On page one of our Bibles we learn that our God is a God of rest (Genesis 2:2). We also learn that we were made in his image (Genesis 1:27). And this is why the Old Testament commands to rest (particularly the Sabbath) make sense.
We could put the biblical logic simply like this:
- God is a God of rest (Genesis 2:2)
- We’re made in his image (Genesis 1:27)
- So we must also rest (hence the Sabbath command in Exodus 20:8-11).
I don’t want to take away from the profundity and practicality of these truths. Profundity, because God didn’t need to be a God of rest, but he is; he didn’t need to design us to need rest, but he did. Practicality, because this then means that even in our bustling world, we must accept that fact that we’re designed by God to rest—to get enough sleep, to take a day off, to take breaks, and more.
We could write a whole post on those profundities and practicalities. But in discussing the Sabbath command and our need for rest, we can’t stop there because the Bible doesn’t. Often people do; they read that God rested on the seventh day, that he calls us to rest in places like the Ten Commandments, and assume that getting sleep and taking breaks and taking a day off is the main biblical teaching about Sabbath rest. But it’s not. It’s only the foundation; it’s the substructure of the biblical teaching about rest.
The main teaching (the superstructure) is more Christ-centered.
Jesus and Sabbath Rest
Our God of rest commanding us to rest was always meant to point us to the Christ of rest. This means that the Sabbath command specifically is not just a call for us to take a day off, sleep enough, and rest (although it does include something like that), it’s ultimately a call to seek Christ-centered, true rest.
This is why, when the God of rest himself took on flesh, he stood up and entreated,
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
He was speaking to mainly to Jewish people, who knew the buzzword “rest” pointed to the important Sabbath command. And here was a man saying that if you came to him you’d find that Sabbath rest.
Moreover, he was saying that if you came to him, not only would you find physical Sabbath rest, but something greater, something they knew the Sabbath rest was more importantly about: you’d find “rest for you soul.” True, shalom-like rest. True rest we were designed for.
So here Jesus is saying, “I am the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest. That God-designed rest you need is not going to be found only from getting enough sleep, or from not working once a week. You must come to me for it.”
Rest and Lord of the Sabbath
But you might respond saying this is speculation. How do we know that Jesus is speaking about the Sabbath rest here? Well (and many people miss this), the Gospel writer Matthew makes it quite clear for us. The chapter distinctions (which, remember, are not inspired) blur this for us, but the very next story in Matthew is about Jesus and the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-8). This is no coincidence. It’s the story where Jesus makes clear to the people that he is the Lord of the Sabbath.
In other words, putting Matthew 11 and Matthew 12 together, Jesus first stands up and says that when you come to him you get true rest for your souls, and then in the next story he emphasizes that he’s Lord over the Sabbath—meaning, the call for a physical Sabbath rest and the Sabbath itself has never mainly been about the Sabbath; it’s all been about him.
So not only is our God a God of rest, and not only do we need rest, but coming to Jesus is the true Sabbath rest.
What Is This Christ-Centered Rest?
The question then becomes: What then is this Christ-centered rest? To begin, we must say that it’s rest in the gospel. Those who come to Christ find present and eternal rest for their souls in the gospel, where we are saved by grace through faith alone in Christ alone.
But still, what would this Christ-centered, Sabbath-fulfilled rest include practically? In finding an answer, there’s two opposite errors we must avoid, which will help us find the correct, biblical pathway to God-designed rest.
Error #1: Downplaying Christ’s Rest
The first error is focusing on physical rest, but downplaying Christ in that rest. Christians who do not properly connect the Old Testament Sabbath command to Christ’s fulfillment of it in Matthew 11–12 can fall into this error. The error here is to try to obey everything physical about the Sabbath command—knowing that God is a God of rest and that we need to rest—but doing so with little regard for Christ. Those here tend to think that they are obeying the Sabbath command if they merely take a day off of work.
In sum, people here rightly know they are limited, they take a day off, they seek rest, but they do so with little regard for Christ and the gospel (or at least they don’t connect Christ’s rest to the Sabbath rest).
Error #2: Downplaying Physical Rest
The second error is the opposite of the first. This is the error of so highlighting Christ’s spiritual rest that the physical rest we need is downplayed. Those here so emphasize Christ’s Sabbath-rest fulfillment in Matthew 11-12 that it’s forgotten that we still do need physical rest. It’s essentially an over-spiritualizing of the biblical teaching on rest.
As we discussed above, God being a God of rest and us needing physical rest are only the foundation of the biblical teaching on rest; biblical rest is much more Christ-centered than just that. And yet, without the foundation, true rest falls apart.
Christ-Centered, Sabbath-Fulfilled Rest
True, biblical rest, therefore, avoids these two errors. The Old Testament truths about God being a God of rest and us needing physical rest are the substructure (or, foundation) of our rest. They matter, and without them, the building of biblical rest cannot stand.
But we can’t stop there. We can’t rest in such an unfinished house. The superstructure of rest is Christ-centered rest we find in the New Testament. We do not only need physical rest, we need that physical rest to include rest found in Christ.
Biblical, Sabbath-fulfilled rest, therefore, is a gospel-driven, Christ-centered rest for our physical bodies and our spiritual souls.
What Does This Practically Look Like?
What, then, does this biblical “Christ-centered rest for my body and soul” look like?
To find out, I encourage you to ask yourself a question:
What would it look like for me to seek physical rest while also making sure I maintain a gospel-driven, Christ-centered rest for my soul?
In each of us answering that, I think we’ll find the fulfillment of biblical Sabbath rest.
Our answers should include obvious things like getting enough sleep and taking a day off. But our answer also must include ways in which we focus on Christ and the gospel. This means that during these times of physical rest, we make sure Christ is sought and loved. We don’t just sleep, we also pray and talk to Christ. We don’t just relax, we diligently read our Bibles about Christ. We don’t just let our minds take a break, we also remind ourselves of the gospel of Christ. We don’t just veg, we seek serious rest-giving fellowship with other followers of Christ.
This is true on those days of physical rest, but “Christ centered rest for my body and soul” also means that we must pursue Christ and the rest he offers throughout all our days—even our “working” days. Living that Sabbath rest means that even when we’re awake and working Christ and his gospel are still kept central. When we do this, every day, and even on the busiest days, we can “come to him and find rest for our souls.”
That, I believe, is the biblical answer to what this Christ-centered, Sabbath-fulfilled rest looks like: We maintain physical rest while also constantly seeking Christ’s spiritual rest, a rest which is fueled by the gospel and which can be found during physical rest but also during physical business.
Finally, I have given some overarching practicalities above (such as taking a day off, sleeping, reading the Bible, praying, reminding yourself of the gospel, and Christian fellowship), but I’d be mistaken to make it sound like the Bible gives a list for what this Sabbath-rest specifically looks like. It doesn’t, and I think that’s purposeful. Those ideas listed above are the basic building blocks—because they give us physical rest and maintain our restful relationship with Christ—but for each of us, there may be many others actions we should add which genuinely bring us more Christ-centered rest. We each have personal enjoyments which uniquely lead us to Christ-centered rest—hobbies, sports, books, arts, and more. All these particularities are good gifts from our God of rest’s hands, and so they can help us find that true, biblical, gospel-driven, Christ-centered rest. We therefore each should think and consider what these are for us.
But through it all, to fulfill the Christ-centered, Sabbath-fulfilled command to rest, we must make sure that our rest a full-scaled building of rest—a rest which has both the substructure of physical rest and the superstructure of rest in Christ and his gospel. Only here will we find God-designed “rest our our souls.”
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A Quick and (Hopefully) Clear Explanation
To be even clearer: Because the entire law is fulfilled in Christ and is no longer binding on believers (Romans 7:1-4), we cannot say that we must (meaning, by divine, binding law) rest one in seven days a week, which was the original Sabbath command; neither can we say that the rest must be on Saturday, which again was the original Sabbath command. And those who say that the Sabbath day has just moved to Sunday have very little biblical support. The New Testament never says it moved from Saturday to Sun (Sunday is rather simply called “the Lord’s Day” [Revelation 1:10] because Jesus rose on Sunday), and the New Testament rather has two specific texts that show that the Old Testament Sabbath command is no longer binding: Colossians 2:16-17 and Romans 14:5-6.
So, we cannot say the Sabbath command is still binding. It is fulfilled in Christ’s rest and we technically are released from the command (as with the rest of the Old Testament law) in Christ.
Yet, this does not mean that the substructure of the Sabbath command is lost. This is what I’ve been arguing above. The Sabbath command is no longer binding, but it certain still taught us our need for rest, especially since the command originates in how God designed us as human beings in his image. As a result, although the substructure is technically no longer binding, it would be silly to try to pursue the gospel-driven, Christ-centered, Sabbath-fulfilled rest without physical rest.
It’s, then, better to say:
- 1) The Sabbath command is no longer binding but it did teach us our need for physical rest.
- 2) Christ’s rest in the gospel is the fulfillment of the Sabbath command to rest, but since it’s the fulfillment (meaning, it’s not a totally disconnected rest), we’d do well to include physical rest in our Christ-centered spiritual rest in the gospel.
That is what I’ve tried to argue for here, and I believe it’s what Christ-centered, Sabbath-fulfilled rest looks like for us Christians today.
