WSC Q&A #60

Q: How do we keep the Sabbath holy?
A: We keep the Sabbath holy by resting the whole day from worldly affairs or recreations, even ones that are lawful on other days. Except for necessary works or acts of mercy we should spend all our time publicly and privately worshipping God.
Leviticus 23:3: Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.

I want to affirm what I can affirm in this week's catechism before discussing what I cannot affirm. I do believe the Sabbath day is a day of rest. "Resting" is at the very root meaning of the word, "sabbath". The Scripture reference from Leviticus confirms this by telling us the seventh day is a day for "solemn rest". The Lord's Day should be a day where we rest from the labors and cares of our daily lives. 

I also want to affirm that there are some necessary works that must be done on the Lord's Day. Now granted, "works of necessity" seems to have become a broader category as the ages have rolled on. Part of that is cultural. Where as 30 years ago, most stores, restaurants, and other places of business were closed on Sundays, we're finding that just about everyone is open and ready for business. Our culture and society has shifted away from a Sunday Sabbath mentality overall, and the reality is this makes things much more difficult for Christians, who have to make livings and work in this society, to refrain from their "worldly affairs". But I would challenge us all to consider deeply our priorities. I can't say whether someone should work or not on Sunday. Even within the Reformed camp, there are varying opinions about the Sabbath and how things have changed in light of our true Sabbath rest being found in Jesus Christ. But at the same time, I would hope that all of us evaluate the activities in our lives that can hinder us from participating in holy rest each Lord's Day. Maybe we need to be more willing to say to our employers, "I cannot work on Sundays." Maybe we need to be more forceful and intentional with our children's sports schedules. Yes, society has changed concerning its values on the Sabbath, but that shift in society is not a mandate for the church to change her values.  

Furthermore, I want to affirm that the Lord's Day should be a day set aside for public and private worship. Again we see this confirmed in this week's Scripture passage, "a holy convocation", or in our own modern English, "a holy gathering", or "a holy assembly". The gathered worship of God's people is a vital part of keeping the Lord's Day holy. But so is private worship (which, quite frankly, we should be engaged in every day, not just the Sabbath). The personal reading of Scripture, prayer, small gatherings and fellowship with other believers, all of these are appropriate and right things to do on the Lord's Day. 

What I cannot affirm is the language of "recreation". This term is far too broad. I've only sat in on a handful of Presbytery exams since serving as a pastoral intern, but I don't think a single person I've heard examined has not taken exception with this language of refraining from "recreation" on the Lord's Day. Does this mean we are not allowed to take a walk with our family? Does this mean I would not be allowed to enjoy a few hours on a trout stream fly fishing with my father? Does this mean that Calvin broke the Sabbath by coming home from his morning services and playing "lawn bowling"? And if the Divines did indeed mean such prohibitions, my question would be, "why?" On what biblical grounds are such prohibitions put onto the Sabbath? 

I believe our tendencies towards "keeping the Sabbath holy" can easily slip into legalism if we're not careful. We tend to judge how we keep the Sabbath holy based upon what we refrain from doing. Instead, let's shift our focus from what we refrain from doing to asking ourselves, "What ARE we doing to keep the Sabbath holy?" Our mentality towards the Lord's Day should not be one of, "Oh well it's Sunday so that means I can't do this or that". No, our mentality should be, "It is the Lord's Day! Today I have the privilege to gather with God's people to praise our great and holy God, to remember and celebrate our risen Lord Jesus Christ! I have the privilege to rest from my labors, to refresh both my body and soul. What a wonderful gift God has given us when he gave us the Sabbath!" When we make this change, when we shift from legalism to seeing the Sabbath as a grace and benefit for man, then I think we will find that we are making much better progress in keeping God's command to "remember the Sabbath and keep it holy". 

WSC Q&A #59

Q: Which day of the seven has God appointed to be the weekly sabbath?
A: From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath. 
Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. 

Here we come to what is, but really shouldn't be, a hot-button for some concerning the Sabbath. What day of the week is the Christian Sabbath, and why did it change from the Old Testament? I think many of us are aware of particular sects or denominations inside of Christianity that claim that Saturday is still the Christian Sabbath, such as Seventh Day Adventists. There are even movements inside of Christianity labeling themselves "Hebraic Roots" movements. These movements seek to connect Christianity with its Jewish roots. They celebrate the Old Testament feast days, follow certain Jewish liturgical structures, and yes, view the Sabbath day as Saturday, the 7th day of the week. Now this, in and of itself, is not bad or wrong. But if it leads to an abandonment of Sunday being the Christian Sabbath, or the Lord's Day, these movements don't really connect us to first century Jewish Christianity, rather, it disconnects us from the distinctly Christian heritage of the Church. 

Acts 20 clearly shows us that the early Christians gathered for worship on the first day of the week, which in our context is Sunday. Luke writes that they came together to "break bread", a statement that most likely meant celebrating the Lord's Supper, and to hear the Apostle Paul preach the Word. The gathering of believers on the first day of the week was done, as Justin Martyr would explain in his First Apology, written within 60 years of the death of the last Apostle, for several theological reasons. He writes,

"But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead." (First Apology, chapter 67)

Notice the two reasons Justin gives us for why the early Christians gathered on Sunday. First, it is the first day of Creation. Now this in and of itself is not particularly compelling, particularly when you consider the order of creation in Genesis and how the Sabbath was very intentionally placed at the end of the week. However, it is it directly connected to Justin's second reason, that Sunday is the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The resurrection of Christ not only signified his victory over sin, death, and the devil, it not only signified that the Father accepted the Son's payment for sin as satisfactory, it not only signified that yes, truly, Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and the long promised Messiah, it also signified the beginning of God's recreation through Jesus Christ's kingship over all the earth. Do you see how this connects to the first day of Creation in the mind of Justin Martyr and the early Christians? The resurrection completed the inauguration of the kingdom of God on Earth, and while we await the final consummation of the Kingdom, the resurrection of Jesus Christ shows us that what Christ prayed in the Lord's Prayer was beginning to become reality, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is heaven". 

Jesus Christ, as he declares in Matthew 12, is Lord of the Sabbath. He is our holy rest, and he is the object of our worship. He is the temple, and he is the sacrifice. We live in a New Covenant reality where Jesus Christ brings all the threads of the Old Covenant together, uniting and giving understanding to all that came before him. This is why, theologically, we celebrate the Christian Sabbath on the first day of the week, and why we boldly declare that it is the "Lord's Day". I will end this week's blog with a quote from Starr Meade, who helps us understand this theological shift concerning the Sabbath in her book, "Training Hearts, Teaching Minds":

The Sabbath was a picture of the rest we would have in Christ. From the time of creation until the Savior came, people looked ahead to the rest the Lord Jesus would give them. The Sabbath Day was at the end of the week. All week long, God's people looked forward to the Sabbath, just as, all through Old Testament times, they looked forward to Christ's coming. Now Christ has come and we look back on what He has done for us. Now our Sabbath begins our week.

WSC Q&A #57

Q: Which is the fourth commandment?
A: The forth commandment is: Remember the sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the seventh day and made it holy.
Genesis 2:2-3: And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

I'm particularly excited about examining the fourth commandment! I think that out of all the commandments, the fourth commandment is the most neglected by the modern church. We seem to have a generally low view of the sabbath day and what it means to keep it holy. Perhaps that stems from an attempt at not appearing to be legalistic. And surely, as certain theological trends arose in the 20th century that divided the continuity between Old and New Testament, opinions about how to apply the law to the New Covenant Community began to arise, and out of all the ten commandments, the fourth commandment got shafted in a big way. Generally, people in the church still agree that murdering someone, stealing, not honoring your mother and father, etc., all bad and terrible things, but for some reason, not keeping the sabbath day holy seems to be optional for God's people. And while I don't consider myself a strict sabbatarian (that is to say, I'm not someone who believes all we can do on Sundays is eat, sleep, and go to church), and sitting through many presbytery exams it's clear that many, if not most, who are licensed or ordained in the PCA take exception to the Westminster Confession of Faith's wording concerning what is permitted and forbidden on the Sabbath, I believe that it is certainly possible to have a high view of the sabbath day and not be a strict sabbatarian.

So we'll get to examine all of this over the next several weeks. We'll look at what the fourth commandment allows, what it forbids, as well as examine why we believe that since the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the New Testament ordains the first day of the week, Sunday, to be the Christian sabbath. But most importantly, we'll examine what role the sabbath day plays in our Christian worship, and why the sabbath is an important part of both our Christian discipleship and the right and proper worship of God. 

WSC Q&A #56

Q: What is the reason annexed to the third commandment?
A: The reason annexed to the third commandment is that however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment.
1 Samuel 3:13 And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.

God's name is holy. God's name is his self-chosen revelation about himself and his character. The name of God demands our reverence, our deep-seated awe and respect, and just as God will not tolerate anyone to put any other gods before him, and just as God will not tolerate anyone to worship him in a way that he has not ordained in his word, so too will he not tolerate anyone to abuse and show disrespect to his great and holy name.

Phil Ryken recently wrote:

"The reason God will condemn us (for breaking the third commandment) is because misusing his name is a very great sin. It is a direct attack on his honor and glory, and anyone who makes such an attack deserves condemnation. When people break the third, or any of the commandments, they are guilty before God, and ultimately they will be judged for their sins."

We, of course, know this, and this is why the Christian puts his hope and trust in Jesus Christ's life of perfect obedience to the law of God. What other hope do we have? We know none of us keeps God's law. It is a great grace to be united to Christ, to have his righteousness counted towards us. We must always remember this. But concerning the third commandment, we should also remember that it is a great grace that God would reveal his personal name to unrighteous sinners. It's a great privilege to be able to address the God of all creation by his name, but such a great privilege brings a great responsibility with it. If we love God, if we respect God and care about his glory, we must strive to obey God and show his great and holy name the reverence it is owed. 

WSC Q&A #55

Q: What is forbidden in the third commandment?
A: The third commandment forbids all profaning or abusing of anything whereby God makes himself known.
James 5:12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. 

It's interesting to me that the Westminster Divines take the third commandment far beyond just "taking the Lord's name in vain". The Divines, in this question, do not limit this commandment to the verbal abuse of God's holy name. Rather, they apply it to the whole scope of God's revelation to his creatures. Think about this answer a bit. "The third commandment forbids all profaning or abusing of anything whereby God makes himself known". Now certainly, God has made himself known by and through the various titles and names he reveals in the Scripture. But God has also made himself known not simply in those portions of Scripture where he declares, "I am who I am", or "I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob", etc., but rather, God has made himself known throughout the whole of the Scripture! Every page of the Bible speaks about and declares the attributes and qualities and nature of the God we serve and worship. 

But this catechism demands that we think even beyond the revelation of Scripture, because God has also made himself known in his works of Creation. Here I think specifically of Romans 1:20. "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made." 

The Divines' broad understanding of the third commandment have big implications. What, for example, does this understanding of the third commandment say about how we are to treat both the Scriptures and the created order? It should certainly make us pause and consider how we use and abuse God's good creation. Are we being responsible stewards, or are we abusing and profaning God's general revelation? And concerning the Bible, God's special revelation, the third commandment should really give us pause to consider how we use his revealed Word. Do we treat the Bible as God's revelation of himself to us, or are the texts nothing more than bendable, pliable words there for us to twist and manipulate in such a way that appeases our own sense of what is good and right, what is fair, what is tolerant or accepting, whatever the case may be? 

I'm not sure if the Divines were right to understand the third commandment this broadly. I'm not sure they were wrong either! It all goes back to the issue of reverence and showing respect to the means by which God makes himself known. Certainly the third commandment addresses that issue as it concerns the name of God. And certainly all of God's chosen means of self-revelation are worthy of being shown reverence. I'm just not sure if the third commandment is really addressing the issue of respect and reverence towards general and special revelation, even if God's revealing of his holy name falls into those broader categories. If anything, though, this week's catechism should be a reminder to us of the all-encompassing nature of God's holiness. We are right to think of God as holy, but we also need to see that his holiness encompasses all that he is and all that he reveals about himself. And while I'm not saying that creation itself should be considered holy, just as I'm not saying that the paper and ink that make up the pages of the Bible are holy, the revelation of God as revealed in the created order, and the revelation of God as revealed in the very words of Scripture, should absolutely be considered holy, and should therefore be shown the same reverence that we would show to God himself.