Christ was asked in the Bible, “Lord, what must I do to enter the kingdom of Heaven?” Christ replied, “keep the commandments” and named a few of them. Since keeping the Sabbath was one of them, shouldn’t we keep the Sabbath today?<\/p>\n\t
You are referring to the question asked by the rich young ruler, found in\u00a0Matthew 19:16-22: “Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.<\/i>“<\/p>\n
Jesus told the young man that he needed to keep the commandments and listed six of the Ten Commandments as examples. Though the commandment for keeping the Sabbath was not listed, it is understood that Jesus was telling the young man to keep all of God’s commands. The young man responded that he had been keeping the commands, but wanted to know what more he should do. Jesus gave him two more things to do: sell all that he had and give it to the poor and follow Jesus. Though the earlier list were things found in the Old Testament, the second set of things Jesus asked of the young man is not found in the Old Testament. Jesus proves that the young man was unwilling to fully commit his life to God.<\/p>\n
When using this passage as proof that Christians should keep the Ten Commandments, a fundamental point is overlooked: the law changed when Jesus died on the cross. “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross<\/i>” (Colossians 2:13-14). Paul argues that the law had to change in order for salvation to be brought to the uncircumcised (the Gentiles). Because a person did not have to be a Jew to be a Christian, Paul further argued that Christians are not to be judged by their keeping former requirements, such as food and drink regulations, festivals, and the Sabbath. “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ<\/i>” (Colossians 2:16-17).<\/p>\n
At the time that Jesus spoke to the rich young man, the Law of Moses was still in effect. If the young man desired eternal life, he needed to obey God’s commands. Interestingly, the ones Jesus selected as examples were among those which remained the same between the Old and New Law. Just because the law would be changing in a short while, it wasn’t an excuse to rebel against the currently existing laws.<\/p>\n
Therefore, this verse does not prove that the keeping of the Sabbath was a law carried over into Christ’s Law. The law under discussion was the Mosaical Law which was in effect at that time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Christ was asked in the Bible, “Lord, what must I do to enter the kingdom of Heaven?” Christ replied, “keep the commandments” and named a few of them. Since keeping the Sabbath was one of them, shouldn’t we keep the Sabbath today? Answer: You are referring to the question asked by the rich young…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[54,115,268,348,176],"class_list":["post-2461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-obedience","tag-old-law","tag-old-testament","tag-sabbath","tag-ten-commandments"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10366,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-the-observance-of-the-sabbath-predate-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":2461,"position":0},"title":"Doesn’t the observance of the Sabbath predate Israel?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read that response the only problem is that the Sabbath was instituted way before there were Jews and Gentiles, back in Genesis 2:1-2. Therefore, it wasn't given just to the Israelites but to all humankind to enjoy and celebrate the creation of the Earth by God. I could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18993,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-sabbath-still-holy-and-set-apart\/","url_meta":{"origin":2461,"position":1},"title":"Is the Sabbath still holy and set apart?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Howdy, I came across your web site recently and have enjoyed reading the information about different subjects. I do have a question concerning the Lord's Sabbath. Is the Sabbath that Jesus sanctified in Genesis 2:3, referred to as 'My holy day in Isaiah 58:13, and of which He said\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31561,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-james-mention-of-some-of-the-ten-commandments-mean-we-are-under-all-of-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":2461,"position":2},"title":"Does James’ mention of some of the Ten Commandments mean we are under all of them?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My fiance is Seventh Day Adventist, and I am trying to convince him we are no longer required to observe a weekly sabbath. However, he is trying to convince me otherwise. This is putting a huge strain on our relationship. I have read through the articles on this site\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10369,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-remember-the-sabbath-imply-prior-observance\/","url_meta":{"origin":2461,"position":3},"title":"Does “remember the Sabbath” imply prior observance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 21, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does \"remember the Sabbath day\" imply that the Sabbath day was observed prior to the giving of the Ten Commandments? Answer: The Sabbath day was observed prior to the giving of the Law. When God gave the Israelites manna, He told them to gather the manna for six days,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11820,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-isaiah-566-8-prove-that-god-wanted-non-jews-to-keep-the-sabbath\/","url_meta":{"origin":2461,"position":4},"title":"Doesn’t Isaiah 56:6-8 prove that God wanted non-Jews to keep the Sabbath?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Now if the Sabbath was only for the nation of Israel, why does it say in Isaiah 56:6-8 that God wanted the strangers (non-Jews) to keep and observe His Sabbath along with the covenant besides the nation of Israel. Now think about it, if he wanted people outside the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11823,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wasnt-it-just-the-special-sabbaths-that-were-done-away-with-in-the-new-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":2461,"position":5},"title":"Wasn’t it just the special Sabbaths that were done away with in the New Testament?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Now I been going through your site and notice that your teaching on the Bible's teaching is mostly accurate. I have a Sabbath question: Regarding Galatians 4:10 and Colossians 2:14-17, I'm not going to lie, it seems like Jesus abolished or\u00a0nailed it to the cross because it was no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}