Is the Fourth Commandment Still in Effect?
We return in this article to this request from a reader in Wales: “Many people believe that the moral law of God (summarized in the Ten Commandments) was rendered obsolete along with the Mosaic civil and ceremonial laws. I know this is error. Please address this in the Covenant Reformed News.”
One of the arguments against the Ten Commandments as law for New Testament Christians is that the fourth commandment is never repeated in the New Testament, though all the other commandments are repeated. It is part of their argument that only the precepts of the New Testament, which they identify as the law of Christ, are obligatory on New Testament Christians, and even though many of those precepts are also to be found in the Ten Commandments, the moral law, they are not proof that the Ten Commandments are still in effect. We wish to deal with that argument in this article.
The fourth commandment declares, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Ex. 20:8-11).
As the commandment itself reminds us, the sabbath was not merely instituted with the decalogue at Mount Sinai; it is a creation ordinance. Like marriage, the family (Gen. 1:28) and human government, the sabbath began with creation and not with the Mosaic law. It is not just a temporary Jewish institution or just a precept of the moral law. It is permanent, enduring as long as the creation itself, and belongs to those institutions that will last until Christ returns.
We are to remember the sabbath, not simply because God gave a command about it from Mount Sinai but for this reason: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.” At creation, “the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it,” and did so for all time. Jesus meant that when He said, “The sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27). Of all the commandments, therefore, the fourth needed repeating less than any other.
Another argument for the all-time validity of the sabbath command is Jesus’ word to the Pharisees when disputing with them about the sabbath: “Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath” (28). The sabbath, He states, belongs to Him as Lord and Creator of all, and not to Moses. This was the reason also why He was able to change the day, while preserving the institution. The sabbath is, most emphatically, “the Lord’s day” in Revelation 1:10. For this reason, Jesus was scrupulous about sabbath observance, through He had no time for the nonsense of the Pharisees. Indeed, God Himself kept the sabbath after creating all things.
That the sabbath command, rooted in the creation of the world itself, has not been made null and void, is also clear from Hebrews 4:8-9: “For if Jesus [i.e., Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest [literally, a sabbath or sabbath-keeping] to the people of God.”
Another argument against the permanence of the fourth commandment is that every day ought to be special to the Christian and every day he ought to “labour ... to enter into that rest” (11). We do not deny the truth of this. The Heidelberg Catechism, in its explanation of the fourth commandment, requires, “that all the days of my life I cease from my evil works, and yield myself to the Lord, to work by His Holy Spirit in me; and thus begin in this life the eternal sabbath” (A. 103). That is not an argument against a sabbath commandment, however. God’s ordinance that we live by our work and by the sweat of our face (Gen. 3:19) is not done away by His appointing special days in which work is forbidden.
Nevertheless, the opponents of the Ten Commandments argue that, because the command and creation itself specified the seventh day, and the day of worship in the New Testament is the first day of the week (many do not believe there is any special day of worship in the New Testament), the two cannot be the same. Thus, they say, the very fact that Christians worship on a different day is proof against the abiding validity of the Ten Commandments.
We believe that the change of day is not a change in the institution itself nor a voiding of the institution. It is a change only in the circumstances or details, not the essence of the commandment. When speed limits were reduced across America in 1973 in response to a world-wide oil crisis, the change in maximum speeds was not a change to the principle that there ought to be limits on the speed at which motorists drive.
The “first day of the week” (Acts 20:7; I Cor. 16:2) is the day for preaching and breaking bread in the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7-12), and for taking collections for needy churches (I Cor. 16:1-2), a day known as “the Lord’s day” (Rev. 1:10), for it has a special connection to the Person and work of the Lord Himself. This is the day when the church assembles for worship (e.g., I Cor. 11:17, 20; 14:23-26; Heb. 10:25; James 2:2).
But how can we even be sure that the day was changed, since there is no explicit command telling us to worship on the first, rather than on the seventh, day of the week?
The resurrection of Christ (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1; John 20:1), and His appearances to the women and His disciples when assembled together (Matt. 28:2-10; Mark 16:2-14; Luke 24:2-49; John 20:2-29), and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-41; cf. Lev. 23:15-16) on the first day of the week, amount to a command. In other words, Jesus commands the observance of the first day of the week not by word but by example. These great works of redemption—Christ’s resurrection (and post-resurrection appearances) and the Spirit’s outpouring—all on the same day, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the first day of the week is special.
The Westminster Larger Catechism declares, “The fourth commandment requireth of all men the sanctifying or keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his word, expressly one whole day in seven; which was the seventh from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, and the first day of the week ever since, and so to continue to the end of the world; which is the Christian sabbath [Deut. 5:12-14; Gen. 2:2-3; I Cor. 16:1-2; Acts 20:7; Matt. 5:17-18; Isa. 56:2, 4, 6-7], and in the New Testament called The Lord’s day [Rev. 1:10]” (A. 116).
Sabbath means “rest” and refers to the spiritual rest which Jesus promises in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” If that is what Jesus promises, then it is not surprising that Hebrews 4:9 tells us that there remains a rest for the people of God. It should also be obvious that the day of the week is not essential to that rest but subject to change, as it was changed by the great works of redemption that took place on the first day of the week.
We agree with those who say that the change of days reflects the difference between the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, the promised rest lay still in the future and it was appropriate that the day of rest come at the end of the week, but now, in the New Testament, the Rest-giver Himself has come and by His saving work caused us to “enter into rest” (Heb. 4:3) through faith. It is appropriate, therefore, that the rest is at the beginning of the week and the remaining days be lived out of that accomplished rest.
All of this has been part of our argument for the permanence of the moral law, summed in the Ten Commandments. To the believing heart, the greatest argument for the permanence of the moral law is the blessedness promised in the Word of God to those who love and keep His commandments. They are those who say with the psalmist, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward” (19:7-11). They experience the truth of Psalm 119:1-2: “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.” Rev. Ron Hanko
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