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The key to understanding how Jesus is our Sabbath rest lies in the Hebrew word sabat, which means “to rest or stop or cease from work.” The origin of the Sabbath dates back to Creation. After creating the heavens and the earth in six days, God “rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made” «And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. », (Genesis 2:2). This does not imply that God was tired and needed rest. We understand that God is omnipotent, meaning “all-powerful.” He possesses all the power in the universe, never tires, and His most strenuous exertion of energy does not diminish His power in the slightest. So, what does it signify that God rested on the seventh day? Simply that He ceased what He was doing. He stopped His labors. This is crucial in comprehending the establishment of the Sabbath day and the role of Christ as our Sabbath rest.
God utilized the example of His rest on the seventh day of Creation to institute the principle of the Sabbath day rest for His people. In Exodus 20:8-11 and Deuteronomy 5:12-15, God presented the Israelites with the fourth of His Ten Commandments. They were instructed to “remember” the Sabbath day and “keep it holy.” One day out of every seven, they were to rest from their labors and grant the same day of rest to their servants and animals. This was not merely a physical rest, but a cessation of labor. Whatever work they were involved in was to halt for a full day each week. (Please refer to our other articles on the Sabbath day, Saturday vs. Sunday, and Sabbath observance to delve deeper into this topic.) The Sabbath day was
Established so that people would rest from their labors, only to begin again after a one-day rest.
The various elements of the Sabbath symbolized the coming of the Messiah, who would provide a permanent rest for His people. Once again, the example of resting from our labors comes into play. With the establishment of the Old Testament Law, the Jews were constantly “laboring” to make themselves acceptable to God. Their labors included trying to obey a myriad of do’s and don’ts of the ceremonial law, the Temple law, the civil law, etc. Of course, they couldn’t possibly keep all those laws, so God provided an array of sin offerings and sacrifices so they could come to Him for forgiveness and restore fellowship with Him, but only temporarily. Just as they began their physical labors after a one-day rest, so, too, did they have to continue to offer sacrifices. Hebrews 10:1 tells us that the law “can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.” But these sacrifices were offered in anticipation of the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the cross, who “after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right of God” «but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; », (Hebrews 10:12). Just as He rested after performing the ultimate sacrifice, He sat down and rested—ceased from His labor of atonement because there was nothing more to be done, ever. Because of what He did, we no longer have to “labor” in law-keeping in order to be justified in the sight of God. Jesus was sent so that we might rest in God and in what He has provided.
Another element of the Sabbath day rest which God instituted as a foreshadowing of our complete rest in Christ is that He blessed it, sanctified it, and made it holy. Here again we see the symbol of Christ as our Sabbath rest—the holy, perfect Son of God who sGod sanctifies and makes holy all who believe in Him. God sanctified Christ, just as He sanctified the Sabbath day, and sent Him into the world «say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? », (John 10:36) to be our sacrifice for sin. In Him, we find complete rest from the labors of our self-effort because He alone is holy and righteous. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” «For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.», (2 Corinthians 5:21). We can now cease from our spiritual labors and rest in Him, not just one day a week, but always.
Jesus can be our Sabbath rest in part because He is the “Lord of the Sabbath” «For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day. », (Matthew 12:8). As God incarnate, He determines the true meaning of the Sabbath because He created it, and He is our Sabbath rest in the flesh. When the Pharisees criticized Him for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus reminded them that even they, sinful as they were, would not hesitate to pull a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath. Because He came to seek and save His sheep who would hear His voice «To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. », (John 10:3,27) «My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: », (John 10:3,27) and enter into the Sabbath rest He provided by paying for their sins, He could break the Sabbath rule.
He told the Pharisees that people are more important than sheep and the salvation He provided was more important than rules. By saying, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” «And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: », (Mark 2:27), Jesus was restating the principle that the Sabbath rest was instituted to relieve man of his labors, just as He came to relieve us of our attempting to achieve salvation by our works. We no longer rest for only one day, but forever cease our laboring to attain God’s favor. Jesus is our rest from works now, just as He is the door to heaven, where we will rest in Him forever.
Hebrews 4 is the definitive passage regarding Jesus as our Sabbath rest. The writer to the Hebrews exhorts his readers to “enter in” to the Sabbath rest provided by Christ. After three chapters of telling them that Jesus is superior to the angels and that He is our Apostle and High Priest, he pleads with them to not harden their hearts against Him, as their fathers hardened their hearts against the Lord in the wilderness. Because of their unbelief, God denied that generation access to the holy land, saying, “They shall not enter into My rest” «So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) », (Hebrews 3:11). In the same way, the writer to the Hebrews begs his readers not to make the same mistake by rejecting God’s Sabbath rest in Jesus Christ. “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:9-11).
There is no other Sabbath rest besides Jesus.
He alone fulfills the requirements of the Law, and He alone offers the sacrifice that atones for sin. He is God’s solution for us to stop relying on our own efforts. We must not refuse this exclusive path to salvation «Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. », (John 14:6). God’s response to those who opt to reject His plan is illustrated in Numbers 15. A man was caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, despite God’s clear instruction to cease all work on the Sabbath. This violation was a deliberate and defiant sin, committed with shameless audacity in broad daylight, in open rebellion against divine authority. “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp’” (verse 35). The same fate awaits those who turn away from God’s provision for our Sabbath rest in Christ. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” «how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; », (Hebrews 2:3).
