Six days of work. One day set apart.
God built this rhythm into creation before there was a law to keep, before there was a nation to keep it. He rested on the seventh day, not because He was tired, but because He was setting a pattern for His people. He blessed that day, made it holy, and gave it to us as a day of rest (Gen 2:2–3).
The Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments, and also one of the most contested. Here we discuss how the Sabbath remains relevant and binding for Christians because it was instituted at creation, included in the Ten Commandments, observed by Jesus, and never abolished in the New Testament.
If Christ is our rest, why keep the Sabbath?
A common argument runs like this: the Sabbath is only a prefiguration of the rest we enjoy in Christ. Since Christ has come, He has become our rest (Mt 11:28), and they hence argue that the weekly observance is no longer necessary.
It is true that the Sabbath carries typological meaning. Hebrews speaks of a rest that remains for the people of God. But the ultimate fulfilment of that rest has yet to come. Paul writes that God will "give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels" (2 Thessalonians 1:7). We have not yet entered the fullness of that eternal rest. The promise remains.
Here’s where it helps to think about marriage. Marriage was also instituted at creation, and Paul reveals it carries a deeper meaning: ‘“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.’ (Eph 5:31–32).
What was prefigured in marriage found its substance when Christ redeemed His church with His own blood. Yet no one argues that marriage has been abolished because Christ has come. The institution continues because its ultimate fulfilment, the union of Christ and His church, hasn’t arrived yet.
The same logic applies to the Sabbath. The weekly rest has not been made redundant simply because Christ has come. Its ultimate fulfilment takes place only when He returns.
If there’s no Sabbath in heaven, why keep it?
Another version of this argument claims that the Sabbath can’t be permanent because there won’t be weekly observance in the life to come; whatever belongs only to this present age can’t be a lasting moral requirement.
It sounds reasonable on the surface, but the argument unravels once you pull at it. Other commandments are also tied to institutions that only exist on earth. “Honour your father and your mother” – yet believers will be like angels, no longer defined by these structures. “You shall not commit adultery” – yet Jesus says there’s no marriage or giving in marriage in heaven (Matt 22:30).
Nobody uses those facts to argue that honouring parents or marital faithfulness are optional now. A commandment can govern life on earth without needing to stretch into eternity to be necessary for us to keep.
Is the Sabbath ceremonial law that we don’t need to keep?
The moral law — commandments like 'do not murder' and 'do not steal' — reflects God's permanent standards for how we live, while the ceremonial law governed Israel's worship practices like animal sacrifices and ritual cleanliness.
The Sabbath commandment is the fourth of the Ten Commandments, written by the finger of God, stored inside the ark of the covenant with the other nine.
Christians accept the rest of the list without hesitation. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not commit adultery. These are treated as permanent moral obligations, binding on all believers in every age. So why single out “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” as ceremonial law? Why would God embed a temporary regulation in the middle of nine permanent ones?
Did Jesus abolish the Sabbath?
The claim that Jesus abolished or loosened the Sabbath commandment is widespread, but it does not survive close reading of the Gospels.
Jesus addressed this directly: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” (Matt 5:17–18)
Jesus is clear that fulfil cannot mean abolish: even the smallest detail of the law will not pass away while heaven and earth stand.
His own life confirms this. Luke records that He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day “as His custom was” (Luke 4:16), a lifelong habit. It’s hard to argue that someone cancelled a commandment they personally kept every week.
His followers understood this too. Right after the crucifixion, the women who had followed Jesus for three years “rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56). Luke is writing decades later for a Gentile audience, and he could have omitted this detail. But He recorded their faithful Sabbath observance because it still mattered.
Jesus also spoke of the Sabbath as something His disciples would still be keeping in the future. Regarding the great tribulation far in the future, He said, “And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.” (Matt 24:20) This instruction only makes sense if Jesus expected His followers to continue observing the Sabbath.
What about not being judged regarding sabbaths?
Another passage often raised against Sabbath-keeping is Colossians 2:16-17: “Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”
Some read this to mean that the Sabbath was only a shadow, and since Christ has come, the shadow has disappeared. Therefore, they argue, no Christian should be judged for not keeping the Sabbath.
But that reading creates problems. Paul himself had a custom of Sabbath-keeping (Acts 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4). Hebrews also teaches us that there is still a heavenly rest to come (Heb 4:9).
Context matters. Here, Paul was warning the Colossians about false teachings that the church was facing (Col 2:22). These teachings had “an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body” (Col 2:23). Those who did not keep them were criticized—even though God had not required these rules.
The law was a shadow of Jesus because it pointed to Christ. The sacrifices, priesthood, feasts were fulfilled in Him. This would have included festival sabbaths, which were distinct from the weekly Sabbaths (Lev 23:24, 32, 35-36, 39). What it means that the substance is of Christ is that He came to reveal the deeper meaning of the law, to help us understand what God requires for us in this time of grace.
Paul was not speaking out against the need for the weekly Sabbath. Rather, he was pointing out that we no longer need to keep the regulations of the Mosaic Law.
What did Jesus mean that He’s “Lord of the Sabbath”?
Some argue that because “the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” (Mk 2:28), Jesus is claiming the authority to abolish the day. But why would you claim lordship over something you’re about to get rid of? When Jesus takes that title, He’s claiming ownership of the day, not discarding it. He’s the one who decides what faithful observance looks like.
Every conflict Jesus had with the Pharisees over the Sabbath concerned their interpretation of what constitutes work. The Law doesn’t define work in much detail. The Pharisees filled the gap with their own traditions.
When Jesus’ disciples plucked grain on the Sabbath, the Pharisees called it reaping. But Exodus speaks of resting from ploughing and commercial harvest (Ex 34:21), not a hungry traveller eating a handful of grain. Plucking grain by hand from a neighbour’s field was permitted (Deut 23:25).
Jesus responds: if David ate the showbread out of necessity and was blameless, how much more the disciples satisfying basic hunger? If priests work in the temple on the Sabbath without guilt, how much more the one greater than the temple?
Then He quotes, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” (Hos 6:6) The Pharisees had built a rigid system around the Sabbath that crushed the mercy God intended. Jesus corrected their interpretation, not by dismantling the commandment, but by recovering its true purpose.
Why is the Sabbath on Saturday?
The Sabbath is not a day we choose for ourselves. In Scripture, it is the seventh day. God rested on the seventh day, blessed it, and sanctified it (Gen 2:2–3). The fourth commandment says plainly, “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God” (Ex 20:10).
Some Christians worship on Sunday because it has become the common tradition in much of Christendom. Others point to the “Lord’s Day” in Revelation 1:10 or the gathering on the first day of the week in Acts 20:7. But neither passage says that the Sabbath was changed to Sunday.
Revelation mentions “the Lord’s Day,” but it does not define it as the first day of the week. Acts 20:7 records believers gathering on the first day of the week, but the context was Paul’s farewell. He was leaving the next day, and he continued speaking until midnight. The passage records a particular gathering; it does not command a new Sabbath.
Christians may gather to worship on many days. But gathering on a day is not the same as God sanctifying that day. Widespread tradition does not change what God made holy. This is why the True Jesus Church keeps the Sabbath on Saturday, the seventh day, rather than Sunday, the first day.
What does Sabbath-keeping mean today?
Biblically, Sabbath-keeping is not mere inactivity. It is a day set apart for God. It includes rest from ordinary labour, worship, remembrance of God’s creation and redemption, mercy toward others, and trust that God can provide (Ex 20:8-11, Deut 5:12-15).
It is also a day for gathering with God’s people. We need the fellowship, encouragement, and exhortation of the church to help us remain faithful. Hebrews tells believers not to forsake assembling together, but to exhort one another, “and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb 10:24–25). The Sabbath gives us a weekly opportunity to turn from ordinary labour, worship God together, hear His word, and strengthen one another in faith.
When we honour God on the Sabbath, we believe we’ll receive the blessings God has promised to those who do so (Isa 58:13-14).
Conclusion: Why does the Sabbath still matter today?
The Sabbath is not an outdated rule clinging to the margins of the Old Testament.
Scripture presents it as rooted in creation, written among the ten commandments, honoured by Jesus, and expected by Him to continue into the future. While Christians have long debated how the Sabbath relates to Christ, Jesus has never abolished this fourth commandment. By being part of the Ten Commandments, God’s enduring and timeless law for all believers, keeping the weekly Sabbath is thus what Jesus says we must do these in order to “enter into life” (Mt 19:17).
To keep the Sabbath is to trust God’s pattern for human life: six days of labour, one day set apart for Him. The Sabbath is a reminder that we belong to Him and that He provides (Eze 20:12).
For anyone willing to take the Bible’s teaching seriously, the Sabbath deserves prayer obedience.
If you’d like to study this further or experience Sabbath worship in person, the True Jesus Church welcomes you.
