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Rest and Resurrection: The Christian Rhythm of Saturday and Sunday

Why the Sabbath Still Matters and

Why the Lord's Day Should

Still Be Celebrated

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FEW SUBJECTS IN the Bible generate more confusion/defensiveness among Christians than when we worship. Is the Sabbath still a thing? Has Sunday replaced it? Are Christians free to celebrate any day of the week, let alone, Sunday?


This blog post argues for a both/and position that is biblically faithful, centered on the pattern of Yeshua, Paul, and the early disciples, and historically grounded since the day of the first gathering of believers:


The "elect" should honor the seventh-day Sabbath (Saturday) as a day of rest in recognition of the pattern of the Creator, and gather on the first day (Sunday) to celebrate the resurrection of Christ and share the Lord's Supper. - Lee Grey

This approach neither abolishes the Sabbath nor misrepresents Sunday as something it was never intended to be. Instead, it allows each day to retain its God-given meaning.


1. The Sabbath Is a Specific, Holy Day:

The Sabbath is not a flexible religious idea. In Scripture, it is defined by Yahweh himself.


"Yahweh blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it Yahweh rested from all his work."* - Genesis 2:3*¹

Notice the timing in the pattern:

  • It occurs before the Law

  • It is grounded in creation, not ethnicity

  • It is never revoked or rescinded


The Fourth Commandment does not redefine the Sabbath; it preserves it:


"The seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God."* - Exodus 20:10*²

Biblically speaking, the Sabbath is the seventh day. Historically and calendrically, that day is Saturday...like I have stated, the Sabbath is a thing.


Scripture does NOT:

  • Call Sunday the Sabbath

  • Transfer Sabbath holiness

  • Command a new Sabbath day


2. Yeshua Did Not Abolish the Sabbath — He Restored It:

Yeshua's arguments with the Pharisees were not about whether the Sabbath should exist, but about how it was being used. He was challenging the Pharisees on their legalistic understanding of what the Sabbath was established for.


"The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."* - Mark 2:27*³

Far from minimizing the Sabbath, Jesus reestablishes/resets its true meaning.


He also declares:


"The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."* - Mark 2:28*⁴

This does not mean the Sabbath disappears. It means the Sabbath finds its true orientation in Christ..its true North Star.


Yeshua heals, free's, and liberates on the Sabbath - because it was meant for life, not control and coersion.


3. Fulfillment Means Completion, Not Cancellation:

When Yeshua says He came to "fulfill" the Law (Matthew 5:17), the Greek plēroō means to bring to fullness or intended goal.⁵


Fulfillment does not equal cancelled.


Examples:

  • Prayer continues after the Temple

  • Sacrifice continues as self-giving rather than regarding animals

  • Scripture continues after the prophets


Likewise:

  • The purpose of the Sabbath is fulfilled in Christ

  • The practice of rest remains meaningful


Yeshua fulfills the Sabbath by revealing what it was always for: rest, trust, and restored humanity.


4. The Resurrection Introduces a New Day — It Does Not Replace the Old One:

The resurrection of Yeshua occurs on the first day of the week, inaugurating new creation.


The New Testament shows believers gathering on this day:


"On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread..."*(Acts 20:7)*⁶
"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day."*(Revelation 1:10)*⁷

Crucially:

  • Sunday is called the Lord's Day

  • It is never called the Sabbath


The resurrection adds a sacred rhythm; it does not redefine the seventh day. It is an addition to the practice of believers.


5. Early Christians Often Observed Both Days

In the earliest decades:

  • Jewish Christians commonly rested on the Sabbath

  • Believers gathered on First Day (Sunday) for Eucharist and proclamation


This dual pattern and purpose appears naturally in Acts and some of the earliest Christian writings.⁸ The apostles never condemn Sabbath rest. They only rejected making it compulsory or identity-defining, especially for Gentiles (Acts 15; Romans 14:5–6).


6. Why Calling Sunday the "Christian Sabbath" Is a Mistake

The phrase "Christian Sabbath" does not appear in Scripture or the early Church.


It emerges much later, especially in Reformed and Puritan contexts,⁹ and creates several problems:

  • It redefines the Fourth Commandment without biblical warrant

  • It collapses creation rest into the celebration of the Ressurrection

  • It often its own legalism under a new name

  • It blurs the line of distinction for both the Sabbath and the Lord's Day.


Sunday is not a "ressurected" Sabbath. It is a distinctly Christian day with a distinct purpose.


7. Keeping the Sabbath Holy — in the Way Yeshua Intended

To keep the Sabbath holy in Christ is not to mimic Pharisaic restrictions.


It is to:

  • Cease from ordinary striving

  • Refuse productivity as identity

  • Trust God with what remains undone

  • Make space for mercy, healing, and joy


"Come to me... and I will give you rest."*(Matthew 11:28)*¹⁰

This kind of holiness is received, not enforced.


8. A Faithful Christian Rhythm

A biblically faithful approach looks like this:


Saturday (7th Day) - Sabbath

  • Rest

  • Trust

  • Restoration

  • Holy because God made it so


Sunday (1st Day) - Lord's Day

  • Gathering

  • Lord's Supper

  • Proclamation

  • Celebration of the resurrection


Neither day replaces the other. Neither day saves. Christ alone is our ultimate rest (Hebrews 4:9–10).


Conclusion: Let the Gifts Remain Gifts

The Sabbath is holy, set apart, and rooted in the pattern of Creation. The resurrection is victorious. We do not honor Yahweh by forcing one to erase the other.


When Christians:

  • Rest freely on the seventh day

  • Celebrate joyfully on the first

  • Refuse to judge one another over days


They are not undermining grace. They are living within Yahweh's time.


Prepare Today | Prevail Tomorrow


Lee

Psalm 91


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***NOTE***Common Objections:


Objection 1: "Paul says not to observe days at all."

Paul says not to judge or bind consciences over days (Romans 14; Colossians 2). He does not forbid voluntary, faithful observance.


Objection 2: "If Sabbath is fulfilled, why keep it?"

Fulfillment reveals purpose; it does not prohibit practice. We still pray, rest, and gather—all fulfilled realities.


Objection 3: "Isn't this Judaizing?"

No. Judaizing imposes Mosaic identity markers as salvific. Voluntary Sabbath rest grounded in creation and Yeshua is not covenantal coercion.


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References:

  1. Genesis 2:1–3

  2. Exodus 20:8–11

  3. Mark 2:27

  4. Mark 2:28

  5. BDAG Greek Lexicon, plēroō

  6. Acts 20:7

  7. Revelation 1:10

  8. Didache 14; Ignatius, Magnesians 9

  9. Westminster Confession of Faith, ch. 21

  10. Matthew 11:28

  11. Hebrews 4:9–10




The dawn breaks over an Indiana field, reminding us that God's gift of rest is followed by the joy of a new day.

Image credit: Lee Grey / TraversersBlogRadio.com.

All rights reserved.

 
 
 

Comments

In Congress, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of

Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

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       He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

       He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

       He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

       He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

       He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

       He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

       He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

       He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

       He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

       He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

       He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

       He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

       He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

       For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

       For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

       For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

       For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

       For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

       For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

       For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

       For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

       For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

       He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

       He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

       He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

       He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

       He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

 

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

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