Because the NT does not affirm the Sabbath Law as it did the moral commands in the Ten Commandments, one needs to discern the correct doctrine for Christians by considering the following Scriptures.
1. God rested from His work and rested on the seventh day and made it holy per Gen. 2:2-3.
2. Moses promulgated the Sabbath law as the 4th of the Ten Commandments in Exo. 20:8-11, cf. Lev. 19:3&30, Deut. 5:12-15.
3. Solomon builds a temple for burnt offerings on the Sabbath in 2Chr. 2:4.
4. Isaiah said those are blessed who keep the Sabbath in Isa. 56:2-6.
5. Jeremiah commands keeping the Sabbath holy in Jer. 17:21-27.
6. Ezekiel referred to the Sabbaths in Ezek.20:12
7. Jesus declared he is Lord of the Sabbath and it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath in Matt. 12:1-12.
8. Jesus healed a crippled woman on the Sabbath in Luke 13:10-16.
If Jesus thought keeping the Sabbath was an important law, he would have affirmed it on these two occasions, but he did not specifically nullify it either, which jibes/harmonizes perfectly with Paul.
9. Paul taught that a person may rest on the Sabbath or not in Col. 2:16, Gal. 4:9-11 & Rom. 14:5.
10. Hebrews encourages Christians to enter God’s Sabbath rest by persevering faith in Heb. 3:7-4:11.
The primary sin per the NT is transgression of God's requirement for salvation (GRFS, Gal. 3:1-14), and secondary sins are transgression of Christ’s law (John 13:34), which summarizes the OT moral laws (Matt. 22:37-40) affirmed by the NT (Matt. 5:17-48) and calls them the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), which does NOT include all 613 laws of Moses, such as those pertaining to mildew and infectious disease in Lev. 14.
Jesus fulfilled/accomplished the 613 Mosaic laws (Matt. 5:17-19) and taught that righteousness must surpass/supersede that of the Pharisees (Matt. 5:20) including Paul (Acts 22:3-5), to whom Jesus appeared, saying “Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you… I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
Paul did just that when he preached to the folks (both Jews and Gentiles per Acts 14:1-5) in Galatia (Acts 13:49), encouraging them to remain true to the faith (Acts 14:22), which he reiterated in his epistle, beginning “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ… But if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal. 1:3-9)
Paul stated the true gospel thusly, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ [the HS] lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved he and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness [holiness] could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Paul may also have written Hebrews, which warns against not entering God’s Sabbath rest by not holding firmly until the end the confidence/faith in Christ (Heb. 3:14, 4:2). Heb. 7:11-10:1 begins as follows:
“If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood, why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also… The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless, for the law made nothing perfect, and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. Such a high priest truly meets our need… the Son, who has been made perfect forever, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven… The ministry of Jesus has received is superior to the old one [of Moses], since the NC is established on better promises… God said, ‘The days are coming when I will make a new covenant’ [JR 31:31-34]. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts… By calling this covenant ‘new’, he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.”
In this passage the Lord says that the OC including the Sabbath commandment is obsolete/superseded by the Gospel of Christ. Need God's Word say more?
