What was the Sabbath? Why was it instituted? What is its meaning?
Yes, it was given as a day set apart by God for rest from regular labors and it served as a sign between him and the sons of Israel. (Ex 31:16, 17) I believe that this has already been established. But the Law was a shadow of the reality which Christ fulfilled. If Christ is the reality, then what is it that is reality?
When confronted by the Pharisees, Jesus powerfully taught that the they were wrong about the Sabbath law—that, in fact, they had missed the whole point of that law.
Jesus explained that he [the Christ] is “Lord of the sabbath” and therefore entitled to cure people on the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:8) To stress the point, he openly performed miraculous cures on the Sabbath. (Luke 6:7-10) Why did he do this? It is because these cures were a preview of the healing that he will perform earth wide during his Thousand Year Reign. [Revelation 20:4,6]
That Millennium will itself be the ultimate Sabbath, when all faithful mankind will at last rest from centuries of laboring under the burdens of sin and death
Therefore, the literal Sabbath day, which was meant to bring the Israelites relief from their labors, was, as Paul writes: is “a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Christ.” (Colossians 2:16, 17)
For the fact that Christ made a point to perform some of his most outstanding miraculous works on the Sabbath shows that to be only a shadow of the kind of relief that he will bring when he raises mankind to spiritual and physical perfection during his coming Millennial Rule. This Sabbath will mirror and even exceed what the Sabbath law offered for only the Hebrew, but now because Christ, it will include every nation and tongue and people. Re 21:1-4.
Christ fulfilled the law - HE is “Lord of the Sabbath”, HIS Millennial reign. Why would you continue to go through meaningless ritual, when the reality has set you free?
Mark 2:28 " ... hence the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath.”
Luke 6:5 "And he went on to say to them: 'Lord of the sabbath is what the Son of man is.'”
Matthew 12:8 "For Lord of the sabbath is what the Son of man is"
It matters not whether there are 10 commandments or 15 or 30 written in stone. The fact is that the moral laws [written on the heart] were the ones that were restated in the Christian Greek Scriptures, Christ fulfilled the rest, they were taken out of the way - abolished by his tortuous death on a stake.
Why is it when confronted with the fact that Sunday was a holy day for the worshipers of Mithra, persons who believe Sunday to be the Christian’s sabbath will deny that the day was adopted from the pagans?
