People are exhausted! Recently economists coined terms to describe the trend of people leaving their jobs as The Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting. The widespread sensation of burnout, which is not abating, is now described as the era of Great Exhaustion.1 While there are many factors behind this phenomenon, one thing is clear: people are looking for rest!
From creation, the seventh-day Sabbath was set up for man to experience God. It invites us to recognise what He has done for us while serving to restore us physically, mentally and spiritually. Ironically, while society is increasingly looking for rest, many Christians consider the Sabbath as done away with. Passages like Colossians 2:14-17 are often used to justify its rejection. Is this really what the New Testament teaches, or does it reflect a particular bias that has ingrained itself into Christian thought over the centuries? Re-examining our basis for rejecting it might lead us to rediscovering the blessings of a long-lost gift.
The Sabbath has been a point of contention among Christians since the first century. The background to this had to do with the identity of the Christian movement. When the followers of Christ started spreading the good news of salvation, they did not consider their movement as a new religion. People who accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah of the Hebrew Bible viewed Christianity as an extension of Judaism or as biblically authentic Judaism. It became increasingly awkward and near impossible for Christians to be part of established Judaism when they began to be excommunicated from the synagogues because of their faith in Jesus. Gentile converts to Christianity also had trouble identifying with Judaism. Firstly, they were not accepted by the Jews and secondly, various Jewish revolts brought the ire of Rome against the Jews, resulting in persecution. These converts sought to differentiate themselves from those who did not even recognise them as part of their community. This is when Christianity began to emerge as a separate identity to Judaism. In its formation, questions were asked as to what Jewish practices were still relevant to Christians. The various extra-biblical rabbinical regulations were not considered binding but what about biblical laws? Christians saw circumcision as a sign of God’s covenant with Abraham but not the basis of that covenant since it was Abraham’s faith that mattered (Romans 4:11,12; Galatians 5:6 cf; Genesis 15:6; Deuteronomy 30:6). It was therefore considered that all who had faith in God, as Abraham did, were now heirs of God’s promise of salvation (Galatians 3:29). Animal sacrifices were seen as pointing to Christ’s death as man’s substitute, so they were no longer practised by Christians.2 The sanctuary service was seen as pointing to Christ’s ministry in heaven as the true High Priest and Mediator (Hebrews 8:5;
9:8-28). In simple terms, all the laws of the Hebrew Bible were relevant to Christians but the ones relating to the sanctuary took on a different dimension.
Debates did surface regarding what role the law played when it came to salvation. Because churches were comprised of both gentiles and Jewish converts, tensions arose regarding the law. Was it a means of salvation or does it describe the outcome of salvation? Most of Paul’s letters in the New Testament addressed this issue and they argue strongly in favour of salvation coming by grace through faith in Jesus. The works of the believer, however good they might be, could not secure their salvation. Salvation is obtained only through faith as a result of God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8). Paul and other New Testament writers did, however, affirm the relevancy of the Ten Commandments as the outworking of salvation in the believer’s life (John 14:15; Romans 13:8-10; 1 Corinthians 7:19; Ephesians 6:2; James 2:8-11; 1 John 2:3,4; 5:2,3; Revelation 12:17; 14:12).
Today, most Christians consider the Ten Commandments applicable but when it comes to the Sabbath, many dismiss it or claim that it was changed to Sunday. One of the passages used to justify their position is Colossians 2:16 which states, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.” Does Paul do away with the Sabbath here? Is he introducing something new in this passage? After all, Jesus identified as the Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8) and referred to that day as “The Lord’s Day” (Revelation 1:10).3 Furthermore, after His resurrection Jesus urged believers to pray that they do not need to flee persecution on the Sabbath (Matthew 24:20). The Jerusalem council affirmed the Sabbath (Acts 15:21). Paul himself met with believers on the Sabbath (Acts 13:42-44; 16:13) and organised aid collections after sundown so as to keep the Sabbath hours sacred (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1,2). It would be odd for him to invalidate the Sabbath in his letter to the Colossians. A closer reading of this passage might surprise many Christians who think that Paul did away with the Sabbath.
Let us look at the passage in context:
14 (Jesus) having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. 16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ (Colossians 2:14-17, NIV).
Firstly, it would be problematic to interpret this passage as abrogating the Ten Commandments as Paul affirms the fifth commandment in the same letter (Colossians 3:20). Rather than referring to the Ten Commandments which were written in stone, Paul mentions “handwriting”.4 Deuteronomy 31:26 tells us that, whereas the Ten Commandments were placed inside the Ark of the Covenant, there was a scroll written by Moses’ hand of the other laws placed on the side of the Ark of the Covenant. These laws included regulations regarding resting on special feasts days. Since the term to cease working is “sabbath” in Hebrew, these special annual rest days are referred to as sabbaths but were not to be confused or conflated with the seventh-day weekly Sabbath. Another interpretation of the term “handwriting” is a certificate of indebtedness or a record of debt. This refers to our sins which were nailed to the cross in Jesus resulting in our forgiveness (Colossians 2:13). Whether Paul was referring to a ceremonial law scroll or to a certificate of indebtedness in Colossians 2:14, we can be quite confident that he is not referring to the Ten Commandments written on tablets of stone. Stone, of course, cannot be nailed but parchment can.
Colossians 2:16 actually quotes Hosea 2:11. It is interesting to note that whenever the seventh-day Sabbath is referred to, it is referred to by God as “The Sabbath” or “My Sabbath”. When the festival sabbaths or annual holy days are referred to, they are called “your sabbaths”, “her sabbaths”, “a sabbath” or “sabbaths” i.e. without a definite article. In Hosea 2:11 it is “her Sabbaths” and in Colossians 2:16 as “sabbaths”. This means that the category of rest days referred to are the festival sabbaths, not the weekly Sabbath.5 These feast days are no longer required because their purpose was to point to a greater reality—the unfolding work of God performed for our salvation.
The “food and drink” further emphasises this as it refers to food and drink offerings offered at festivals (Numbers 28:11-15; 2 Chronicles 31:3). It cannot refer to what people ate or drank as there is no way to judge someone regarding what they drank since there is no drink that is labelled as unclean in the Torah. The food and drink must therefore be referring to offerings and they do indeed point to Christ as shadows of things to come (1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Hebrews 9:10).
The message of Paul’s letter to the Colossians is that the ceremonial festival sabbaths and the offerings associated with them all served to point to Jesus and His work for us. If believers find it meaningful to continue to commemorate those days, it was their prerogative to do so (Romans 14:5), but it is not a requirement.
While all good things can be used as metaphors for our relationship with God and the salvation He offers us, not all have been established for that specific purpose. The objectives of the sanctuary ceremonies were to point to something greater than themselves. Other things that point to God do not necessarily have that same teleology. For example, the metaphor of freedom from slavery is often used to describe salvation. This does not mean that Christians should not be concerned with emancipating slaves because the Bible has attached new meaning to freedom. Both the seventh-day Sabbath and marriage are used to help believers relate to God. Both institutions were established before sin entered the world and both were expressly blessed by God (Genesis 1:28; 2:3). By using marriage as a metaphor of salvation, Jesus did not do away with the institution of marriage. In a similar way, when the author of Hebrews uses the Sabbath as a metaphor of salvation (Hebrews 4:9), they are not doing away with the sanctity of that special day of the week. On the contrary, it is establishing the goodness of this institution.
The seventh-day Sabbath is a part of the rhythm of time that God set for us in creation week when God blessed and set apart that day of the week. It is a gift that He invites all mankind to experience for physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing. In the increasingly fast-paced world that has turned their back on their Creator, this day is more relevant now than ever. Bible verses that many Christians thought were clinchers regarding the dismissal of the Sabbath may actually be saying something completely different. Christians would better serve their own and the world’s needs if they looked for ways to establish the seventh-day Sabbath gift instead of dismissing it. On this day we can honour God by worshipping Him as our Creator on the distinct day He called us to remember and re-calibrate with Him in a special way. We can also rejoice in the salvation our Creator offers us when He came into this world to redeem us from our bondage to sin and death. With this in mind, we can truly call the Sabbath a delight.
- This term was coined in a December 2023 The New Yorker article, by Professor of Behavioural Medicine and Psychology James Berry when describing the phenomenon of 60 per cent or more of the US workforce saying they are “moderately burnt out” or more.
- Not even Jews could correctly keep the feasts and sacrifices associated with the Temple after it was destroyed in 70 AD.
- Jesus identified with the prophecies of the Hebrew Bible including Isaiah 58:13 where it identifies the Sabbath as “the LORD’s day”.
- Greek: cheirographon which is made up of the words “cheir” (hand) and “grapho” (writing).
- For more, Ronald Du Preez, Judging the Sabbath: Discovering what Can’t be Found in Colossians 2:16 (Andrews University Press, 2008).
Emanuel Millen is a lecturer in Biblical Studies at Avondale Seminary.
