We have already learned that the Sabbath rest is a spiritual rest, and it is therefore impossible for one to keep the Sabbath unless Christ, whose presence gives rest, dwells in his heart by faith. Every case of conversion is a display of the creative power of God in calling out of darkness into light, in delivering from the power of darkness and translating into the kingdom of his dear Son; and the true Sabbath is a sign to every Christian of the creative power that has thus wrought for his deliverance, and which is to uphold him through all his varied experiences, as he journeys toward the eternal kingdom. As the Israelites were enabled to keep the Sabbath after they were brought out of Egypt, so the Christian, who has been delivered from the bondage of sin, can enjoy the spiritual rest, which is the true idea of Sabbath-keeping.
So the Sabbath is a sign to every Christian of the creative power of God in his deliverance from the power of sin. It is a sign to him of the blessing of God in turning him away from his iniquities. It is a sign to him of the presence of Christ to make him holy. It is a sign to him of the presence of Christ in him to sanctify him. That is to say, it is a measure of the working of that creative power in his individual experience.
But the real purpose of God in creation will not be fully carried out, until all who receive Jesus Christ have been created anew, until the body has been fashioned anew, “that it may be conformed to the body of his glory,” until the new heavens and the new earth are made. Then, with the new heavens and the new earth, with the body conformed to his glorious body, and with the character of God in Jesus Christ wrought in them by faith, the earth will be peopled with a righteous people, just as God intended in the first place, and just in pursuance of his original plan of creation. And so in the new earth the Sabbath will remain, the sign of God’s power in a completed creation. And thus we read in Isaiah 66:22, 23: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” And so onward through all the ages of eternity, the Sabbath will always be the sign of the creative power of God.
What, then, is the Sabbath?-It is the memorial of the power of God manifested to the world through Jesus Christ, not only in the creation of the heaven and the earth, but in the re-creation of the individual. What, then, is Sabbath-keeping?-It is Christian experience. What, then, is the Sabbath blessing?-It is the blessing of sanctification by the power of God working through Jesus Christ. What, then, is Sabbath-keeping?-It is the sign to the individual Christian of his own Christian experience. It is to him the measure of the working of that creative power of God in Jesus Christ, that he may be renewed in the image of God, that he may be made a perfect man in Christ Jesus. What, then, is Sabbath-keeping?-It is the sign to the Christian that he trusts for salvation in the power that created all things. What, then, is Sabbath-keeping?-It is the sign to the Christian that his hope, his confidence, are entirely in Jesus Christ, who is the Creator and Redeemer. What, then, is Sabbath-keeping?-It is the sign of his growth in Jesus Christ? What, then, is Sabbath-keeping?-It is all and in all to the Christian.
When it is understood what the Sabbath really is and what Sabbath-keeping is, there is not a person who desires Jesus Christ, there is not a person who longs for the blessings and the rest that there are in Jesus Christ, who would hesitate one moment as to what day it is. It is what it is rather than when it is that we must consider, because when we study what it is, we shall at the same time find out in the most emphatic way when it is. One day will do just as well as another in which to rest physically, but there is only one day on which we can keep Sabbath; there is only one day that has the blessing by the presence of Christ in this way. Come to the Sabbath blessing; come to Sabbath-keeping.
Christ and the Sabbath, p.25-27.
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