1. The
sabbath, in any real sense, man had entirely lost; indeed he had never entered
into God's thoughts of rest. It was His rest, and had not sin spoiled all, man
should have enjoyed that which was the result not of his own, but of God's
labour. This is the proper character of that rest which belongs to man
distinctively; but sin having come in, the necessity has arisen that God should
work afresh, if man is ever to share the rest of God (Heb. 4). Meanwhile Christ
has appeared and finished the work which God gave Him to do. Hence, we who
believe, find rest in Christ, as does God Himself. In Him, by virtue of the
accomplished and accepted work of redemption, we have our sabbath spiritually.[i]
2.
This is an important point. A part in the rest of God is the
distinctive privilege of saints — of God's people. Man had it not at the fall,
still God's rest remained the special portion of His people. He did not get it
under the law. But every distinct institution under the law is accompanied by
an enforcement of the sabbath, the formal expression of the rest of the first
Adam, and this Israel will enjoy at the end of this world's history. Till then,
as the Lord said so blessedly, My Father worketh hitherto and I work. For us,
the day of rest is not the seventh day, the end of this world's week; but the
first day, the day after the sabbath, the beginning of a new week, a new
creation, the day of Christ's resurrection, the commencement of a new state for
man, for the accomplishment of which all creation round us waits, only we are
before God in Spirit as Christ is. Hence the Sabbath, the seventh day, the rest
of the first creation on human and legal ground, is always treated with
rejection in the New Testament, though not set aside till judgment came, but as
an ordinance it died with Christ in the grave, where He passed it — only it was
made for man as a mercy. The Lord's day is our day, and precious external
earnest of the heavenly rest.[ii]
The
expression, "second first sabbath" (Luke 6: 1), at first sight
presents some difficulty, which, however, disappears upon a closer attention to
Jewish customs. The year, as regards the worship of God amongst the Jews, began
with the month Abib (Heb. "green corn"), which lasted from the middle
of March to the middle of April. In Leviticus 23, in which we find the Jewish
feasts described, we may observe that in addition to the general and weekly
recurring feasts of the sabbath, the chief feasts begin with the passover (the
14th of Abib), and that, in immediate connection with it, it was ordained that
on the day after the following sabbath the first-fruits of the corn should be
offered in the ear, a foreshadowing of the resurrection of Jesus which took
place on the morrow after the sabbath of the passover week, or feast of
unleavened bread. The Sabbath immediately following the passover was therefore
the "first" or great sabbath, and after the offering of the
firstfruits on the morrow after the sabbath, the first day of the week, the
harvest might be commenced, and the new corn eaten, which was not permitted
before, even though corn stood ripe in the fields. On the following sabbath,
the "second" after the "first" or great sabbath, we see
that the disciples ate ears of corn on the way, for the offering of the first-fruits
had already taken place on the first day of the week; and, as seven weeks or
sabbaths were counted from this day to the feast of Pentecost, it was therefore
the "first" of these seven sabbaths, or the "second" with
reference to the great sabbath of the Passover. By these explanations we have,
we think, justified the expression, "second first sabbath," and
removed any difficulty to the reader's understanding.[iii]