Joannah schreef:And please don't judge, we are not supposed to judge one another over days. as long as it is to His honour.but for me sabbath(saturday)the seventh day remains His Holy day.The first day was never set apart or declared holy.Jesus came to fullfill the Law, not change it!!
Joannah,there are two important things to consider. First, the Sabbath was given to Israel as the "sign" or "token" of the everlasting Covenant between God and His people. This in itself means that the sign is
inextricably connected with Christ. This sign was instituted that God's people would remember that it was not themselves, but the Lord who made them a righteous (Exodus 31:13-16) people and brought them out of the bondage of Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:13-15). Second, the Sabbath was instituted for God's people as a Holy day of
rest from their labors (Exodus 31:17), to commemorate God's rest from His work of creation. In this sign, they were to know that all their works and labors w ere to cease.
Matthew 5:17
• "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."
The Old Testament signs and ceremonial laws being
completed or fulfilled in Christ is what so many theologians today do not fully understand. Christ didn't do away with the old testament precepts, in actuality He was that true to which those laws pointed. Luke 24:44
• "And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me."
Fulfilling these Old Covenant laws means that we now celebrate Christ (the Passover Lamb) by the New Covenant sign, which is the communion service. We do this in remembrance of his broken body. In other words, we now recognize that the law of Moses commanding the actual sacrifice of an animal, was merely a temporary Old Testament sign pointing to the real shedding of blood and the true sacrifice of God's Lamb. So with the coming of the real, our eyes are upon Him and not any longer upon the sign preceding Him. The communion is a sign now looking backward to the broken body of Christ. The Old Testament sign of the Passover sacrifice looked forward to the broken body of Christ. The method of observance has changed, but the true observance has not.
Likewise the law of the Gifts, the Temple, the Scapegoat, the Altar, the High Priest, the Sabbath, the Atonement, etc., they were all mere shadows of the true. They were not the true, but were shadow thereof. Some people want to cling to the shadow, not discerning the difference. But we can see this difference illustrated in the book of Hebrews:
Hebrews 8:2-5
• A Minister of the Sanctuary, and of the True Tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man.
• For every High Priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
• For if He were on earth, He should not be a Priest, seeing that there are Priests that offer gifts according to the law:
• Who serve unto the Example and a Shadow of heavenly things."
Hebrews 10:1-2
• "for the LAW having a Shadow of good things to come, and not the
• Very Image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."
The Old Testament Sabbath law was a shadow, [skia], of good things to come in Christ, and were not the true or the real. Yes, they were God's laws that stand forever, but only in Christ can anyone keep them according to what was/is required. These passages in the book of Hebrews reveal to us just how the various signs and ceremonial laws of the Old Testament system of worship merely reflected a greater spiritual (and yet actual) fulfillment or completion in the coming Christ.
Colossians 2:16
• "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an Holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath, which are a Shadow of things to come: but the body is of Christ!"
Here God tells us very plainly and "without ambiguity" that the old testament Sabbaths were a [skia] or shadow that prefigured a greater Sabbath that was to come, in the body of Christ. All those Old Testament laws that Moses instituted, like not eating unclean meats, the Holy days, the new moons, and the Sabbaths, were shadows looking forward to Christ, the true form. And right along with this list of ceremonial laws God puts the old testament Sabbaths, and says it was merely a 'sign' of things to come. And like all the other ceremonial signs, it would have it's substance, efficacy, and fulfillment in the body of Jesus Christ. We are not to be judged by any of these, as the law of keeping these is fulfilled in Christ. We would no more go back to observe the seventh day Sabbath today as we would go back to observing the Passover, the new moons, unclean meats, or of going to Jerusalem three times a year (Feast of Tabernacles, Passover, Weeks) to worship. Christ is that Sabbath of Rest that the children of God looked for, and He has come to give them that rest.
Matthew 11:28-30
• "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
• Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
• For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Our own labors are burdensome, but the work we receive from Christ is not burdensome, but light. Because Christ did all the labor for us, and we rest in Him. When we work six days and rest on the seventh (Sunday), we bear witness to the Sabbath cycle ordained by God. And yet there is a greater rest that is being prepared in heaven for those with Christ as their Sabbath. It is not observance of the seventh day Sabbath, but Christ alone who can give us this rest.