Among those who call upon the name of Christ, some gather to break bread on Saturday instead of Sunday, believing that the seventh day of the week—the Sabbath (our Saturday)—is the day believers must observe as their weekly day of worship in obedience to God’s command to keep the fourth of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11). This article aims to provide a basic introduction to the biblical theology of the Sabbath, addressing common misunderstandings that could lead some to emphasize Sabbath observance while missing its deeper theological significance and ultimate fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ.
The Biblical Foundation of the Sabbath
The significance of the seventh day is first introduced in Genesis, where we learn that God “rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done” and that He “blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation” (Genesis 2:2-3). Essentially, the first lesson God teaches mankind—who was created on the sixth day—is that God’s work precedes man’s rest.
The first full day man experiences is not one of labor but of rest, as God ceases from His work of creation and sets apart the seventh day as holy. This establishes a pattern: God creates, provides for mankind, and man enters God’s rest on the seventh day, sanctifying it because on that day God rested from His creative work.
Noah: A Picture of Rest
The story of Noah serves to verify this pattern. His very name—Noah (נֹחַ)—meaning “rest” or “comfort”—is a picture of the rest God provides. His father, Lamech, prophesied concerning him:
“This one will give us rest from our work and from the pain of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.”(Genesis 5:29)
Noah provided rest for those who joined him in the ark, as they were saved from the judgment of the flood (Genesis 7:1, 7). After the destruction of the old world (2 Peter 3:6), we see the creation of a new world taking place, God’s provision as He brings the animals into the ark—some of them for food (Genesis 6:19-21; 7:2-3). Noah, along with his family—the new humanity—enters into a state of rest as the ark comes to a stop on the seventh month upon the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8:4). Yet humanity will rebel against God once again, as seen in the Tower of Babel incident, proving that true Edenic rest is yet to come.
Rest and Manna Before Sinai
We see this pattern again before Sinai when, prior to giving the Law, God commands the Israelites—His new creation—to collect double the manna (God’s provision and a picture of Christ, the true bread of life) on the sixth day and to enter His rest on the seventh (Exodus 16:22-30).
The Sabbath and the Law
When the Law is instituted, we are already familiar with identifying the Sabbath as a day to remember and sanctify the creative work of God, since He rested on the seventh day after creation (Exodus 20:8-11). Yet, in the Ten Commandments, God also establishes the Sabbath as a sign of His covenant with Israel after delivering them from Egypt (Exodus 31:12-17). Thus, keeping the Sabbath becomes a perpetual sign between God and Israel, commemorating not only His creative work but also His redeeming work.
The seventh day, the Sabbath, serves as a reminder that God is Creator and Redeemer and the source of rest. Yet, the Old Testament teaches that the story is not finished man continues to fail evidencing that a different kind of new creation is still needed and final rest still to be attained.
Rest Becomes a Man: Jesus Christ
In the New Covenant, we learn that this seventh day, Sabbath, day of rest the Old Covenant speaks so highly about is a picture of the spiritual rest found in Christ, only interrupted by man’s unbelief (Hebrews 4:3–4). It is due to unbelief in God’s promises that many believe their spiritual labor will result in spiritual rest. But if we are honest, physical labor has never resulted in physical rest. On the contrary, physical labor produces exhaustion, tiredness, and even frustration when the load of work is too heavy.
In the same manner, when a person tries to labor his way into God’s rest, that person is laboring his way into spiritual exhaustion, tiredness, and eternal frustration.
Biblically, we understand that after the fall, sinful man cannot find true rest; they cannot enter God’s sabbath (Isaiah 48:22), as separation from God introduces His curse to the world. Even the basic act of eating now implies toil, labor, and sweat (Genesis 3:17-19).
When Christ appears, we see Him as the one who labors and sweats on behalf of sinful man so that they may find rest in the task of eating (His flesh). In Gethsemane, He sweats great drops of blood as He prepares to bear the curse of sin (Luke 22:44). On the cross, He endures the full weight of that curse (Galatians 3:13), accomplishing the work necessary to bring His people into true rest (Matthew 11:28-29, Hebrews 4:9-10).
The Christian Sabbath, then, is not a day but a Person: Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Lord of the Sabbath. Those who have entered Christ by faith have entered God’s day of rest.
Sunday as a Day of Worship
You may be asking, “Well, none of this really gives me the reason why we must worship on Sunday instead of Saturday.” That’s a fair observation to make, and if you are still reading, I want to say thank you and ask that you will continue reading until the end as we discover together why we worship on Sunday, the first day of the week, instead of Saturday, the seventh day of the week.
The Bible explicitly teaches that, from the beginning, Christians have gathered on Sunday as a way to commemorate the day in which the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, and I would like to bring your attention to some of those passages and to the pattern I mentioned earlier where God finishes a creative work, provides for man, and man enters God’s rest. This is exactly what happens in Christ.
God has finished His creative work:
- 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
Provided for man, not manna but Christ’s body:
- Matthew 26:26: “As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take and eat it; this is my body.’”
Those who are in Christ have entered God’s rest:
- Hebrews 4:3: “We who have believed are able to enter and have God’s rest.”
- Hebrews 4:10: “For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world.”
So, as we rest from the spiritual toil and labor of trying to earn God’s favor, we enjoy, by faith alone, alongside Abraham and the apostle Paul, the promise of rest made on the seventh day of creation that finds its fulfillment in Christ as the mediator of a New and better Covenant between God and man (Hebrews 8:6).
Following the Example of the Apostles
As much as we love tradition, Scripture supersedes any manmade tradition. So, if the Bible teaches a principle, we must follow it and obey God rather than man. It will not take us long, after beginning to read the New Testament, to realize that the apostles, while still honoring the Sabbath because they were Jews, understood that the feasts and holy days established for the people of Israel were given as types and shadows of the better things to come:
- Colossians 2:16-17: “Therefore, no one is to act as your judge regarding food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon, or a Sabbath day—things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”
So, the Sabbath day (the seventh day), according to the apostle Paul, is nothing but a shadow of the better things that have come in Christ and are yet to come in the eternal state: the new heavens and new earth.
In the meantime, Christians must gather for worship and the breaking of bread on the first day of the week as God has completed, yet once again, a new creation in Christ—a new creation that He completes on the first day of the week, Sunday, the day which now represents the day of completion for His covenant people.
Scriptures Affirming Sunday Worship
- Matthew 28:1-10: “Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave… and behold, Jesus met them, saying, ‘Greetings!’ And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.
- Acts 20:7: “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.”
- 1 Corinthians 16:2: “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.”
Gathering and worshiping on Sunday are a New Testament, apostolic practice. The New Testament doesn’t shy away from this truth. We should not either. Instead, we should embrace Sunday worship as something biblical.
Conclusion:
The true Sabbath rest is not a day of the week, but a person—Jesus Christ. The Sabbath, as given in the Old Testament, pointed forward to the ultimate rest that would be found in Him. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Sabbath (Matthew 11:28-29), and in Him, we find the rest that the Sabbath could only symbolize. The Old Covenant’s Sabbath rest was a shadow of the rest believers now experience in Christ, who offers us rest from the burden of trying to earn God’s favor through works.
Sunday is not the “new Sabbath,” but it is the day on which we gather to celebrate Christ’s victory over death, His resurrection, and the new creation He inaugurated. We worship on Sunday because it commemorates the first day of the week, the day when Jesus rose from the dead, conquering sin and death, and giving us the ultimate reason for rest—His finished work.
This practice is rooted in the example of the early church, which gathered on Sunday to break bread, worship, and commemorate the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2). Sunday is not merely a replacement for Saturday, but a celebration of the fact that we have entered into God’s rest through Christ, who has completed the work of salvation.
As you reflect on this, ask yourself: What does your Sabbath rest look like? Are you still trying to work for your rest, or are you resting in the finished work of Jesus? Sunday is a call to rest in Christ, to honor His completed work, and to live in the new creation He has made possible. Will you answer that call and make Sunday a day to reflect on and celebrate the rest we have in Him?