The Sabbath—Earth's Reflection of Heaven

The Sabbath as a "sign" of sanctification, not a source of grace.

Alfred S. Jorgensen is field secretary of the Australasian Division of Seventh-day Adventists.

 

It is evident that among the divine intentions in Creation was the provision of an objective fellowship outside the Deity. Certain passages of Scripture clearly point in this direction. Revelation 4:10, 11 states that Creation came in response to the will of God. That is, whatever has been ordained by God must be considered as not only ideal but as essential to the highest purposes of the universe. Isaiah 45:18 declares that, in creating this world, God proposed that it should constitute an environment for an order of beings, mankind, capable of fellowship with Him. Creation, therefore, must be considered as answering in some way to the heart-craving of Divine love.

Man, along with all orders of intelligent beings in the universe, has been endowed with a capacity for worship. Worship is fundamentally adoration, which, in turn, is the very essence of fellowship. That is to say, it involves both appreciation of, aspiration for, and (originally through experience, and now by grace) approximation to, the character of God. In a word, it is the desire and delight of the human soul in the "worth" of God.

Worship, moreover, achieves certain ends, not least of which is the preservation of the rationality of man. Paul's argument in Romans 1:18-32 demonstrates this very thesis. This is but to say that the nature of man is such that creature-worship (including self-worship) corrupts and destroys his moral nature and issues in the degradation of his personality. Such counsels as our Lord has given us in Luke 17:33 are established in this premise. "Self-direction means self-decay and God-direction means self-fulfilment" (E. Stanley Jones, How Does God Guide Us? pp. 3, 4).

That this was true of man's nature before sin is evident from what has been revealed of the Eden situation, where man is seen in two relationships—vertically, in fellowship with God; horizon tally, in fellowship with like beings. It is also evident from Genesis 2 that this fellowship—this delight of God in man, and of man in God—was to be expressed in "work"—creative activity—and in "worship," for which the Sabbath was expressly ordained. Note that the fourth commandment legislates for both (Ex. 20:8-11).

We may rightly conclude, therefore, that the Sabbath is in no sense whatever contingent upon the rise of sin. That is, it was not introduced after sin arose. Rather, it was an integral part of the original order of things—its observance being designed to be a necessary feature of the life-style of sinless man, as providing for his worship needs. As this order was designed to be eternal, the Sabbath would have been observed perpetually. Thus, as our Lord Himself declared in Mark 2:28, the Sabbath was ordained, not merely as an arbitrary requirement of God, but as arising out of a specific need in man—fellowship with the eternal God and the realization of man's true self-hood. Furthermore, because salvation is concerned with the restoration of man to his original state of holiness in fellowship with God, the Sabbath is still a continuing institution, and will indeed remain such throughout eternity. This can hardly be denied as long as one maintains the doctrine of the immutability of God and His ex pressed intention to restore all things as before sin (Eccl. 3:11-15) and to consummate all things in Christ (Eph. 1:9, 10).

Its Teaching Function in the Soteriological Situation

Genesis 2:1-3 simply describes the institution of the Sabbath at the end of the Creation week as designed for the purposes stated above. But Exodus 20:8-11 indicates, as well, (1) a proleptic intention concerning the Sabbath as a memorial of Creation; and Deuteronomy 5:12-15 identifies it also as (2) a monument of the redemption of Israel from Egypt, and thus (in type) of the redemption that the believer enjoys in Christ. That is to say, God, foreseeing the rise of sin, attached to the Sabbath significances that would not have been relevant if sin had not arisen. For in the absence of the Fall there certainly would have been no occasion at all for redemption and certainly no need continually to remind man to remember that God is the Creator. How could he conceivably forget this when he enjoyed open face-to-face communion with Christ!

This is really too obvious to need to be argued if we recognize that the principles of the moral law were written into the spiritual consciousness of man unsullied by sin. In plain fact, for sinless man there simply could be no forgetfulness of God.

We can therefore say that, in the present economy of sin, the Sabbath institution performs a necessary teaching function in the plan of salvation. It is part of the divine "torah" ("law," "instruction") through which the Lord has revealed, and continues to reveal, Him self. However, this present teaching office of the Sabbath must never be permitted to obscure the original divine intention for it, viz., the provision made by God for adequate fellowship time in the life-style of man before sin.

Incidentally, regarding this teaching function of the Sabbath as a memorial of Creation, it must be evident immediately that only the seventh-day Sabbath can conceivably fill this role. As well, imagine celebrating Independence Day on July 5 in the United States.

A Sign of Sanctification

It remains now for us to inquire: How does the Sabbath relate to grace? In Exodus 16:23 and Nehemiah 9:14 the Sabbath is described as "holy." The sacred writers obviously intend us to understand Sabbath holiness as institutional holiness; that is, the Sabbath is holy, as the sanctuary and all else that pertained to the worship of God was holy, because it was ordained by a holy God. The Scriptures nowhere teach that either the Sabbath or the sanctuary was intrinsically holy.

We would not expect, therefore, to find in Scripture even the remotest suggestion that Sabbathkeeping, of itself, contributes to our salvation; i.e., as a source of grace. Indeed, the Bible is careful to remind us that the Sabbath is a "sign" of sanctification (Ex. 31:12-17; Eze. 20:12, 20). 'Oth denotes a mark, memorial, token, ensign, a distinguishing characteristic. In a word, the Sabbath is the flag, the token of loyalty, that the sanctified man presents to ac knowledge his allegiance to his King, the Creator.

God alone can sanctify, as Exodus 31:13 and Ezekiel 20:12 expressly declare. Sabbathkeepers need continually to remember this, for any doctrine of sanctification by Sabbath observance would constitute the rankest legalism. Perhaps we have not always been careful to make this distinction, which would have saved us from many an unnecessary charge of salvation by works. Our critics cannot be entirely blamed for not always getting us straight on this matter.

Granted the identification of the Sabbath with the original order divinely ordained, it follows that all arguments that would denigrate this institution as subsequently abolished or otherwise accommodated must account for what would evidently be an inconsistency within the character and purpose of the eternal God.


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Alfred S. Jorgensen is field secretary of the Australasian Division of Seventh-day Adventists.

January 1977

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