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Frequently Asked Questions About The Sabbath

(Bible quotations are from the ESV)

8.  Doesn't  Romans 14:5 say each man is free to keep whatever day he wants, whether Sabbath or Sunday or another day?

9.  Didn't Jesus replace the Ten Commandments with just one new one in John 15:12?

10.  What about 1 John 3:23?  Doesn't it say Jesus' commandments today are only to believe in Christ and love one another?

11.  Didn't Jesus himself break the Sabbath in John 5:18?

12.  How does law-keeping square with the NT emphasis on Grace?  And aren't Jesus' commands "higher" than the Ten Commandments?

13.  Why keep the Sabbath, but not the festivals of Israel or other parts of the Law of Moses

For additional information:

See questions 1-3                   

See questions 4-7

8.  Doesn't  Romans 14:5 say each man is free to keep whatever day he wants, whether Sabbath or Sunday or another day?

Neither Sabbath nor the first day of the week is mentioned in this passage. Since the verse is sandwiched between verses dealing with the issue of vegetarianism (v.1-3 and v. 6f.), probably some believers esteemed certain days as "better" (v. 5) in the sense of being dedicated to the eating of vegetables only (meat being considered by them, "unclean," v. 14, on such days). This may have been in connection with contemporary Jewish observance of days of fasting (when some Jews abstained from both meat and wine; cf. v. 21). Paul treated such observances as a matter of different "opinions" (v. 1) upon which judgment was not to be passed, while he also stated the overall principle in Rom. 14:17 that, "the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." The 4th Commandment was never a matter of eating and drinking.  It is not in view in this chapter.  Back to Top

9.  Didn't Jesus replace the Ten Commandments with just one new one in John 15:12?

Even if that were true (which it is not), 1 John 5:2-3 reminds us that loving God's children means loving God, means obeying what God commandments.  Back to Top

10.  What about 1 John 3:23?  Doesn't it say Jesus' commandments today are only to believe in Christ and love one another?

Taking that verse to be exclusive (i.e., to mean that all Jesus requires of believers is to believe in him and love one another) would be making Jesus say we should ignore what he himself identifies in Matt. 22:37-38 as the "great and first commandment": "You shall love the Lord your God." Obviously the words in 1 Jn. 3:23 mean something like, "This is one of the commandments I'm giving you," not, "This is/these are all the commandments I'm giving you." Back to Top

11.  Didn't Jesus himself break the Sabbath in John 5:18?

This verse merely states the opinion of the Scribes and Pharisees, who were angry with Jesus because he had healed a man on the Sabbath.  Jesus had not broken God's Sabbath.  He had broken theirs.  (In Matt. 12:2 they accused Jesus' disciples of breaking the Sabbath because they had picked some heads of grain to eat.   Again, this was breaking their rules for the Sabbath, not God's.  Jesus said they were condemning "the guiltless," v. 7.) Back to Top

12.  How does law-keeping square with the NT emphasis on Grace?  And aren't Jesus' commands "higher" than the Ten Commandments?

Salvation is by Grace, but discipleship is a matter of obedience. The NT emphasizes discipleship, and sanctification and obedience--as well as salvation. Shall we not obey God, who loves us, and Christ, who died for us? It comes down to what Jesus said: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15, and see v. 21). Chief among Jesus' commandments were the two upon which depend "all the Law and the Prophets" (the entire OT)[2] in terms of the love they require for God and one's neighbor (Matt. 22:34-40). Love for one's neighbor "sums up" the last six of the Ten Commandments (Rom. 13:8-10), just as love for God sums up the first four.[3] So if we love Jesus, we will obey the Ten Commandments in the spirit in which Jesus summarized them--including the 4th Commandment to, "remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Ex. 20:8).

Jesus' commands are therefore not in opposition to the Ten Commandments. They provide a basis for summarizing the Ten in terms of the deeper heart-motivation which the New Covenant enables believers to show in keeping them. A summary does not contradict what it summarizes, and neither does Jesus' command to love God contradict those first four Commandments by which love for God is to be shown. To set the Son's commands against the Father's is to reject the direct teaching of Jesus, who said, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word... The word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me" (Jn. 14:23-24). Back to Top

13.  Why keep the Sabbath, but not the festivals of Israel or other parts of the Law of Moses?

(Also see answers to questions #6 and #7, above.)

The Ten Commandments and other moral teachings of the Old Testament (Deut. 6:5, Lev. 19:18, Matt. 22:24-40) have their permanence in the character of God, whose goodness is eternal and unchanging (Luke 18:19; James 1:17; 1 John 1:5 & 4:7-8). They deal with actions that are always good (like the love of God, Deut. 6:5 and Matt. 22:37) or always evil (like murder, Exodus 20:13 and Matt. 5:21-22).  That is not equally true of the ritual and ceremonial aspects of the Law of Moses.[4] At the heart of them were the Temple sacrifices and the feast days designed around those sacrifices, by which Israel was cleansed from sin (Lev. 23:4-37). Though the Sabbath temporarily shared ritual offerings with these days, it was distinguished from them.  (In Lev. 23:3, the Sabbath is distinguished from the list of feasts that is announced in v. 4, and Lev. 23:37-38 says later; “These are the appointed feasts… besides the LORD’s Sabbaths“).

Believers today do not need to participate any longer in these rituals (Heb. 10:1; Gal. 4:10-11). In Christ's sacrifice, the Passover lamb was offered once and for all time (1 Cor. 5:7, 1 Pet. 1:18-19), and a blood better than that of the bull and goat of the Day of Atonement was shed, ending the need for such sacrifices to ever be made again (Heb. 9:11-14, 24-26; Heb. 10:18). The ceremonial provisions of the law accompanying these have also ceased to be necessary. Their gifts and sacrifices, "deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation" (Heb. 9:10). Believers today owe no obligation to such regulations, which are set aside (like the priesthood of Melchizedek) because of their "weakness and uselessness" (Heb. 7:18). We relate to God under the new covenant in Christ. "In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away." (Heb. 8:13).

The ministry of Christ as High Priest and mediator of a new covenant marks a change in the Law ("For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well," Heb. 7:12).  The results can be seen in such places as  Mark 7:19, Acts 15:10-11, 2 Cor. 3:7-17, Gal. 4:8-11 and Gal. 5:2-4. The Sabbath, however, was not changed (except that the Temple offerings, which it temporarily shared with new moons and feast days, were made no longer necessary --Col. 2:16). In this sense, the Sabbath is no more Jewish than monogamous marriage (Gen. 2:18, 24) or belief in one God. Back to Top