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Keeping the Sabbath is a commandment God gave exclusively to the Israelites as a token of His covenant with them.

Actually, there are several reasons why Christians still need to observe the Sabbath:
  • God's commandments remain
    The Sabbath was instituted since the beginning (Gen 2:1-3; Ex 20:11), even before the Israelite nation existed. Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man (Mk 2:27), not only for the Jews. The words of God were entrusted first to the chosen people of the Old Testament (Rom 3:1-2) and are passed on to the chosen people of God of the New Testament (see Acts 7:38).The Ten Commandments and laws were never abolished; they still need to be kept by Christians today (Lk 18:18-20; 1 Cor 7:19; 1 Jn 5:2-3; Rev 14:12).
  • Jesus and His apostles observed the Sabbath
    Luke was not a circumcised advocate for the law (see Col 4:10-14; note verse 11), and being a co-worker with Paul, he could not have preached the Mosaic Law. Yet he specifically mentioned in his writings that Jesus, as His custom was, went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day (Lk 4:16), and that the women from Galilee rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment (Lk 23:55-56). He also recorded that Paul went into the synagogue on the Sabbath, as his custom was, to reason from the Scriptures with the Jews (Acts 17:2). This fact tells us that all Christians must also keep the Sabbath according to God's commandment.
  • The Gentiles will keep the Sabbath
    Isaiah's prophecy that foreigners will keep the Sabbath further confirms that gentile believers in the New Testament will keep God's Sabbath (Isa 56:6-7). So Sabbath observance is not only limited to the Israelite nation.
  • The Sabbath has significance for Christians
    The Sabbath is a sign between God and his people. But it is more than just an Old Testament token. It is also a commandment with a significance that applies to Christians (Heb 4:9-11). We were once under the bondage of sin and Satan (Jn 8:34), but Christ has set us free (Rom 8:2; see Acts 26:18). Just as the Israelites needed to keep the Sabbath to remember God's deliverance from the land of Egypt, we also need to keep the Sabbath to remember God's deliverance from the bondage of sin.

Publisher: True Jesus Church
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