VII
The Christian’s Day of Worship
Christians are taught to worship on the first day of the week. “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gathering when I come” (1 Cor. 16:1, 2). The last phrase in this quotation shows that Paul did not refer to merely laying aside some money at home but rather to putting money into a common treasury. This definitely implies that the church was accustomed to meeting on the first day of the week. The purpose of this weekly assembling was to eat the Lord’s supper. They were rebuked for allowing something to interfere with this holy purpose (1 Cor. 11:20-26).
The importance of this assembling on the first day of the week to eat the Lord’s supper is clearly revealed. “... and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more as ye see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:24, 25). Under the guidance of the inspired apostle the church at Troas also met to eat the Lord’s supper on the first day of the week. “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight” (Acts 20:7).
Seventh Day Adventists teach that the Catholic Church changed the sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, and challenge the public to cite the Scripture which says that the first day of the week is the sabbath. There is no such scripture. The first day of the week is not the sabbath! It is the day on which Christians ought to eat the Lord’s supper. It is a day of worship, not necessarily a day of rest. Neither rest nor work should be allowed to interfere with a Christian’s worship on the first day of the week. We have met today to eat the Lord’s supper by the authority of the Scriptures cited above and not by the authority of any church. Christians were eating the Lord’s supper on the first day of the week several hundred years before the Roman Catholic Church came into existence. I hereby challenge the Sabbatarians to furnish even one word of Bible authority for eating the Lord’s supper on Saturday.
VIII
The Will of Christ
Christians are living under the reign of Christ. They are expected to obey the word that God hath spoken unto us by his Son (Heb. 1:2). This word is called the will, or testament, of Christ. As in the case of human wills, it became of force when he died on the cross. “For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth” (Heb. 6:16, 17). The will of Christ teaches Christians to worship on the first day of the week, but it does not teach them to rest on the seventh day. The will of Christ forbids murder, stealing, lying, and such like (Rom. 13:9), but it does not forbid working on Saturday. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). This grace teaches righteous living (Titus 2:11, 12), but it does not teach that Saturday should be observed as a sabbath.
When the will of Christ was established by his death on the cross, the law which God had given to the Jews through Moses at Sinai came to an end. This the Bible abundantly teaches. “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb. 10:9). “But we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter” (Rom. 7:6 ARV). In 2 Corinthians 3:6-18 we have a contrast between the law given at Sinai, including the sabbath commandments (see verse), and the will of Christ. The former was glorious; the latter much more glorious. The former was done away; the latter remaineth. “For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.”
In Galatians, chapter 3, speaking of the law God gave to the Jews at Sinai, 430 years after his covenant with Abraham, Paul says, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster” (Gal. 3:24, 25). I ask you if words could be plainer. “The law was our schoolmaster ... we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” Is that sufficient? Do I need to cite other texts, such as Colossians 2:14-16; Ephesians 2:10-22; Galatians 4:1-31, etc.? No wonder Paul said in Galatians 5:4, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are (he who would be—ARV) justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”
IX
Conclusion
Beloved, you have seen that the commandment to remember the sabbath day and keep it holy is confined to the law God gave to the Jews through Moses in the wilderness. It is not named in the history of God’s people during the 2,500 years prior to that time. It is peculiar to the law of Moses. It is not found at any other place in the Bible. It was not in force during the patriarchal dispensation. Even during the Mosaic age, or dispensation, it never applied to the Gentiles. It is not binding during the Christian dispensation. It has no place in the will of Christ. The only law in which it is found fulfilled its purpose, was fulfilled by Christ, and was taken out of the way when he died on the cross.