When the Jews in their self-sufficiency
asked, "What shall we do that we might work the works of
God?" Jesus replied, "This is the work of God, that
ye believe on him whom he hath sent. John 6:28, 29. Faith works.
Gal. 5:6; 1 Thess. 1:3. It brings God's works into the believing
one, since it beings Christ into the heart (Eph. 3:17), and in
Him is all the fulness of God. Col. 2:9. Jesus Christ is "the
same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb. 13:8), and therefore
God not only was but is in Christ, reconciling the world unto
Himself. So if Christ dwells in the heart by faith, the works
of God will be manifest in the life, "for it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
Phil. 2:13.
How this is done is not within the range
of our comprehension. We do not need to know how it is done,
since we do not have it to do. The fact is enough for us. We
can no more understand how God does His works, than we can do
those works. So the Christian life is always a mystery, even
to the Christian himself. It is a life hidden with Christ in
God. Col. 3:3. It is hidden even from the Christian's own sight.
Christ in man, the hope of glory, is the mystery of the gospel.
Col. 1:27.
In Christ we are created unto good works
which God has already prepared for us. We have only to accept
them by faith. The acceptance of those good works is the acceptance
of Christ. How long "before" did God prepare those
good works for us? "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"--i.e., they,
the unbelieving, shall not--"enter into my rest." Heb.
4:3-5. But "we which have believed do enter into rest."
The Sabbath, therefore--the seventh day
of the week--is God's rest. God gave the Sabbath as a sign by
which men might know that He is God and that He sanctifies. Eze.
20:12. 20. Sabbath-keeping has nothing whatever to do with justification
by works, but is, on the contrary, the sign and seal of justification
by faith. It is a sign that man gives up his own sinful works
and accepts God's perfect works. Since the Sabbath is not a work
but a rest, it is the mark of rest in God through faith in our
Lord Jesus Christ.
No other day than the seventh day of the
week can stand as the mark of perfect rest in God, because on
that day alone did God rest from all His works. It is the rest
of the seventh day, into which He says the unbelieving cannot
enter. It alone of all the days of the week is the rest day,
and it is inseparably connected with God's perfect work.
On the other six days, including the first
day of the week, God worked. On those days we also may and ought
to work. Yet on every one of them we also may and ought to rest
in God. This will be the case if our works are "wrought
in God." John 3:21. So men should rest in God every day
in the week, but the seventh day alone can be the sign of that
rest.
Two things may be noted as self-evident
conclusions of the truths already set forth. One is that the
setting apart
of another day than the seventh, as the sign
of acceptance of Christ and of rest in God through Him is in
reality a sign of rejection of Him. Since it is the substitution
of man's way for God's way, it is in reality the sign of man's
assumption of superiority above God and of the idea that man
can save himself by his own works. Not everyone who observes
another day has that assumption, by any means. There are many
who love the Lord in sincerity and who accept Him in humility,
who observe another day than that which God has given as the
sign of rest in Him. They simply have not learned the full and
proper expression of faith. But their sincerity and the fact
that God accepts their unfeigned faith does not alter the fact
that the day which they observe is the sign of exaltation above
God. When such hear God's gracious warning they will forsake
the sign of apostasy as they would a plague-stricken house.
The other point is that people cannot
be forced to keep the Sabbath, inasmuch as it is a sign of faith
and no man can be forced to believe. Faith comes spontaneously
as the result of hearing God's word. No man can even force himself
to believe, much less can he compel somebody else. By force a
man's fears may be so wrought upon that he may say he believes
and he may act as though he believed. That is to say, a man who
fears man rather than God may be forced to lie. But "no
lie is of the truth." Therefore since the Sabbath is the
sign of perfect faith, it is the sign of perfect liberty--"the
glorious liberty of the children of God"--the liberty which
the Spirit gives, for the Sabbath, as a part of God's law, is
spiritual. And so, finally, let no one deceive himself with the
thought that an outward observance of even God's appointed rest
day--the seventh day--without faith and trust in God's word alone,
is the keeping of God's Sabbath. "For whatsoever is not
of faith is sin."
Bible Echo, August 17, 1896
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