Ethics Week 8 – Fourth Commandment – Sabbath Keeping

Ethics Week 8

Fourth Commandment

Exodus 20:8-11 -

Deuteronomy 5:12-15 -

Exodus:  Reason for keeping the commandment is God’s creative Work

Deut: Reason for Keeping the Commandment is celebration of rest from bondage in Egypt

“Creation and Redemption do not generate two different ethics, but rather the same one.”  – JF

We are to imitate Jesus’ work of redemption – John 13:34-35 -

Views of the Sabbath

-           Modern society

• This is the most visibly rejected commandment in modern culture
• We also have to think of what it means now that we have entered into the Sabbath rest of the New Jerusalem
• Shopping, sports on Sunday etc
• Is Sunday the right day?
• Dispensationalism separates Old from New
• Several views of Sabbath keeping within the Reformed community

-          Transition from Sabbath to Lord’s Day

• My opinion – although worship commonly took place on Sunday in the early church there is no evidence this was a moving or replacement for the Sabbath
  • Rev 1:10 – Lord’s day for worship
  • Creation ordinance as the basis for Sabbath did not change
• DA Carson rejected the translation

-          John Calvin’s View

• One of the least restrictive of all the Reformed views
• For Calvin the Sabbath
  • Represented spiritual rest
  • There was supposed to be a day to gather to hear the law
  • A day of rest for servants and those under the authority of others
• God wants us to turn from our works to his grace
• How Calvin teaches observance of those three
  • A Shadow – the first aspect – spiritual rest
  • Worship
  • Rest for Servants
• For Calvin other views of the Sabbath are superstition
  • Romans 14:5
• Calvin urges us to take worship seriously though
• Heidelberg Cathechism Q 103 reflects Calvin’s view
• Summary of Calvin’s View
  • We keep the Sabbath by resting from sinful works and receiving the grace of God’s Spirit

-          The Decrees of Dordt

• These became more sabbatarian than Calvin in response to Arminianism
• What they say
  • Both ceremonial and moral
  • Ceremonial
    • Creation rest
    • Moral
      • Set aside for worship
    • The Jewish Sabbath is abolished so Christians must keep Sunday
      • Always observed since the apostles
    • Day must be set aside for worship and people must not engage in labors or even recreations that hinder worship

-          The Westminster Standards

• WCF 21:7-8VII.
• WLC 116-121
• Summary
  • God gave the Sabbath at creation – It continued until the consummation
  • The Lord’s day IS the Sabbath
  • Refrain from
    • Works, words, and thoughts about labor and recreation
    • Worship is the main point

Preterist

-           We know rest in Christ

-          In the New Jerusalem

• We come daily to the throne
• We are renewed and rest in his grace daily
• We no longer toil under spiritual bondage

-          Calvin saw this darkly stated that now we are to worship every day

Theology of the Sabbath

-           Sabbath and Creation

• Gen 2:2-3
• God chooses to deal with his creatures in the temporal world although he could choose to do everything instantly
  • The Sabbath is proof of this point
  • We are not instantly created, justified and sanctified and glorified
    • God works each other these through time
      • Creation – birth
      • Justification by faith
      • Sanctification in living
      • Glorification in the resurrection
    • God’s Sabbath rest points forward to the completion of God’s work and the Sabbath rest in the New Jerusalem
    • God’s Sabbath reveals His lordship over creation
    • God’s Sabbath shows all creation recognizes God’s lordship
• The Sabbath is a covenant sign
• The Sabbath is a creation ordinance

-          Sabbath and Common Grace

• Rest from work in the Sabbath was from work
• Holy Governments follow the Sabbath

-          Sabbath and Redemption

• Deut 5:15
• Eschatological
  • Brought the consummation of redemption back to the pre-fall world
• Rest from the curse of toil God placed on the ground

-          Work and Rest

• Reformed view – applicable prior to the end of the age
• Creation ordinance – post 70 AD
  • Day of rest
  • Scripture actually never defines the Sabbath as a day of worship
    • When scripture mentions work it is illegitimate work
      • Ex 31:13-17
      • Ex 34:21
      • Ex 35:3
      • Num 15:32-36
      • Neh 13:15-18
      • Jer 17:21-22
      • Amos 8:4-6
    • It was a ceasing of activity not just laying aside one for other activities
    • The theology of redemptive rest is key
      • Ps 127:2
      • Matt 11:28
    • A feast not a fast
      • 2 Sam 6:12-23
      • Luke 15 – Prodigal Son
    • Recreation is based on our thoughts and motives, not a biblical list of do’s and don’ts – balance

-          Works of Necessity                 and Works of Mercy

• Matt 12:2
• Mark 2:27
• Luke 14:5
• In biblical times it was not wrong to milk a cow on the Sabbath
• What about a Christian taking a job that requires Sunday work?
  • Supporting one’s family is a work of necessity
    • Mark 2:27
• Ex 20:10
• Ex 23:10-11
• Deut 15:1`11 – Sabath Year

-          Worship

• A day of rest in which worship is appropriate but not commanded
• Rest in our final inheritance
  • PS 95

-          Finally

• The Sabbath is a celebration of God’s lordship and provision and our salvation
• We rest fully in him
• We are in the Sabbath rest of Christ’s redemption