Why Sunday is the new (Christian) sabbath
Why has the church, from the book of Acts onward, always rested and worshiped on the first day of the week, rather than the seventh? Here is one way of laying out the logic by which the Spirit of Christ has led his bride on this matter:
Firstly, we must observe the sabbath. This is because God hallowed the sabbath in creation, and commanded it in the Ten Words. The creation order and the moral law are both abiding patterns that bind all people in all times and places — therefore, all people in all times and places must observe the pattern of the sabbath.
Secondly, we do this by resting and worshiping on the first day, not the seventh. This is because Christ established a new creation — and thus a new creation order — in rising from the grave: a new heavens and a new earth. These have already broken into the world through him, the first-fruit; and they are coming down from God upon this world through the work of his body, the church. This is clear in Revelation 21:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth did pass away, and the sea is no more; 2 and I, John, saw the holy city—new Jerusalem—coming down from God out of the heaven, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband; 3 and I heard a great voice out of the heaven, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will tabernacle with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them—their God, 4 and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor shall there be any more pain, because the first things did go away.” 5 And he who is sitting upon the throne said, “Lo, I make all things new.” (Rev 21:1–5)
Unfortunately, people read this as referring only to the end of the world — but this is impossible. Elements of it are clearly prophetic of the eternal state: no more death or sorrow or pain. But the account itself also tells us how this eternal state is being brought into being. This is a description of the new covenant world from beginning to end. We know that the tabernacle of God is presently with men (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16; Eph 2:21; 1 Tim 3:15; Heb 3:6; 1 Pet 2:5). We know that we are presently God’s people — this is a formulaic expression in the Old Testament of the new covenant era (Jer 31:33; Hos 2:23; Zech 8:8; 13:9). Thus, we are living in the new heavens and the new earth now; it is an inaugurated, but not yet consummated, reality. And there is correspondingly a new sabbath day — the first day of the week — for Christ’s rest in the grave overflowed into a new day of rest in his being raised glorified from it, never to work under the old creation again. Adam and Israel failed to enter God’s rest; the new Adam and the true Israel did not. We enter into, and share of, and participate in his victorious rest through being made new creations ourselves (2 Cor 5:17). It would be perverse — a retrograde step — to mark this rest on the seventh day, when it was inaugurated on the first.
Similarly, Christ has established a new covenant — and thus a new covenantal order — through his blood. The old covenant corresponded to the old creation order: the day of the Lord, which was the day of worship and judgment, was the seventh. But the new covenant corresponds to the new creation order: thus the inspired record of scripture reveals that the day of the Lord is now the first (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2; Revelation 1:10).
For more on the day of the Lord specifically, see:
That this logic is not laid out explicitly in scripture should be no surprise to us, because we are no longer little children, under a schoolmaster, but grown sons, entering into our Father’s business. We are no longer priests, but kings; no longer under the lordship of the luminaries, but ourselves lords of time under Christ. For more on this point, see:
The alternative to accepting the Lord’s Day as the new sabbath is to believe that the universal practice of the church from the time of the apostles onward does not reflect the will of God; the Spirit failed to lead his church into truth on this matter. Note that this is not an argument from history, or an argument from silence; it is a theological argument.
Moreover, if the Lord’s Day is a separate day to the sabbath (Old Testament evidence notwithstanding), then we inevitably end up breaking from God’s ways. Either we will end up going back to Saturday worship — breaking fellowship with the New Testament church itself — or we will require both Saturday and Sunday worship — breaking the scripture, which says, “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Yahweh thy God” (Ex 20:9–10).
There is only one day of rest and worship — and in the new covenant creation, it is the first day of the week.
After his conquest of sin and death, the Lord Jesus established a new creation. He was the agent of this second creation, just as he was the agent of the first. In this passage, we see Christ resting. Just as God created all things, and then rested, so Christ re-created all things, and then rested. After each work was complete, the rest was ongoing, but living in the midst of that ongoing rest was of no value to those who did not mix this understanding with faith. Consequently, the people of God have the first day on which to worship just as the Jews had the seventh day. The day is not the center—Christ is the center. In other words, God created the heavens and earth in six days and then rested. Christ re-created the heavens and earth, making a new heavens and earth, and then rested. He did this in three days and nights—half the time. When he emerged from the grave on the first day of the week, he was entering his resurrection rest. This is why a “sabbath rest” remains for the people of God.
This is also the central reason why Christians do not observe the seventh day as their day of rest. Given the “everlasting” language of the Old Testament with regard to the sabbath, nothing short of a new creation could have moved that day from the seventh to the first. The seventh day was imbedded in the created order, and it would stay that way until the created order was overhauled, redone, re-created—which it was in the resurrection of Jesus.
Douglas Wilson
Hebrews Through New Eyes
If you want to be accurate ???????? The Sabbath is the Jewish worship day. Paul and all the Apostles went to the synagogue on Saturday so they were busy on the 7th day trying to reach their own people. We worship regularly on what they called the first day of the week. The pagan calendar calls it Sunday which out of personal reasons I do not use. I call it Risenday. I do not and will never condemn anyone for using Sunday even though it and all the other names of the week which I do use are named after man made pagan gods. I just prefer Risenday for myself because it recognizes the reason I worship. JESUS IS RISEN(DAY)!