The Lord's Day - Henry Scudder
Put a difference between this and the other six days, even as you put a difference between the bread and wine in the sacrament, and that which is for common use. And that because it is set apart for Holy use, by divine institution. For as the seventh day, from the beginning of the creation, until the day of Christ’s blessed resurrection; so our Lord’s day which is the day of the resurrection, is by divine institution moral.Now it appears, that it was the will of our Lord and Savior Christ, that we should, since his resurrection, keep for our Sabbath that first day of the week; forasmuch as he arose on that day, (John 20:1-19), and appeared divers times on this our Lord’s day to his disciples before his ascension; and did on this day, being the day of Pentecost, (Acts 2:1-4), fill his disciples with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, then being assembled together; all which gives a pre-eminence to this day, and a probability to the point.
But inasmuch as the apostles, (1 Cor. 11:1) who followed Christ, and delivered nothing but what they received from Christ, (1 Cor. 11:23 and 14:37), did observe this day as the Sabbath, (1 Cor. 16:1-2); what can this argue but a divine institution of this day? The apostle Paul might have chosen any other day, for the people to assemble to hear the word, and receive the sacrament: but they assembled to receive the sacrament, and to hear the word, upon the first day of the week, which is our Lord’s day, (Acts 20:6-7). Now the approved practice of the apostles, and of the church with them, recorded in Scripture, carries with it the force of a precept.
Moreover, the Spirit of God honors this day with the title of the Lord’s day, (Rev. 1:10) as he does the communion Supper of the Lord, (1 Cor. 10:21 and 21:20). What does this argue but as they both have reference to Christ, so they are both appointed by Christ.
Henry Scudder – The Christian’s Daily Walk
posted by Doug E. @ 3:20 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
My friend and I were recently looking into this issue: if the keeping of the Sabbath was a creation ordinance and whether this was upheld by Christ and should therefore be upheld by us, and if so, how. Does that mean resting from work...?
How do you interpret and apply this in your own life, Doug...and others?
Sadly, I don't think I revere it enough.
Miss,
I don't think we revere it enough either, nor do I claim to be the posterchild on how to do it.
Ultimately the answer is going to revolve around the idea of keeping it Holy, and what that means. To be honest with you I'm still working through this myself, so I would love to hear other comments on this too.
Scudder, the author of this book, would be seen as radical in today's society. He thinks our thought and intentions for the day should be focused the things of God.
Doug
This is a great article on Sunday as the Lord's Day. I sometimes wonder though (usually after four hours of teaching and preaching plus a committee meeting or two), do we violate the purpose of the Lord's Day as churches by being so busy on that day? It seems at times that we put the focus more onto works rather than worship.
I think that Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the Sabbath Day and it is He who provides us the Sabbath Day's rest in His blood, so that we can rest from all of our labors (see Hebrews). The Sabbath is made to help us, and though Jesus literally fulfilled our requirments to actually abstain from work, the principle to physically rest one day a week is a good habit, as are the other useful habits laid out for us in Scripture, but we don't actually become holy by doing them. Holiness comes from Christ's work on the cross alone. In His blood we are cleansed from sin and from the requirements of the law. The dangerous part about trying to literally follow a Sabbath rest to aquire godliness, is that, first of all if is impossible to actually follow. I mean, what is rest and what is not? This is the problem that the Jews got into. Also, if we do follow a literal resting from work on Sabbath, then what do we accomplish? There is a sense of self-righteousness that developes, like we did something, or had something to offer God. Also, if we try to measure up to this rule, then which next do we follow? Not eating certain foods? A percentage of giving? Isn't this all just external stuff and doesn't God just want us to give Him all of our love and devotion and worship in fulness and in truth and in the righteousness that comes from His blood alone? Finally, if we follow the literal meaning, to rest on the Sabbath, we miss the larger point and that is to learn to REST IN HIM from all of our labor so we can sit on His lap like a child does to a Grandfather and just RELAX. He's taken care of everything. We can worship.
A.O.C.
I take your thoughts with deep respect, and our ultimate rest is found in Christ and His work. But like the rest of the 10 commandments we don't keep them to be be made worthy, but because of what He has done for us.
The real issue is whether or not the Sabbath still has any moral binding for us. Though it is one of those laws that has a cerimonial aspect tied to it, it does seems to have a moral binding in it. The eating of foods and many of the other things you mention were purely Levitical in their scope (which Christ fulfilled), but the sabbath seems to go deeper than that, merely by it being in the ten commandments which are not Levitical ultimately, but moral.
Our true rest is found only in Christ and I fully agree with your theology of salvation, but like the Lord's supper and baptism which are to be done in His name and are New Testament cerimonies, the Sabbath seems to still be one law that has both moral and cerimonial aspects to it. We are to do in honor of the rest we have found in Him.
Just my thoughts, I could be wrong,
Thanks for you comment,
Doug
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