“Sabbath” means “rest.” Sabbatarians admit this. Hear Uriah Smith (leading Adventist), “The word ‘sabbath’ means ‘rest.’ That is the one sole idea it conveys, first, last, and all the way between.”—What Was Nailed to the Cross, page 11. Granted. Now we have but to inquire what the rest of God’s people in the new covenant consists of, and we have the Sabbath of this dispensation. Here is the answer:
“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: again, he limiteth a certam day, saying in David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus [Joshua, margin] had given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Heb. 4:1-11).
The whole Epistle to the Hebrews is a powerful treatise on the high and lofty privileges extended to God’s people through Christ’s atonement. Christian perfection is a golden thread that runs from one end to the other. Into this deeper, richer, sweeter experience to be found “within the vail,” in the “holiest of all,” the Hebrews are urged by the blood of Jesus “to enter.” This happy state enjoyed by those who are sanctified the writer calls “rest.” He urged the Hebrew brethren “to enter that rest.” Nor is this rest deferred till a future millennium; but “we which have believed do enter into rest.” A present experience. This is denominated “his Christ’s rest,” “my rest.” A rest we find in Jesus Christ. We inquire, What is it? The answer is clear: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. And ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matt. 11:28, 29). The Sabbath rest of the gospel is a rest of the soul. This rest we find in the bosom of his love. “I will give you rest.” Oh, how sweet! He who calmed the raging storm, and said, “Peace be still,” speaks to the storm-tossed soul on the mad billows of sin, saying, “I will give you rest.” This blessed rest is found in Christ’s redeeming love. It is enjoyed in perfect holiness. It is a rest that gives “quietness and assurance forever.” Isaiah speaks of it thus: “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious” (Isa. 11:10). A glorious rest. “Ye shall find rest for your souls” (Jer. 6:16). And this sweet tranquil rest we that have believed “do enter.” It is the Sabbath of the new covenant.
This spiritual Sabbath rest was never fully realized under the law. The seers of old prophesied concerning it, but never possessed it. “If Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.” The law day was one of types and shadows. So God “limited a certain day,” “another day,” wherein he would give the people rest in Christ. The writer to the Hebrews plainly tells us that it is “today”—this gospel day of salvation. In this day all the shadows of the law reach the substance in Christ.
In Hebrews 4, reference is made to both the old and the new sabbaths, and that with which the former stood in typical relation. In verse 4 the seventh day is mentioned as a rest, and then immediately the writer conveys the mind of the reader to the spiritual rest that “we which have believed do enter.” “If they shall enter into my rest.” He shows clearly that the seventh day was a type of the Christian’s rest which is entered by faith, and that this glorious soul-rest is our Sabbath. “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (vs. 9). “There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”—A. Layman and Revised Version. “There is then a Sabbath rest left for the people of God.”—Thomas. “There remains a Sabbatism to the people of God.”—Interlinear.
Of this higher and better Sabbath the seventh day was a shadow. “The sabbath-days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ” (Col. 2:16, 17). The law Sabbath was a shadow of something that we were to receive in Christ. The thing that we receive in him is a “glorious” “rest unto our souls.” We enter it by faith. “We which have believed do enter into rest.” This spiritual rest is denominated a “Sabbath rest” that “remains for the people of God.” This is the new-covenant Sabbath; the seventh day was but its shadow.
In the foregoing I have treated the subject of the shadowy Sabbath and its typical relation to our sweet, heavenly rest enjoyed on the bosom of divine love, the rich experience of the Christian in the gospel dispensation. But the rest which we now enter by faith is merely the foretaste of the eternal rest to be enjoyed in the hereafter. The language of Hebrews 4 clearly shows that the mind of the apostle was carried heavenward and included what Baxter was pleased to call “the saints’ eternal rest.”
God’s family in heaven and on earth is one (Eph. 3:15). The kingdom of grace here and the kingdom of glory above express the endless reign of Christ, and is properly the great “kingdom of heaven.” The Christian church of the present dispensation is properly termed the heavenly Jerusalem, and yet in Revelation 21 and 22, under the figure of the New Jerusalem, heaven with all its glory is opened to our view. In this life the redeemed are exalted to the plane of heaven and are said to be sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, yet they live in bright anticipation of some day entering heaven itself, the eternal home of the redeemed. At death the departing saints return to the Lord “that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them” (Rev. 14:13). In that land of everlasting life “the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master” (Job 3:17-19). There is no question that the writer of Hebrews 4 included this future, eternal rest in his exhortation to the church to “labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” The law Sabbath, as well as Canaan, foreshadowed our rest in Christ, which begins here with salvation and continues in heaven forever.
All chapters from The Sabbath and the Lord’s Day.
The Sabbath and the Lord’s Day. By H. M. Riggle, 1922. Life Assurance Ministries, Inc.
- The Sabbath and the Lord’s Day - October 2, 2021
- 27. Sunday-Keeping is Not the Mark of the Beast - July 8, 2020
- 26. The Pope and the Sabbath - July 2, 2020