Is Jesus our Sabbath Rest ending the Sabbath?
The way we rest in Jesus is by keeping the Sabbath as God Commanded, not how we decide is acceptable. The proponents of this appalling excuse typically use the passage below but usually stop before verse nine. If they don’t, then they certainly never give you the honest meaning, if any, of the word translated “rest” in the KJV Bible.
Hebrews 4:1-5 “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he spoke in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. 5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.” Below is the remainder of this passage.
Hebrews 4:6-9 “Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: 7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth therefore a [Sabbath] rest to the people of God.”
The word “rest” in Hebrews 4:9 is the Greek word “sabbatismos.” The King James and New King James Version and a few other Bibles render the word as “rest” while the Amplified Bible the ASV, NASB, NIV, RSV and NRSV and several other translations somewhat more correctly render that word as “Sabbath rest.” A few Bibles such as the Darby translation transliterate the word as “Sabbatism.” Its literal translation however, is “Sabbath observance” and “The Scriptures” translated by The Institute for Scripture Research render it as such while the Thayer dictionary and the Bible in Basic English give the equally literal phrase “Sabbath keeping.” See the Sabbath from creation to eternity for more detail on this verse.
Speaking of the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. which was nearly forty years after the cross, Jesus says pray that you do not have to flee persecution on the Sabbath day. (Matthew 24:20) If the Sabbath was just resting in Jesus then it would not matter what day! Do we find one single verse in the Bible that says anything like, “the seventh day is no longer the Sabbath of the Lord and we no longer need to rest or worship God on this day that is no longer blessed and Holy?” There is no such verse. Jesus said He did not come to destroy the law and in Matthew 5:18 He also stated that “the law will not change till heaven and earth pass.” Has heaven and earth passed? No. So neither have the clear words of God changed.
Isaiah 66:22-23 also corroborates this stating, “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.”
