TROUBLE! Is a Sabbath Keeping Christian Better than a Sunday Keeping Christian?

 

If Sabbath keeping is the key to open heaven’s door, then every Sabbath keeper on the planet is going to hell. The same is true if Sunday keeping were the key. Paul says: “There is none righteous, no, not one …” (Romans 3:10), and Isaiah says: “All our righteousness are as filthy rags …” (Isaiah 64:6). And Solomon makes us know that even when a righteous man is doing the right thing he is never doing that right thing good enough so he says: “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). So nobody’s Sabbath keeping or Sunday keeping is righteous or good enough to get them into heaven, no matter how strong their religious conviction.

 

As Christians grow in their understanding and appreciation of the unfathomable riches and glory of the gospel, and as they deepen in their love of Christ, they will peacefully put down their denominational weapons against each other and in humility and love explain points of differences between themselves, realizing that no aspect of the law gets anyone to heaven. Salvation is through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for us and nothing else. Nothing Else! A saved person lives in the Spirit and not in the flesh, and is guided by the Spirit of the law and not the letter of the law. Living in the flesh causes us to be rude and sarcastic and obnoxious and demeaning to our brothers and sisters simply because they can’t see eye to eye with us. Tell me something, do you know of anybody who can explain all the teachings of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation without a single error? Do you know of any denomination that can do it? But I can tell you about somebody who knows all the truth though! His name is JESUS, and the Bible says that He is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6), so if I have Jesus, I have all the truth, even though I myself might be falling short in my understanding and practice of some truths. Thank God that salvation is by grace through faith and not by my works of the law (Ephesians 2:8-9) otherwise Sabbath keepers and Sunday keepers would be in trouble.

 

As long as we are living we will always be falling short of God’s glory and therefore of his law (Romans 3:23). Every single day a Christian must confess sin. Why? Because no day goes by without falling short of some requirement or the other. It’s only Jesus who never fell short and thus never had to confess his sins. If I am in Christ, therefore, I do not need a 10% or 20% or 30% discount on the law because Christ has fulfilled 100% of the law on my behalf. Every single Christian falls short in one thing or the other and that one thing is enough to cause him or her to go to hell. Truth be told, we fall short in many things and James 2:10 tells us that if we break one requirement (anyone of them, not just our favorite) we are guilty of all. If you are genuinely in Christ, however, wherever you fall short is covered by his precious blood. Isn’t that just outrageously wonderful? There is simply no condemnation to anyone who is genuinely in Christ (Romans 8:1). None of us knows all the areas we are falling short, and even in those areas we know, we still continue to fall short. So I really don’t care too much how great a debater you might be, or how well you can argue your favorite denominational doctrine, because my salvation is not based on what you think of me, but on what Christ has done for me. Thank you Jesus! Thank you! There’s so much power in your blood! Thank you. So then, is doctrine unimportant? Tune in next week as we continue to study the Biblical implications of being dead to the law and married to Christ..