The Holy Sabbath

2/22 Reading Portions: Exodus 5; Luke 8; Job 22; 1 Corinthians 9

Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)

2/22 Reading Portions: Exodus 5; Luke 8; Job 22; 1 Corinthians 9

Genesis 2:3

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation.

BLESSED

This verse is the first time the word “holy” is used in the Bible. The term in the verse is “and made it holy” or “and sanctified it” (KJV). The term comes from the Hebrew phrase ויקדשׁ אתו (vay-qaw-DESH ō-TŌ); and “holy,” from the Hebrew root קָדַשׁ (qaw-DASH) in particular.

“Holiness” is truly the key to understanding what obligation we have in observing the Sabbath day as a commandment. In the New Testament, through Peter, the Holy Spirit commands us to be holy, and then quotes Leviticus 20:26 from the Old Testament:

but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 5:15-16

This is a riddle, a mystery, a conundrum—because it is impossible. Although we have been saved by God’s grace in Christ, because of the corruptions still remaining in our mortal flesh until Christ returns or calls us home, none of our efforts by themselves can be holy. Neither can we be holy apart from Christ’s imputed righteousness and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. That has become one of our problems in the American church today. We want to “build Christ’s church.” But that’s His job (Matt 16:18). We attempt to make ourselves holy. But that’s the Holy Spirit’s job (John 16:8-11, 14). Certainly. Christ’s church grows stronger through our participation; however, it is by our continued exaltation of Christ through our submission to the Holy Spirit that grows His church, and all of that, by God’s grace. It is Christ’s gospel truth, His indwelling Holy Spirit, and even the eternal presence of Christ that makes us holy.

Each and every day, therefore, becomes a Sabbath because we labor daily, endeavor constantly, and strive continually to enter into our rest in Christ, and ultimately into the promise of His everlasting kingdom to come at His return. As it is written,

for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Hebrews 4:10-11