This discussion makes me wonder if our beloved Adventist brothers and sisters have heard an exposition of the moral law. Here is Calvin’s from the Institutes:

http://www.mountainretreatorg.net/classics/calvin/institutes8-8.html

For anyone who is not willing to read through the whole thing, I will give my brief and unworthy synopsis of his exposition of the Fourth Commandment. The Fourth commandment is unique, in that it contains both a moral aspect and a ceremonial aspect. The moral aspect is that we are to “rest from our works”, i.e. we are to stop putting any trust in our own performance, and we are to rest in what God has done. The ceremonial aspect of the command is the observance of a day, which is meant to typify, or point us to, the spiritual rest we are to experience in the all-sufficient finished work of Christ on the cross (the point of Hebrews 4). This is why the Sabbath is referred to as a “shadow, the substance of which is Christ” in Colossians 2:16-17. This is also the reason that Paul says to love one another fulfills the law (Romans 13:8-10) To say that the law is all about outward physical compliance (either morally or ceremonially) is to miss the whole point of it (Matthew 5). The Reformed faith does not teach antinomianism, or the abrogation of the moral law, but teaches that all ceremonial laws are meant to point us to a spiritual reality found only in Christ (the passover lamb for instance).

Dear Protestant 101,
We do not hate you brother. We disagree with Adventist theology. The fact that we disagree with Adventist theology does not mean that we hate you. We love you in the name of Christ, so that He gets the glory. I think (Greg and Gabriel please correct me if I am misrepresenting your posts) that the reason Greg and Gabriel kept asking you about your connection of Philippians 4:13 and Matthew 5:48 is this: Matthew 5 is meant to drive you to the end of yourself. It is meant to drive you to despair over your sin (I’m not judging you, I am a terrible sinner), and to cause you to cast yourself on the mercy of God found only in Christ Jesus. That is the only way that the righteous requirement of the law will be fulfilled in any of us (Romans 8:3-4). We all love you brother.

Nate

Nate,

An excellent summation of the fourth commandment (revealing its ceremonial and moral aspects).  A hearty welcome to this forum!

Dennis Fischer

Phil Johnson, from John MacArthur’s church in California, also did a great sermon on the Sabbath taking a position similar to Calvin’s that you can listen to by clicking here:  http://gracelifepulpit.media.s3.amazonaws.com/GL-083-006-PJ.mp3

I think this was actually a presentation done during Sunday School.

Thank you for the welcome Dennis, much appreciated! You are too kind, sir. I love how you have said so many times on this forum that Christ Jesus is our true Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4).

Nate

Aaron,

Many thanks for the sharing the link to Pastor Phil Johnson’s audio on the Fourth Commandment.  It is truly a must-hear message.  Sunday sacredness was the view of the later Puritans--not of John Calvin.

Dennis Fischer

Aaron,
Thanks so much for sharing that link. What a wonderful treatment of the topic of the Sabbath. Praise God that He has caused us to enter His rest by His sovereign grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus!

Nate

Nate,

Welcome again to 4TG, it is great to have you here.

Thank you for posting the synopsis from Calvin’s Institutes. This is one of the more even-handed treatments of the Sabbath I’ve seen and there is much ground here for agreement between Christians. It is only when a person or group decides to make the Sabbath a test of loyalty to God that our common ground begins to dissolve, which is exactly why the apostle Paul gave the counsel he did in Romans 14. As you said, one of the most amazing things about the Old Testament are all the types and shadows that find their fulfillment in the promised Messiah.  I thank God that he has given us eternal rest in the Passover Lamb who is our Sabbath rest—Jesus Christ.

Another excellent discussion of the Sabbath can be found in Michael Horton’s book, The Law of Perfect Freedom. I will include a quote here that I find particularly helpful:

But God invites us into His Sabbath day. The offer still stands, but we must not be like those who failed to trust God’s promise of salvation, even though we have heard the good news again and again. The Promised Land and the promised rest cannot ultimately refer to the physical land of Palestine, “for if Joshua [who led the children of Israel into the land] had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his” (2:8-10). This is the key to the entire passage, and in my view, to the entire purpose behind the Sabbath institution. This is what the Sabbath points toward: “Anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.” As Paul wrote, “To the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness” (Romans 4:5). The lost generation failed to enter into the promise, not because they failed to do or achieve something, but because they would not stop trying to enter the land by their own efforts and scheming.

In the same way, we are barred from God’s seventh day, His eternal rest, unless we cease our striving after God’s favor and trust in Christ alone. For that eternal rest is none other than Christ Himself. By our union with Christ, we are already living in the seventh day, the eternal Sabbath of God. God commanded the Sabbath observance through Moses, but Christ Himself is the Sabbath for His people, as He says in the book of Matthew: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Joshua may have led Israel into the earthly Promised Land, but that was a mere foreshadowing of a greater triumph, a greater land, a greater rest.

In fact, the text in Matthew, where Jesus invites people to share in His rest, is immediately followed by Christ’s proclamation of Himself as “Lord of the Sabbath.” After telling the people that He was their rest, the Lord was confronted by the Pharisees, who were disturbed that Jesus’ disciples were not observing the Sabbath properly. Jesus reminded the Pharisees that on the Sabbath the priests were busy working. “Haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (12:5-8). The Pharisees were busy trying to enforce the outward keeping of the Sabbath but were utterly blind to the fact that the whole purpose behind the Sabbath institution was standing before them in the person of Christ. Rather than embrace Christ as their Rest incarnate, the Pharisees chose instead to use this shadow as a source of works-righteousness.

After this discussion, Jesus walked to the synagogue and healed a man with a shriveled hand in the sight of the Pharisees, so enraging the religious leaders that they began plotting His death. Nevertheless, the Lord moved on to another place and healed the sick. All of this, we are told, “was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah”:

Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not quarrel or cry out;
no one will hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he leads justice to victory.
In his name the nations will put their hope.
(Matthew 12:17-21; cf. Isaiah 42:1-4)

Therefore, in this one chapter of Matthew, we have Jesus Christ proclaiming Himself as the Sabbath rest, demonstrating Himself as the Lord of the Sabbath, and attributing to Himself the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the Chosen Servant who would care for the broken and weary, unlike the religious leaders who had given themselves to casually breaking off bruised reads and snuffing out smoldering wicks. To those with weak faith, He would give hope instead of fear; to those with doubts and spiritual insecurity, He would provide a place of rest.

Praise God for his Sabbath rest, fulfilled and enriched in the Lord Jesus Christ!

Greg

Hi Nate,

Good to hear from you again. I hope you are safe wherever you are. I second the others in thanking you for posting the quotes from Calvin.

Stan

Here is a portion of what John Calvin wrote on the Law and Sabbath:

31. Should these remarks on the number seem to any somewhat far-fetched, I have no objection to their taking it more simply: that the Lord appointed a certain day on which his people might be trained, under the tutelage of the Law, to meditate constantly on the spiritual rest, and fixed upon the seventh, either because he foresaw it would be sufficient, or in order that his own example might operate as a stronger stimulus; or, at least to remind men that the Sabbath was appointed for no other purpose than to render them conformable to their Creator. It is of little consequence which of these be adopted, provided we lose not sight of the principal thing delineated--viz. the mystery of perpetual resting from our works. To the contemplation of this, the Jews were every now and then called by the prophets, lest they should think a carnal cessation from labour sufficient. Beside the passages already quoted, there is the following: “If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord,” (Isaiah 58:13, 14). Still there can be no doubt, that, on the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, the ceremonial part of the commandment was abolished. He is the truth, at whose presence all the emblems vanish; the body, at the sight of which the shadows disappear. He, I say, is the true completion of the sabbath: “We are buried with him by baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life,” (Rom. 6:4). Hence, as the Apostle elsewhere says, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holiday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ,” (Col. 2:16, 17); meaning by body the whole essence of the truth, as is well explained in that passage. This is not contented with one day, but requires the whole course of our lives, until being completely dead to ourselves, we are filled with the life of God. Christians, therefore, should have nothing to do with a superstitious observance of days.

32. The two other cases ought not to be classed with ancient shadows, but are adapted to every age. The sabbath being abrogated, there is still room among us, first, to assemble on stated days for the hearing of the Word, the breaking of the mystical bread, and public prayer; and, secondly, to give our servants and labourers relaxation from labour. It cannot be doubted that the Lord provided for both in the commandment of the Sabbath. The former is abundantly evinced by the mere practice of the Jews. The latter Moses has expressed in Deuteronomy in the following terms: “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, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant;--that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou,” (Deut. 5:14). Likewise in Exodus, “That thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed,” (Exod. 23:12). Who can deny that both are equally applicable to us as to the Jews? Religious meetings are enjoined us by the word of God; their necessity, experience itself sufficiently demonstrates. But unless these meetings are stated, and have fixed days allotted to them, how can they be held? We must, as the apostle expresses it, do all things decently and in orders (1 Cor. 14:40). So impossible, however, would it be to preserve decency and order without this politic arrangements that the dissolution of it would instantly lead to the disturbance and ruin of the Church. But if the reason for which the Lord appointed a sabbath to the Jews is equally applicable to us, no man can assert that it is a matter with which we have nothing to do. Our most provident and indulgent Parent has been pleased to provide for our wants not less than for the wants of the Jews. Why, it may be asked, do we not hold daily meetings, and thus avoid the distinction of days? Would that we were privileged to do so! Spiritual wisdom undoubtedly deserves to have some portion of every day devoted to it. But if, owing to the weakness of many, daily meetings cannot be held, and charity will not allow us to exact more of them, why should we not adopt the rule which the will of God has obviously imposed upon us?

33. I am obliged to dwell a little longer on this because some restless spirits are now making an outcry about the observance of the Lord’s day. They complain that Christian people are trained in Judaism, because some observance of days is retained. My reply is, That those days are observed by us without Judaism, because in this matter we differ widely from the Jews. We do not celebrate it with most minute formality, as a ceremony by which we imagine that a spiritual mystery is typified, but we adopt it as a necessary remedy for preserving order in the Church. Paul informs us that Christians are not to be judged in respect of its observance, because it is a shadow of something to come (Col. 2:16); and, accordingly, he expresses a fear lest his labour among the Galatians should prove in vain, because they still observed days (Gal. 4:10, 11). And he tells the Romans that it is superstitious to make one day differ from another (Rom. 14:5). But who, except those restless men, does not see what the observance is to which the Apostle refers? Those persons had no regard to that politic and ecclesiastical arrangement,[205] but by retaining the days as types of spiritual things, they in so far obscured the glory of Christ, and the light of the Gospel. They did not desist from manual labour on the ground of its interfering with sacred study and meditation, but as a kind of religious observance; because they dreamed that by their cessation from labour, they were cultivating the mysteries which had of old been committed to them. It was, I say, against this preposterous observance of days that the Apostle inveighs, and not against that legitimate selection which is subservient to the peace of Christian society. For in the churches established by him, this was the use for which the Sabbath was retained. He tells the Corinthians to set the first day apart for collecting contributions for the relief of their brethren at Jerusalem (1 Cor. 16:2). If superstition is dreaded, there was more danger in keeping the Jewish sabbath than the Lord’s day as Christians now do. It being expedient to overthrow superstition, the Jewish holy day was abolished; and as a thing necessary to retain decency, orders and peace, in the Church, another day was appointed for that purpose.

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It is amazing to me that the Westminster Confession and the orthodox Presbyterians don’t pay attention to Calvin on this matter. Some of them want to make Sunday another legalistic day.

Stan

Hi Greg and Stan,
Thank you so much Greg for the warm welcome and for posting the quote from Michael Horton, as it is extremely helpful and clarifying. God has certainly blessed men like him with an ability to clearly explain the truths of God’s Word. Thank you Stan for your kind words. It is great to hear from you again. I will continue to pray for you and your wife often. The trials that God is using in my life seem so light and simple when I think about what you have been experiencing. It brought tears to my eyes yesterday to see you claiming the promise of Romans 8:28 on the prayer thread. 

I agree with you Stan that it is strange that the Puritans didn’t adopt Calvin’s balanced view of the Sabbath. This is one of the areas that I would have to depart with Westminster. We humans are so prone to make any day of worship a legalistic affair, be it the 7th day or the 1st.

Nate