Is Sunday really the Christian Sabbath? On whose authority or honor do most Christians worship on Sunday? Is the seventh day Sabbath no longer binding as commanded in the 4th Commandment?
Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath. Nowhere in the Bible is Sunday called the Christian Sabbath. This language has been used by those who still believe the Ten Commandments are still in force, yet do not keep the real Sabbath day. Sabbath means seventh. Thus, the Sabbath day is the seventh day. We worship on the first day of the week based on the authority of Jesus. The first day was the day on which He was resurrected. It was the day on which the first Gospel sermon was preached in Acts 2. It is the day on which we remember Jesus’ sacrifice and accompanying resurrection, which is the basis of our justification. It is called the Lord’s Day in Revelation 1:10. It is the day on which the early church worshipped from the very beginning (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1). We also know from the writings of the early Christians that the church worshipped God on the first day of the week from the very beginning.
The Sabbath day is no longer binding on us today for the very simple reason that the Old Testament law was taken away and nailed to the cross. Many verses could be mentioned in the New Testament pointing out that the Old Law including the Ten Commandments was fulfilled by Christ and taken away. Let me just mention a few, and you can probably think of others. See Deuteronomy 5:1-3; 4:13; 9:9, 11; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 7 & 8; 13:8; Colossians 2:14; Galatians 3:22-25. It is stated in Matthew 5:17 that Christ came to fulfill the law. When something is fulfilled, there is no longer a need for it. ~ Jerry Bates
In addition, the following articles from the Archive of Gospel Gazette Online specifically treat questions about worshipping on the Sabbath versus the first day of the week today. ~ Louis Rushmore
