Friday 23 October 2015

Seventh Day or First Day?

Observing the seventh-day sabbath was a weekly reminder to Israel that despite living in the promised land, there remained a true rest which they had not yet entered: the rest of God.

God didn't only rest every seventh day. When He entered His rest, He rested forever. That eternal rest is what God had planned for mankind.

It's a rest which wasn't available under the Law. The weekly rest merely foreshadowed it.

The true rest is given by grace through faith in Jesus Christ!

We inherit it through faith now. And when He comes there shall be a fuller manifestation of it.

The Church can gather any day and every day. But the early Church seemed to have a habit of meeting early upon the first day of the week.

Not on the seventh day - because those who felt they needed to observe the Old Covenant Jewish sabbath would have been otherwise engaged on the seventh day.

Th first day therefore likely seemed fitting to them, seeing it was the day the Lord rose from the dead - the Lord's Day.

Jesus had risen to die no more. We hope in His coming and the resurrection of the dead in Christ. By faith we know we have that promise. So although the first day of the week is still a work day, it seems appropriate to meet on that day both in anticipation of His coming, and also with the inner experience of new life and rest now.

But it's not a rule. And we can also tolerate those who feel they need to observe the seventh.






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