This is going to be long. If people want to skip the backtrack, they can go directly to the last 8 paragraphs. Otherwise you can follow my train of thought. While I am addressing Josh's question, the answer is transcendent.
Nathan: do you feel that this thread has made any progress or that your understanding on anything has increased so far? You had said something to me about having the basic conviction on this issue that some esteem some days above others and some esteem all days alike. Have you come to any conclusion yet? Perhaps I too could benefit from a Scriptural conclusion to this.
Josh. What a wonderful question. It might not be that my understanding has increased, but my faith has grown? The conviction that is addressed by Paul is still my conviction. But notice what the ‘commonality’ of his statement proclaims.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
Here is the crux. The ‘person’ is esteeming, one way or another, he is esteeming. To this extent I believe that the fact is this statement by Paul does not take away from the significance of what the Sabbath is. It does, however, point to the fact that the ‘day’ is a singular one for some, and is a plural one for others. Paul is making the statement that some will regard ‘just’ the Sabbath as a holy day, and some will regard all of their days as holy from God.
This does not take anything away from what the Sabbath is. The ‘clause’ that Paul interjects, “forâ€, in verse 7, is a clause of definition, or to clarify what his previous statements meant. And that is that none of us lives to ourselves. We are the Lords. Point blank. So, what ever we do we should be doing it for the Lord. Catch that? What ever we do we should be doing it for the Lord. And what is the “rules†that surround the magnification of the Sabbath?
13 “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the LORD honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking xyour own pleasure, or talking idly;
14 then you shall take delight in the LORD,
yand I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
afor the mouth of the LORD has spoken.â€
And Jesus would say this about it;
12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.â€
He specifically says that it is “lawful†to do good on the Sabbath. That is, to “do†good on the Sabbath. Never once do you hear, in all of His addressing criticism of the Sabbath, of His speaking about what the requirements under the Law of Moses were concerning the Sabbath. He magnified it, speaking toward the fact that the intentions of the Sabbath are very specific; for the physical rest of man, but greater still the spiritual rest He gives us in Himself.
Here is the crux. Sure, you can interpret Paul as making it seem that the Sabbath is no more better than any other day. But that is not what Paul says. He says that some will regard the Sabbath as it is, and some will regard each and every day like the Sabbath. We have taken it to mean that we can regard one other specific day as the Sabbath. But what we loose is in our regarding the ‘other’ day as they did the Sabbath, we do not really regard it like they did the Sabbath. We have in effect built our own method of observance of the day. We do not regard Sunday like they did the Sabbath.
In fact, if anything, we regard it as freedom from “bondage†not rest in Christ. Is the resurrection significant? Yes indeed it is! But our rest in Christ is more significant. I have heard it said, and I am sure some are thinking it now reading this, that Sunday IS about our rest in Christ, the ‘rest’ is freedom from bondage. But we entirely miss the point by doing that. The only way we are free is when we are IN Christ. There is no freedom apart from that. And that is what the Sabbath points too.
So here is/was my train of thought through out this study.
I began with an intense desire to understand the significance of the Sabbath. Is it significant for just Jews? And where I have come to is that it is only ‘significant’ to the Jews because it is important to God. It would be one thing if it was just a law ‘added’ to increase transgressions. But it was the first thing in existence that God made Holy. It has nothing, in its purity, to do with the Jewish people. But it has everything, in its entirety, to do with who God is.
Sure, it’s true, it is ‘written’ in the law. But does that mean just because it was written that it is not significant beyond the words written? And if it is, then would it not do us good to better understand why? So then it brought me to the law. What part of the other 10 do we not consider ‘in effect’ today? Do we consider them ‘in effect’ ONLY because they are reiterated Jesus? Because they were reiterated by the Apostles? Did He say nothing about the Sabbath? Did they not?
The conviction, where this all began, is with Paul’s addressing of the day. There is no doubt that he was speaking towards the Sabbath. The ‘definite’ article before the word “day†indicates a specific day. But…that is a BIG but…he was speaking toward the rules and regulations that surround it. If a man chooses to honor God by observing the Sabbath in the manner of ancient times, then as long as he is not doing it for righteousness sake, he is ok in it. And if a man wants to observe each and every day the same with regards to how he lives to the Lord, then he has that right. That is the whole context of that passage. What has always had me unsteady, and not rock solid, on this conviction of mine was that this is the only place we really draw the thought that the ‘Sabbath day’ is not meant for Gentile believers like it was meant for Jewish believers.
And this is true! It is not meant in the same way. It is not that we “have†to not step a foot out the door or do good on the Sabbath. But it in no way nullifies when the Sabbath is, and what specific day He made Holy. But can we not just think about the Sabbath on Sunday? I mean, if it’s not about “not doing things†then what does it matter which day is which? Here is a very simple, yet very interesting question you would need to ask yourself do certain days mean anything to you personally?
Here is a personal example. Today is my wife and I 10 year anniversary. Is there a ‘law’ that says we have to observe it on this day? Well…maybe an unspoken one. LOL. But no, there is not one. What if I were to say, and to act, each and every day the same as it was our anniversary? Would that be a bad thing? No. She would probable love it. But, what if I were to tell her that I wanted to celebrate it on a different day? That would probably not cut it. In fact, it would not.
Simple example? Yes, very simple. But we are not talking about an appointed ‘feast day’ or a day that is specific to only the Jewish heritage(Passover). We are talking about a day that God blessed and made Holy.
Ok. So then my thought is if I would be ‘putting myself’ under obligation to keep the whole law. Well, which law are we talking about? If I make it an effort on my part to be peacable with my fellow man, not easily getting angry with him, am I trying to keep myself under the 6th commandment? What if I choose to see the idolatry of putting something else before God. Am I putting myself under the 1st commandment, and therefore liable to keep the whole thing?
--continued--
:waving