The Lord's Day

When we think of the Sabbath, our minds often go back to ancient Israel who was given the commandment to honor the Sabbath and to keep it holy. However, this pattern of six and one goes back all the way to creation, where God worked for six days and rested on the seventh.

God could have made man without any need for rest, but he didn’t. Man is a creature who must rest. Every day man needs sleep, and as God’s image bearer man is to reflect the same pattern of work and rest in creation; the pattern of six and one. Six days in a week God has given us to work and to accomplish our tasks, but one day is to be set aside for rest, worship, and focus upon our God. The Hebrew word for Sabbath means to cease or to pause.

Israel worked six days and rested on the seventh, but the resurrection of Christ brought about a monumental change. As the Princeton theologian B.B. Warfield wrote, “Christ took the Sabbath into the grave with him and brought the Lord’s Day out.”

Christians begin the week with rest. Not only is this rest a physical rest but it is a resting in what God has provided in Christ. Christ is our rest, it is he who is our Sabbath, and those who are in him have in a sense already entered their rest though they await the greater rest God will give in the age to come. There remains a rest for the people of God.

Christian, have your rest today. Rest from your sins in the sweet mercies of Jesus Christ. Today, let your mind cease from all you need to accomplish, and find rest in what Christ has accomplished for you.