The fourth commandment to observe the Sabbath is one over which Christians are divided. Some believe in a literal observance of it as a day, while others believe it is the spiritual meaning of it that we should understand and observe. Perhaps the group of Christians who were best known for their defense of a literal observation of it as on the Lord’s Day were the Puritans. All forms of Puritan religion – Anglican, Presbyterian, Congregational and Particular Baptist, unanimously confessed the Lord’s Day as the Christian Sabbath, a day for remembering not only the rest the Lord took when He completed creation but also the deliverance of His people in Christ. It is a day for taking rest from all other work, to delight in the finished work of the Lord, both in His creation and redemption. However this understanding of the Lord’s Day has been criticized by many as mere Puritan legalism. While acknowledging that some lesser known of the Puritans did write very legalistic works on Christian Sabbath, which even Puritan giants like John Owen detested, if properly understood, Puritan Sabbatarianism does have biblical grounds.
To explore this, the pertinent question to be asked is what was the relationship of our Lord Jesus Christ to the fourth commandment. For invariably, the argument of those who oppose Puritan Sabbatarianism is that Jesus Christ did not keep the fourth commandment literally. Moreover, they argue, He was displaying the need to keep it only spiritually, by His many healings on the Sabbath day. Is this argument an exegetically valid one? Was our Lord teaching His people to not keep it literally, but only spiritually? Is the Sabbath merely a type or shadow of the eschatological rest in Christ, which His believers have a foretaste of even now? Would Jesus view Sabbatarianism as legalism? Did Jesus Christ repeal the Sabbath?
Dr. Robert R. Gonzales Jr., the academic dean and a professor at Reformed Baptist Seminary, expounds Matthew 12:1-14 to explain what Jesus Christ really taught about the Sabbath. He demonstrates how Jesus Christ not only upholds the fourth commandment, but also demonstrates the true significance of it and restores its intended purpose.
