by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
The Sabbath day was for Israel to have a day of rest. Paul, by the Spirit, said that sabbaths, among many other things, were a “shadow<\/em>” of the good things to come (Colossians 2:13-16). Since the shadows lead up to the substance that cast the shadow (Jesus), the substance takes preeminence. The shadow absorbs into the substance.<\/p>\n The food laws of the Old Testament were also for the Israelites, and after the substance (Jesus) fulfilled the shadows, the shadows were no longer employed as binding law. Paul, by the Spirit, said, “let no one judge you in regard to foods…..and sabbaths<\/em>.” Since we have Jesus, we have our clean food and our rest. It is spiritual food, and it is spiritual rest in Him. The earthly food was a shadow of the spiritual food. The earthly Sabbaths were shadows of the spiritual rest we have in Christ. It is not a single day like the Jews had a single day, the seventh day (our Saturday), but our rest is always in Christ.<\/p>\n Sunday is not a new Sabbath. It is a day Christians come together (Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 16:1-2), but it is not “the Christian Sabbath”. Otherwise, people could judge us regarding this new Sabbath. Paul said not to let anyone judge you regarding Sabbaths. Now, we may be judged for forsaking the assembling on the first day of the week (Hebrews 10:24-25; Acts 20:7), but not regarding sabbaths. You see, Sunday is not just a new Sabbath. Our Sabbath rest is always in Christ. Sunday is just the day we meet. Jesus was raised on the first day of the week (Matthew 28:1), the Spirit came upon the apostles on Pentecost (Acts 2), which fell on the first day of the week (Leviticus 23), the Lord’s church was started on the first day of the week, and so the disciples of Jesus met on the first day of the week by Spirit approved precedent for all time to come.<\/p>\n If you want to think of “the Christian Sabbath,” you don’t think of a physical rest but a spiritual rest that you always have in Christ. Our rest is from the struggles against sin. In Jesus, we confess our sins and rest assured that they are forgiven (I John 1:7-2:2). Our conscience finds rest for our souls. Our hearts have rest. Rest assured that Jesus is our pure food, the bread of life. We can eat pork now because it is no longer a binding law that you can’t eat pork. That was a shadow law for Israel, pointing to Christ as the pure food for the soul. Likewise, no one can judge us regarding sabbaths (Read Colossians 2:13-16). Jesus is the Sabbath rest for our souls. The substance is greater than the shadow. The shadow is absorbed in the substance. Jesus is our Sabbath at all times.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton The Sabbath day was for Israel to have a day of rest. Paul, by the Spirit, said that sabbaths, among many other things, were a “shadow” of the good things to come (Colossians 2:13-16). Since the shadows lead up to the substance that cast the shadow (Jesus), the substance takes preeminence.…<\/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":[27],"tags":[348,84],"class_list":["post-67248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-sabbath","tag-worship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":69739,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-sabbath-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":67248,"position":0},"title":"The Sabbath (2)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The Sabbath was the seventh day of the week. It was designated to Israel as their day of rest, patterned after the fact that God rested from creative work on the seventh day (Exodus 20:11). The rules for Israel were expounded upon in other parts of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88684,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/he-takes-away-the-first\/","url_meta":{"origin":67248,"position":1},"title":"He Takes Away the First","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Hebrews 10:9 says, \"\u2026He takes away the first that He may establish the second.\" What is the first, and what is the second? The first is the law of Moses and its system of animal sacrifices. Paul agrees in Colossians 2:11-16 that the old system with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64073,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-sabbath-was-saturday-not-sunday\/","url_meta":{"origin":67248,"position":2},"title":"The Sabbath Was Saturday, Not Sunday","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 16, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The 7th day of the week is the old Sabbath commanded of the Israelites (Exodus 20:8-11). Are we to keep it? No! We are not under the law of Moses (Romans 7:6). The inspired apostle Paul said that the ordinances of the law were \"abolished\" in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33424,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/limits-of-the-old-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":67248,"position":3},"title":"Limits of the Old Testament","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 19, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The Old Testament was the inspired, God-given rule of law for the nation of Israel. It was not given to all people. \"The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us\" (Deuteronomy 5:2-3). Nehemiah spoke to God about the history of Israel:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18955,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-remembering-the-sabbath-a-perpetual-moral-duty\/","url_meta":{"origin":67248,"position":4},"title":"Isn’t remembering the Sabbath a perpetual moral duty?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: One question about the Sabbath that I have not seen addressed on this site is that the Reformed school (some Presbyterians and the Puritans) argue that the duty to sanctify one day in seven is a perpetual moral duty and that therefore Colossians 2:16 et al. do not eliminate\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":87517,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/but-you-mix-your-fabrics\/","url_meta":{"origin":67248,"position":5},"title":"But You Mix Your Fabrics","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Often, those who want to justify their ignoring the Bible on sexual sins will retort with how silly the Bible is and how inconsistent we are since the same book said not to mix your fabrics or not to eat lobster or pork! So, if you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/fabric-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67248","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=67248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}