2 and tell us this. Two passages (which will come up later) are Exodus 20:11 and Mark 2:27.
In Exodus 20:11, the Israelites are told to rest on every seventh day precisely because God rested on the seventh day of creation. And in Mark 2:27, Jesus says that the Sabbath Day was specifically and intentionally made by God for mankind.
God’s action comes to us as an example to imitate and a command to follow. John Frame comments, “. . . When God took his own rest from his creative labors and rested on the seventh day, which he hallowed and blessed, he also hallowed and blessed a human Sabbath, a Sabbath for man (Mark 2:27). In other words, when God blessed his own Sabbath rest in Genesis 2:3, he blessed it as a model for human imitation. So Israel is to keep the Sabbath, because in Genesis 2:2-3 God hallowed and blessed man’s Sabbath as well as his own.”[1]
2.) The Sabbath is a creation ordinance for all people, not just a Mosaic ordinance for Jewish people.
Genesis 2:2-3: 2 And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation.
It is clear from this passage that the Sabbath Day is a creation ordinance. This means it was established at the beginning of the creation of the world.
The same is true for the institution of day and night and the seasons (Genesis 1:14-19), marriage (Genesis 2:17-25), the covenant of works (Genesis 2:15-17), and the dominion mandate (Genesis 1:28-30). These things remain in effect for as long as the original heaven and earth stand. This must also be true of the Sabbath Day. It will not pass away until heaven and earth pass away at the second coming of Jesus Christ.
3.) The weekly Sabbath serves as a sign in this age which points to an eternal Sabbath rest in the age to come.
God designed the Sabbath Day in His original creation as a sign which points to the Sabbath Age in His new creation. In a very real sense, the Sabbath Day is a foretaste of heaven. The rest one experiences on that day points forward to the rest one will experience for all eternity.
Originally, this was all wrapped up in the covenant of works given to Adam to fulfill as the representative of the whole human race. He was to obey God’s law and observe the weekly Sabbath in anticipation of experiencing God’s eternal Sabbath rest for himself and all creation. He failed to do this, but Christ as the second Adam has accomplished this. He obeyed God’s law on earth, entered into God’s rest in glory, and secured God’s rest for all who trust in Him.
Therefore, the weekly Sabbath serves as a reminder to all people in this present age that when Christ returns in glory, He will bring in the eternal Sabbath rest to this world. And only those who are in Christ will enter that rest!
4.) The seven-day weekly cycle that God established at creation (this includes the Sabbath Day) was known by the patriarchs.
The lives of the patriarchs were structured according to the seven-day week.
This is expressly true with Noah:
- Genesis 7:4: For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.
- Genesis 7:10: And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
- Genesis 8:10: He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.
- Genesis 8:12: Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
And Laban and Jacob:
- Genesis 29:27-28: 27Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.” 28Jacob did so, and completed her week.
5.) The Sabbath was observed before the specific command was given in the 10 Commandments.
Exodus 16:22-30: 22On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23he said to them, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’” 24So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. 25Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field. 26Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.” 27On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. 28And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? 29See! The LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day He gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30So the people rested on the seventh day.
6.) The fourth commandment is not just one of observance but is also of remembrance, which implies the Israelites already knew it and were observing it before the Old Covenant was established.
Deuteronomy 5:12: Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.
Exodus 20:8: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
Although remembering here involves not forgetting something in the future, it also entails recalling something that already happened in the past.
The Israelites were to remember God’s instructions to them about the Sabbath Day just days before recorded in Exodus 16. But the context is clear in Exodus 20 that they were to remember God’s institution of the Sabbath Day thousands of years before recorded in Genesis 2:3.
7.) The reason the Israelites were to keep the fourth commandment is rooted in creation, not just redemption from Egypt.
Deuteronomy 5:15: You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
Exodus 20:11: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Exodus 31:17: It is a sign forever between Me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.
Moses points the Israelites back to the action of God in redeeming them from Egypt as a reason to remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. But he also points them back even farther to the pattern and example of God in the creation of the world as a reason to obey this commandment.
8.) The fourth commandment is included in the 10 Commandments, which are all natural/moral and perpetual laws.
The 10 Commandments must be seen as a unit. They are the 10 words written by the finger of God on two stone tablets. They are the reflection of God’s holy nature and the summary of God’s will for all mankind. Though they can be distinguished, they cannot be separated. And they certainly cannot be eradicated!
Why then do so many Christians believe they can conveniently cut out the fourth commandment from their ethical behavior? How can they say that commands 1-3 and 5-10 are binding on everyone but say command 4 is not? If you affirm the perpetuity of one of the 10 Commandments, you must affirm the perpetuity of them all!
9.) The OT prophesies that in the latter days the Sabbath would not be abolished but would be kept by all of God’s people, including Gentile believers (i.e., “the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD”).
Isaiah 56:1-8: 1Thus says the LORD: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon My salvation will come, and My righteousness be revealed. 2Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” 3Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from His people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” 4For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who choose the things that please Me and hold fast My covenant, 5I will give in My house and within My walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. 6“And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to Him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be His servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast My covenant—7these I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” 8The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to Him besides those already gathered.”
God is speaking prophetically in OT terms. But He is speaking about the latter days of the gospel when He will bring Jew and Gentile together on His holy mountain. And those worshipers of God on that day will keep the Sabbath and not profane it!
Richard Barcellos comments, “Isaiah is speaking prophetically of Sabbath-keeping during the era of the inaugurated new covenant. The English John Bunyan, commenting on Isaiah 56, said, ‘Also it follows from hence, that the sabbath that has a promise annexed to the keeping of it, is rather that which the Lord Jesus shall give to the churches of the Gentiles.’ Bunyan sees Isaiah 56 speaking prophetically of that which is given to the church by Christ. I think he is right.”[2]
10.) Jesus, who is the Lord of the Sabbath, says the Sabbath was made for man in general, not just for the Jews in particular.
Mark 2:27-28: 27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
With Jesus’ choice of the generic Greek word for “man” (anthropos) and the way He is arguing, it seems that He has in mind the creation account to show that the Sabbath was made by God for mankind’s good. Albert Barnes states, “Man was made ‘first,’ and then the Sabbath was appointed for his welfare, Genesis 2:1-3. The Sabbath was not ‘first’ made or contemplated, and then the man made with reference to that.”[3] If it was made for Adam, the representative of the whole human race, it was made for everyone, both Jew and Gentile.
11.) The NT considers the Sabbath part of “the commandments”.
Luke 23:56: “Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.”
The Greek word for “commandment” here is entolé. Although it is used in various ways in the NT, one main way is to refer to the 10 Commandments.
- Commandments 1-10 (Matthew 5:19; 1 Corinthians 7:19)
- Commandments 1-4 (Matthew 22:36-38)
- Commandments 5-10 (Matthew 22:39; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:18-23; Romans 13:9)
- Commandment 5 (Matthew 15:3-4; Ephesians 6:1-3)
- Commandment 10 (Romans 7:7-13)
This is especially true in the Synoptic Gospels. Out of the 16 times it is used, 12 of them refer to the 10 Commandments. And it seems probable here in Luke 23:56 that this is one of those places. Luke extols the holy faith of Jesus’ female disciples in their Sabbath-keeping, which is seen in their obeying the commandment of God in Exodus 20:8, even waiting to anoint the dead body of their Lord until the next day!
This passage teaches us that Sabbath-keeping is not merely ceremonial but moral and on the same level as the other 9 Commandments.
12.) The Sabbath principle continues to be in effect for the New Covenant people of God.
Hebrews 4:9: “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”
“The people of God” here refers to those Christ died for (2:17) and those who experience all the blessings of the New Covenant (8:8-13). There remains for them a Sabbath rest.
This is either speaking of a future Sabbath rest, an already/not yet Sabbath rest, or a present Sabbath rest. It could be saying, “There remains a heavenly rest for us to look forward to” OR “There remains a salvation rest for us to initially enjoy now but more later on” OR “There presently remains a Sabbath rest for us to keep”.
Which one is it? Although I think all three statements are theologically correct and weaved into Hebrews 3-4, I think the most probable interpretation of this verse is that it is speaking of the present-day practice of Sabbath-keeping for the NT church.
Why do I think this is the case?
1.) The other uses of the phrase “there remains” in the book of Hebrews (Hebrews 4:1, 6; 10:26) have at least a present element to them and it is no different here (there [now] remains).
2.) The Greek noun translated “Sabbath rest” [sabbatismos] literally means “Sabbath keeping” or “Sabbath observance”. When its related forms are used in the LXX (Exodus 16:30; Leviticus 23:32; 26:34-35; 2 Chronicles 36:21) and Apocrypha (2 Maccabees 6:6), it refers to the practice and activity of observing the Sabbath.
3.) The reason that there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God (v. 10) seems to be based on two previous rests which God took: One after the old creation was finished and one after the new creation was finished.
Hebrews 4:10 (NKJV): “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.”
- First rest: God ceased from His work of creation (“as God did from His”)
- Second rest: Christ ceased from His work of salvation (“He who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from His works”)
Since God rested from His work of creation on the seventh day, and since Christ the God-man rested from His work of re-creation on the first day at His resurrection from the dead, I think the NT people of God are being told to follow this pattern and rest from our works on a weekly basis to remember the works of creation and redemption and to ready themselves for God’s eternal rest in glory.
[1] John Frame, The Doctrine of the Christian Life, 532-533, quoted from Barcellos’ Getting the Garden Right.
[2] Richard Barcellos, Getting the Garden Right, 194.
[3] Albert Barnes, comments on Mark 2:27.
