I think there is gross misunderstanding about whether one should keep the Sabbath (and other Laws of God) because of a gross misunderstanding of what the Pharisees promoted and why Christ opposed them. No believer in Christ wants to side with the Pharisees, and rightfully so. But the following
incorrect contest is created with this misunderstanding:
The New Testament
Grace (by Christ)
VS.
The Old Testament
Law (by Pharisees)
I think this gross misunderstanding of the what the Pharisees promoted is due to the fact that we haven't taken any time to study who the Pharisees were and what they were actually doing. Instead, we accept what we were told about them; to see them as the "religious leaders" of Christ's time (which is an incomplete picture) and thus they become the representatives of everything that has "passed away" (lumping together all the law of God; the "old wine skins"; the old testament, etc). So then when believers read NT passages and letters where Pharisees or The Law is referenced they carrying over the same gross misunderstanding instead of rightly dividing. I think this is the root of the issue.
So I will be bold in making the following statement:
Thus says the Lord; The pharisees did NOT teach obedience to God's law but taught obedience to their own traditions. Again, thus says the Lord God of Abraham; The Pharisees did NOT teach obedience to God's law but taught obedience to their traditions that they added to God's law.
Now anyone who knows the scriptures knows that God warns against anyone speaking on his behalf presumptuously and the truth should be diligently searched out and that person is in big trouble if they're false, so I hope this spurs the reader to diligently research what I'm saying.
Christ opposed the Pharisees because their traditions perverted God's law, including his Sabbath law. When the Pharisees accused Christ of breaking the Sabbath law they were
not speaking as God's representatives
nor as zealots for God's law, but as leaders of their
OWN "man-made" religious organization that God *did not create* or sanction to be created. God warned against adding to or taking away from his words, but that's exactly what the Pharisees did. Christ called the Pharisees "Hypocrites", "brood of vipers" and "
children of the Devil" so could they *possibly* represent God or his law in any capacity? Absolutely not. No, the true contest was/is this:
Truth of God's Law and the
Grace to follow it correctly (by Christ)
VS.
Traditions of Men and continued
Bondage to sin (by Pharisees)
It's the same exact contest even today.
If the reader doesn't understand this critical truth they will *always* reach an incorrect understanding of what Christ was opposing and preaching during his ministry, and without the proper foundation *everything else* they read in the NT will be misunderstood, including the Sabbath day.
Romans 8:7
The carnal mind is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.
- Carnal mind Does not want to keep God's law (i.e. hostile)
- Carnal mind Can not keep God's law
- Carnal mind Does not keep God's law
So scripture details three key characteristics of the carnal mind. But in stark contrast...
- Christ wanted to keep God's law
- Christ Could keep God's law
- Christ Did keep God's law
So the opposite characteristics are true of Christ, and we know that he doesn't change, thus if Christ does all the work inside the believer as the believer no longer lives but Christ lives in them, then...
- If Christ is in you, you want to keep God's law
- If Christ is in you, you can keep God's law
- If Christ is in you, you do keep God's law
So scripture teaches as a fact that the carnal mind rather do *anything else* than to obey God's law in any way, but the mind of Christ (i.e. his Spirit)
wants to obey God's law at all times because the law is holy and spiritual, and Christ is the same. So setting aside for a moment the argument for or against the "ability" to keep the Sabbath, I think the first order of business is to ask the following question and test the spirit within oneself:
"Do I
*want* to keep the Sabbath day?"
I think it's a simple but important question...Because if one merely
want to then that alone confirms none other than Christ in you (as you no longer live, remember?). Only he is Lord of the Sabbath and his only desire was to please God by obeying him. Again, scripture says
he does not change, and that he is
inside the believer doing the work, so he's not going to be a different Christ inside you than he was out of you 2000 years ago. Never once did Christ break the Sabbath day, and never once did he speak or teach against the Sabbath day.
And again, I don't think arguments for or against the Sabbath day or whether one understands it or not is as important as whether one
wants to keep the Sabbath day. So if you want to; if your soul says "yes, I want to keep God's Sabbath day" then that's evidence of Christ's Holy Spirit working inside you and understanding of its significance, adherence, understanding and/or fulfillment is inevitable in your walk.
But the desire to keep it would be there, not hostility against it.