Many Christians wrestle with whether, or not, to violate the Sabbath. Others violate as if it is unimportant. Some even discard the Ten Commandments as “legalism.” The commandment is to, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exod 20:8).
Sabbath-keeping is serious business because the consequence of failure to do that is death: “Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death” (Exod 30:15).
So, Christians should want to keep the Sabbath to avoid death. Therefore, consider the Sabbath. Admittedly, as I write, I do not understand fully why Christians not only do not keep the Sabbath but ignore it entirely. Are we also ignoring God?
Evangelistic Christians excuse that by covenant theology and dispensationalism. The former is that keeping the Law is no longer necessary because the New Testament (Covenant) replaces the Old Covenant and salvation is by grace alone.
The “Mystery of Christ” is that salvation was always by grace. Examine Paul’s dissertation on that mystery:
2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: 3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: 7 Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. 8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. (Ephes 3:2-9)
Consider some of the points therein:
1. Verse 2: Paul’s teachings were about the dispensation of grace. Dispensationalism is how the affairs of righteous are administered. It is the “economy” of the times. The economy of the Mosaic Covenant was the Law. That was revealed in a previous chapter when the congregation paid the “ransom” for the sacrificial animals (Exod 30:12). No longer need the congregants pay the ransom because Jesus paid it all (Tit 2:14) when He redeemed mankind from iniquity. The payment with His own Body and that is the “grace.” It is grace because nobody else paid the price and nobody deserved it. The problem with dispensationalism is that salvation was always by grace whether anyone paid the ransom or not!
2. Verse 3: Grace was a mystery in the previous covenants, but Paul revealed the mystery.
3. Verse 4: That grace was always by Christ. The Word and the Voice all along was the manifestation of Jesus. Although the animals were sacrificed, it was a foreshadowing of God sacrificing His own Flesh… “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things” (Heb 10:1).
4. Verse 5: The dispensation was the “economy” under the Law, but that aspect was unknown to them, but it was revealed to unto the apostles and prophets by the Spirit of God. That was not until after Jesus was glorified and gave up the Ghost. The death and resurrection of Jesus tore the curtain and revealed the truth. “But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ” (2 Cor 3:14). Therefore, the Dispensation of Grace was extant under the Law, but the minds of men were blinded because of the vail between the congregants and God. The prophets saw through the vail in ancient times because the Spirit of God lifted the vail from their eyes to speak the truth.
5. Verse 6: That the Gentiles should have been fellow heirs, all along. The Old Testament is more the “Last Will and Testament of God” and the “blind” heirs thought it was for them alone. The New Testament was not entirely “new” but a clarification that God’s Will is that whosoever never perish (John 3:16). God did not add the Gentiles as heirs but revealed that they were heirs all along. The Hebrews were God’s chosen and peculiar people (Deut 14:2) and revealed in the New Testament that Gentiles are as well (1 Pet 2:9). God was not so concerned with their DNA as He was with their nature. It turns out that all Christians are Jews inwardly (Rom 2:29). Since that is true, then must Gentiles obey the same Laws?
6. Verse 8: Grace was given to Paul. He was outwardly a Jew and before He met Jesus, He was a Jew inwardly as well. He did not understand why he was so zealous for the Law (questioning as the name, Saul means), and Jesus made Him see the truth by making him blind. After being revealed the truth, Paul became a Christian inwardly. The Will of God is that all Jews see the Messiah as Jesus. Paul saw that and it changed his nature from questioning (Saul) to humbled (Paul).
7. Verse 8: Paul received grace so that he could preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Implied there is that the “riches” are invisible. It was never the Promised Land, but the Promise of an invisible “Land” — Paradise in Heaven. All the while the Israelites were seeking Israel, they were blinded to the fact that it would be better to seek a purer “economy” in Paradise where gold and silver were not the treasures but eternal life. Unknown to the Hebrews, the exodus was not to find Jerusalem but New Jerusalem in the realm of heaven.
8. Verse 9: That those who fellowshipped in the mystery, perhaps Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets knew the mystery all along!
9. Verse 9: That the mystery was from the beginning of time — which was from the beginning of the world. It was by grace all along. The Hebrews had been blinded by the reward. They saw prosperity in Israel and never got it, but the prosperity was in the Kingdom of God in heaven and not the Kingdom of David on earth. With that said, there was never a different “economy,” but grace and its dispensation was from the beginning. God dispensed grace by breathing life unto Adam at his generation, and He will breathe life into the dead bodies of Christians at the regeneration, or Resurrection. The generation was a process and so is regeneration. The culmination of generation was a glorious Adam, and the culmination of regeneration is a new Adam-kind when those dead in Christ shall have life breathed unto them again and are joined by those who are living in death.
10. Verse 9: Paul validated the claim of John; that “which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.” The economy was never administered by a hidden Existence, but that God concealed His Face from mankind. Moses never saw the Face of God until the Transfiguration, but he wrote that he saw the “Finger of God” (Exod 31:18) write the commandments. Why would Jesus write Commandments unless they were His Will be done? Well, perhaps because Jesus came to fulfill His Words; not to pass them away, but to make the blind see His Will that is to be done. It took years for me, but I finally saw that they Ten Commandments were the “metrics” for the Greatest Commandment — to have goodwill toward God and fellow heirs be they Jew or Gentile.
The Mystery of Christ (aka the Mystery of God) very well explains why there was always only one dispensation, and it was always by grace. Why then should only nine of the “Prescriptions” for eternal life be adhered to when the “dosage” of rest for one day each week was prescribed by Jesus?
Tomorrow that shall be examined further. Right now, I am unsure where this is headed. I always accepted Sunday as the “Lord’s Day” by tradition. Have Christians been blinded by antinomianism? …That grace alone (sola gratia) is so sufficient that any works at all are superfluous? Is resting — taking a Sabbath — even work?
(picture credit: Healthline)
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