Latest / Reformed Thinking / Profaning Holy Time: The Sin of Sabbath-Breaking and the Joy of the Lord’s Day in Christ

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Profaning Holy Time: The Sin of Sabbath-Breaking and the Joy of the Lord’s Day in Christ · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. It is really good to have you
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  with us for this deep dive. If you if you look around at the
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  world today or honestly just look in the mirror, you see a
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  society that is absolutely obsessed with the hustle.
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  We are driven by this, this relentless pragmatism, this need
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  to maximize every single second for productivity.
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  If you aren't producing, you aren't valuable.
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  That is the water we swim. In it's the air we breathe,
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  really, and it is completely exhausting.
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  It is, and naturally the conversation usually turns to a
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  work life balance or self-care. You know, take a break so you
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  don't burnout. But today we are doing something
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  quite different. We are looking at a topic that
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  cuts right across that cultural narrative, but not for the
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  reasons you might think we are. Talk about Sabbath breaking.
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  Right. And just to set the stage
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  immediately, this is not a discussion about Wellness.
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  We aren't going to give you tips on how to recharge your
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  batteries so you can go back to work on Monday and make more
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  money. We are looking at 2 heavy
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  hitting theological texts today, ceasing from rebellion and
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  profaning holy time. And the twist here, which I
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  think is going to surprise some people, is how these sources
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  define Sabbath breaking. We usually think of it as just,
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  well, not doing something. I didn't rest.
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  I failed to stop. But these texts frame it as a
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  sin of action. It is described as an act of
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  rebellion against God. That is the core tension we need
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  to unpack. Our mission today is to look at
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  the Reformed view of the Lord's Day adhering to the Westminster
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  Confession, and to understand why resting is actually a fierce
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  battleground for lordship over our lives.
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  It is really about who owns your time.
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  So let's get into this concept of a sin of action.
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  Because like I said, if I skip church or I check my e-mail on
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  Sunday, I usually categorize that as a sin of omission.
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  I should have rested, but I didn't.
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  Why do these scholars insist on calling it a sin of Commission?
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  It is a critical distinction. The sources explained that
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  Sabbath breaking is doing what God actively forbids.
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  It isn't just a passive slip up. When you engage in unnecessary
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  labor or commerce on the Lord's Day, you are taking a positive
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  step to transgress a boundary God set.
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  One of the authors uses a phrase that really stops you in your
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  tracks. He calls it practical atheism.
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  Practical atheism that feels like a massive leap.
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  I mean, checking an e-mail is annoying.
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  Maybe it's bad for my stress levels.
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  But atheism? That implies I'm denying the
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  existence of God. How do they justify that charge?
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  It sounds severe I know, but follow the logic.
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  If you feel you cannot stop working for one day out of
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  seven, what are you saying? You are acting as if God cannot
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  sustain the world or even your own household without your
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  constant input. You are acting as if the
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  universe depends on your hustle. You're declaring with your
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  actions that you do not trust divine Providence to keep you
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  fed and safe. If you lay down your tools, you
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  might confess God with your mouth on Sunday morning, but
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  your calendar saying that, it's all up to me.
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  OK, that lands a bit harder. It is the idea that if I stop
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  spinning the plates, they will all crash and God won't catch.
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  Them precisely. It exposes the idol of
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  self-reliance and this rise into the concept of time itself.
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  We tend to think of time as a neutral container.
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  I have 24 hours, you have 24 hours, and we just fill them.
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  But the sources argue that time is not morally neutral.
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  God owns time. This is the distinction between
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  holy and common, right? Yes, that is it.
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  There is holy time which is set apart by God for His specific
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  use, and there is common time given to us for our work and
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  recreation. When we break the Sabbath, we
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  are profaning the day. To profane something literally
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  means to make it common. We are taking what God stamped
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  as holy and His, and we are seizing it for our own personal
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  gain or pleasure. We are stealing time.
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  It is like using the communion cup to drink your morning orange
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  juice. You are taking something set
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  apart and treating it like it is just another piece of dishware.
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  That is a solid analogy, and to understand why this matters we
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  have to go back to the very beginning.
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  The theology of rest doesn't start with Moses, it starts with
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  Genesis 2. The text says God rested on the
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  7th day. Now did God rest because he was
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  tired? No, he is omnipotent.
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  He doesn't get muscle fatigue right.
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  The sources highlight that God's rest was not recuperation, it
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  was enthronement. It was a sovereign celebration
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  of completion. He finished his work, looked at
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  it, saw was very good, and took his seat as a king over
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  creation. So the command in Exodus 20
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  isn't just a Jewish ceremonial law that pops up out of nowhere.
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  It is a creation ordinance. It is woven into the very fabric
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  of how the world was made. So when we rest, we aren't just
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  taking a nap, we are mimicking the King.
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  We are acknowledging the King. We are stopping to say that he
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  is God and I am not. That sets the stakes pretty
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  high. This isn't just about a
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  calendar, it is about cosmology. Let's get into the text itself.
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  Our sources spend a lot of time on the exegetical anchors.
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  They dig into the Hebrew and the Greek to show us what is really
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  going on. Let's look at the Old Testament
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  first, specifically Exodus 20. The key Hebrew term here is
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  shibayo. Which we know as Sabbath, but
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  often we just translate that in our heads as Saturday or church
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  day. What is the actual linguistic
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  root? It denotes A cessation or
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  desisting. It is a full stop, and the
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  context is fascinating because the author compares it to the
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  ancient Near Eastern culture. The Babylonians, for instance,
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  had a concept called Shabbatu. Sounds similar, was the same
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  thing it? Sounds similar phonetically, but
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  the theology is the complete opposite.
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  For the pagans, Shabbatu was a day of bad luck or a day to
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  appease angry, capricious gods. You stopped working because you
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  were afraid the guides would smack you if you did anything.
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  It was a day of dread. So it was basically like don't
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  move or the gods will see you. Spot on.
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  But Yahweh Shabak is a sovereign celebration.
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  It is not about appeasement, it is about acknowledging
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  completion and goodness. And then there's the word used
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  for the command itself. Zaitor, remember?
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  I found this really interesting. In the notes, the source says
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  this isn't just a mental note like, Oh yeah, it's Sunday.
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  No, not at all dramatically. It is infinitive, absolute.
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  That implies intensity. It means a vigorous, active
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  setting, a part of the day. It implies forethought.
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  You cannot remember the Sabbath if you wake up on Sunday morning
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  with no plan, your house in chaos and your schedule full.
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  Remembering starts days before. It is an active engagement of
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  the will to protect that time. And there was another Hebrew
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  word distinction the source made about why the text doesn't use
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  the word nuash. Yes, this is a specific detail
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  the text points out. Nuash is a Hebrew word that
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  means settling down from weariness, like taking a load
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  off your back because you were exhausted.
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  Exodus 20 does not use no acts to describe God's rest or the
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  primary command he uses, Jabba Shebb.
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  Again, God doesn't get tired. The focus is on a judicial
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  ceasing. It is a legal stop.
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  The judge bangs the gavel and says that court is adjourned.
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  The work is done. That really reinforces the idea
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  that this isn't about physical recovery primarily.
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  It is about status. It is about authority, but I
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  want to push on this a bit because a lot of listeners are
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  thinking, OK, that is Exodus, that is the Old covenant, we are
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  New Testament Christians. How do the sources bridge that
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  gap? That is the most common
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  objection. The sources take us to Hebrews
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  4, which is arguably the definitive text on the Christian
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  Sabbath. The argument in Hebrews is that
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  there is a rest that the people of God must enter.
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  And there is a specific Greek word there that matters, right?
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  Sabatismos. Yes, the author of Hebrews has a
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  few words Forrest available to him.
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  He uses cataposes quite a bit, which is a general word for
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  ceasing. But in Hebrews 4.9 when he says
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  there remains there for a rest for the people of God, he
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  switches to sabatismos. This is a very rare word.
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  It literally means a Sabbath keeping.
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  So he is explicitly linking the Christian's eternal rest back to
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  the Sabbath. He is anchoring the theology of
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  Sunday worship and our eternal hope right back to the creation
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  Sabbath of Genesis. He is saying the principle
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  hasn't changed. The day has shifted to mark the
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  resurrection, yes, but the moral obligation and the spiritual
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  privilege of a Sabbath keeping remains.
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  It is a Direct Line from Eden to the New Jerusalem.
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  And this brings us to the Westminster Confession of faith.
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  We are Reformed thinking, after all.
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  How does this align with the confessional standard?
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  Because I think people get nervous when we talk about Old
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  Testament law. They think we are going to start
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  advocating for civil penalties. That is a fair fear given
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  history, but the confession is very clear on what we call the
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  Israel Church distinction. This helps us avoid the weird
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  legalism people get scared of. The confession acknowledges that
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  the civil penalties, you know, getting stoned for picking up
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  sticks, those applied to national Israel's a theocratic
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  state, those are gone. We can all be thankful for that.
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  So no one is advocating for state enforced Sabbath laws
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  here. Indeed.
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  But the moral equity, the underlying principle of one day
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  and seven set apart for God, applies to all men in all ages.
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  It didn't start with Moses, so it doesn't end with Moses.
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  It is a creation ordinance. It is for humanity.
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  The confession frames it as a gift that we are obligated to
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  receive, not a burden we are forced to carry.
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  So we have established the what and the why theologically, but
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  now we need to get uncomfortable.
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  We need to talk about The Who, specifically us.
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  The next section of our outline deals with the idols beneath the
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  surface. Why is it so hard for us to just
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  stop? This is the heart diagnostic.
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  The sources argue that we don't break the Sabbath just because
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  we have bad calendars. We break it because we have bad
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  hearts. Sabbath breaking is a symptom of
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  hidden idolatry. Let's run down the list provided
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  in the text. The first one is the big one,
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  Productivity and self worth. I am what I produce.
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  That is the mantra of the modern world.
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  If I stop working, I am nothing. I have no value.
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  This is a deep existential fear. We use work to justify our
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  existence. The Sabbath strips that away.
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  It forces you to sit there producing nothing and believe
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  that you are still loved and valuable solely because you are
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  God's child. For many people, that silence is
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  terrifying. It really is.
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  It feels like disappearing. If I'm not answering the e-mail,
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  if I'm not fixing the house, do I even exist?
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  That is the question it forces, and that leads right into the
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  second idol control and anxiety. This goes back to that practical
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  atheism we touched on earlier. It does.
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  The source argues that working on the Sabbath is an attempt to
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  secure our own future. We are anxious about money,
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  about our career trajectory, about falling behind.
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  So we work to soothe that anxiety.
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  We are trying to be our own Providence.
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  We trust our hustle more than we trust God's promise to provide
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  daily bread. We look at the bank account and
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  say that we need to work today to make sure this number goes
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  up, effectively saying God won't handle it.
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  It is a trust issue. Then there is the idol of
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  autonomy. Basically, don't tell me what to
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  do. The human heart hates
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  submission. We want to be the captains of
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  our own souls and the masters of our own calendars.
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  To have God come in and say, no, this day is mine, you don't get
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  a vote is offensive to our pride.
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  We break the Sabbath to prove to ourselves that we are in charge.
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  It is a subtle rebellion, we tell ourselves.
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  We will go to church, but we will decide when we leave and
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  what we do afterward. And the fourth one hit me hard
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  because it is so subtle. Pleasure and entertainment.
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  Isaiah 58 talks about doing your own pleasure.
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  And I think a lot of us think, well, isn't the Sabbath supposed
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  to be pleasurable? It is, but the question is what
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  the pleasure is rooted in. This is the conflict between
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  delighting in the Lord and amusing ourselves to death.
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  The source has a stinging critique here.
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  It talks about the bored soul. The person who breaks the
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  Sabbath by binging Netflix or scrolling social media for six
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  hours isn't necessarily overworked.
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  They are spiritually bored. They find God weighty but not
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  winsome. They don't know how to enjoy
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  him, so they retreat to cheap entertainment.
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  Weighty but not winsome. That is a heavy conviction.
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  It forces you to ask yourself if you actually like God or do you
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  just respect him from a distance.
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  Because if you like him, a day with him sounds great.
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  If you just respect him, a day with him sounds like a long
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  meeting. Precisely if you loved him, you
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  would want the day with him. The idol here is preferring the
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  created thing over the creator. OK, let's get into the weeds.
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  Now let's look at specific manifestations.
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  How do we actually break it? Because I think we are all
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  pretty good at justifying our little exceptions.
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  We say things like, oh, this is just a quick thing.
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  The. Sources are very specific here.
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  The first manifestation is regarding public worship.
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  And this isn't just skipping church completely.
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  It is treating church as optional or as a spiritual add
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  on to the weekend. You know, I will go if we don't
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  have a tournament or I will go if I wake up in time.
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  Or showing up habitually late. I am guilty of this.
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  Sometimes I tell myself we missed the first song.
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  No big deal, right? But the source points out
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  habitual lateness or casualness toward the Holy Convocation.
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  It signals that this meeting with the king is not the
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  priority of the day. It is an afterthought.
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  Imagine showing up late to a meeting with the president or
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  your biggest client every single time it sends a message.
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  Then there is unnecessary labor, and the keyword there is
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  unnecessary because obviously some things have to happen.
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  We have to distinguish between works of necessity and mercy,
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  which are lawful and convenience.
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  The source targets catch up work.
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  This is huge for the modern knowledge worker.
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  Clearing the inbox on Sunday night.
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  So Monday isn't so bad, right? Helping the kids with homework
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  that could have been done Saturday.
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  Home improvement projects that aren't urgent repairs, but just
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  projects. It is fear based work usually.
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  I'm afraid of Monday, so I will rob Sunday to pay for it.
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  Yes, and it denies the rest God gave you.
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  Yeah, then there is commerce buying and selling.
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  The Nehemiah 13 precedent. This is a tough one for modern
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  people because we are so used to the 2047 economy.
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  Nehemiah actually locked the gates of Jerusalem to keep the
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  merchants out. The ethical implication here is
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  massive. When we shop or dine out on the
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  Lord's Day, we are requiring others to work for our leisure.
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  We are effectively denying them their rest.
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  We are participating in a system that says commerce is more
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  valuable than worship. We become the Pharaohs in that
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  moment, demanding bricks so we can have a burger.
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  We do. And finally, there's a modern
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  application the source calls the Digital Sabbath Breaker.
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  My phone. Your phone.
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  Mindless scrolling, gaming, constant news consumption.
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  One of the sources makes a brilliant point.
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  The phone pipelines the world's anxiety directly into your soul.
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  You cannot have holy rest when you were hooked up to an IV
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  drift of global chaos and outrage.
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  It makes true rest impossible. You might be sitting on the
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  couch, but your mind is running a marathon.
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  That is painfully accurate. I can sit still for two hours,
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  but if I am doom scrolling, my heart rate is up, my cortisol is
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  up, I haven't rested, I have just been paralyzed.
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  Well, I should say that is spot on.
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  You are physically stationary but spiritually frantic.
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  So we are all convicted, we are all Sabbath Breakers in some
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  way, whether it is our heart or our hands.
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  This is where we need to pivot. We need the gospel remedy
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  because if we stop here, we are just crushed.
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  And that is the function of the law.
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  The first use of the law is to crush our pride and show us we
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  cannot keep the Sabbath perfectly.
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  We are restless rebels, but that drives us to Christ, who is the
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  Lord of the Sabbath. We don't rest to earn salvation.
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  I think that is the legalistic trap.
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  Thinking if I sit still long enough, God will like me.
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  No, we rest because we have salvation.
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  This is the crucial pivot. We have to look at the finished
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  work of Christ. When Jesus cried out that it is
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  finished on the cross, he was echoing the Genesis creation
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  account. The work of redemption is done.
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  So our standing before God isn't based on how well we kept the
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  Sabbath last Sunday. Absolutely not.
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  Justification or legal standing is based entirely on Christ's
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  obedience. He kept the Sabbath perfectly
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  for us. He never engaged in self
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  alliance, He always delighted in the Father.
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  And then He took the punishment for our Sabbath breaking.
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  So when we rest, we are resting in His work, not our lack of
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  work. And this ties into why we
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  worship on Sunday now, right? The resurrection focus.
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  Yes, the shift from the 7th day to the first day is monumental.
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  It celebrates the new creation. The Old Testament Sabbath
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  celebrated God finishing the material universe.
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  The Christian Sabbath celebrates Christ conquering death and
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  inaugurating the new heavens and the new earth.
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  It is a victory party. So now that we are saved and we
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  aren't trying to earn God's love, what happens to the
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  command? Does it go away?
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  No, this is the third use of the law.
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  Now that we are saved, the command becomes a guide for
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  gratitude. We keep the Sabbath not to get
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  God to love us, but because He already does.
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  We want to spend the day with Him.
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  It changes from a burden feeling like I have to stop, to a
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  privilege realizing I get to stop.
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  I love that framing, but I know there are listeners right now
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  shouting at their speakers with objections.
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  Our sources address these the two ditches, legalism and
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  antinomianism. We have to steer the car
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  carefully here. Legalism is adding man made
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  rules to God's law. This is the Pharisees telling
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  people you can't walk more than a certain number of steps, you
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  can't lift a chair. The source explicitly rejects
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  this. We are not calling for a return
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  to misery. But the other ditch is just as
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  dangerous. Antinomianism.
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  This is the idea that grace means the law doesn't matter.
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  It leads to that practical atheism we talked about.
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  It uses grace as an excuse to ignore God's wisdom.
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  The source argues that this isn't freedom, it is just
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  slavery to your own impulses again.
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  What about the specific Bible verses people throughout Romans
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  14 where it says one man esteems one day above another, another
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  esteems everyday alike? The view in the text is that
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  Paul is addressing Jewish ceremonial days, the feast days,
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  the new moons that were part of national laws of Israel.
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  He is not talking about the creation ordinance of the weekly
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  Sabbath. That principle predates the
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  ceremonial law. Context is everything there.
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  And Colossians 2 let no one judge you in food or in drink,
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  or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbath's.
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  Similarly, the context is the shadows pointing to Christ, the
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  ceremonial aspects, the sacrifices, the specific dietary
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  restrictions connected to days. Those are fulfilled, but the
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  moral principle of a day of rest and worship remains.
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  The source argues you can't use Colossians to erase one of the
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  10 commandments. And the big one, Jesus broke the
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  Sabbath. We hear that a lot.
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  People say Jesus picked grain so I can go to the mall.
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  We have to correct this. Jesus never broke the law of
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  God. If he had broken the 10
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  commandments, he would be a Sinner and couldn't be our
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  Savior. What Jesus broke were the human
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  traditions and the Pharisaical interpretations that had
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  encrusted the Sabbath. He broke the rules that
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  prevented mercy. He healed on the Sabbath.
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  He fed his hungry disciples. He restored the true purpose of
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  the day, mercy and necessity. He didn't abolish the Sabbath,
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  He liberated it. So if we are liberated, let's
• 18:27
  talk about what we actually do. Let's get into the positive
• 18:30
  application. I really like the phrase the
• 18:32
  Puritan source used the market day of the soul.
• 18:35
  It is a beautiful image. During the week we go to the
• 18:38
  market for food and goods. Sunday is the day we go to the
• 18:41
  market for spiritual riches. We gather the resources, grace,
• 18:45
  truth, fellowship that will sustain us for the next 6 days.
• 18:49
  It is the day of stocking up, not emptying out.
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  And to do that, you have to be ready.
• 18:54
  The Saturday principle. This is the hardest part for me
• 18:57
  practically. This is where the rubber meets
• 18:58
  the road. The command starts with
• 19:00
  Remember, the source offers practical tips here.
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  If you wait until Sunday morning to think about Sunday, you have
• 19:06
  already lost the battle. It suggests meal prep on
• 19:09
  Saturday, finishing your errands, laying out clothes,
• 19:14
  getting gas in the car. It sounds mundane, but it
• 19:16
  prevents the Sunday morning chaos where everyone is yelling
• 19:19
  at each other trying to find a shoe.
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  Right. You are clearing the deck so
• 19:22
  that Sunday can be peaceful. You're protecting the holy time
• 19:25
  from the encroachment of the common.
• 19:27
  And the center of the day is public and private worship.
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  The gathered Church is non negotiable.
• 19:32
  It is where the Word is preached and the sacraments are
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  administered. But it extends to the home to
• 19:38
  family piety, catechizing the kids, singing hymns, discussing
• 19:43
  the sermon over lunch. Instead of just talking about
• 19:45
  sports or politics, it is about keeping the conversation God
• 19:48
  Word. Now we mentioned necessity and
• 19:50
  mercy earlier. Let's clarify that so people
• 19:52
  don't think they can't help the neighbor.
• 19:54
  It is lawful to do good. The text stress this.
• 19:57
  Visiting the sick, caring for the vulnerable, essential
• 20:01
  services. If you are a nurse, a police
• 20:03
  officer, a firefighter, that is work of necessity and mercy.
• 20:07
  The litmus test the source provides is helpful.
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  Does this activity promote worship and love for neighbor or
• 20:14
  does it promote self indulgence? That is the filter.
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  Is this for me or for him and them?
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  Yes. It is not about a list of
• 20:20
  forbidden activities, it is about the goal of the day.
• 20:23
  This has been a heavy, but I think liberating deep dive.
• 20:26
  We have gone from the hustle of the modern world to the
• 20:28
  stillness of the throne. Room and that is the path we
• 20:31
  need to take every seven days. So let's wrap this up with the
• 20:34
  central idea. The central idea is this,
• 20:37
  because Christ has purchased our rest with his own blood, we
• 20:41
  actively reject the idolatry of Labor.
• 20:44
  We refuse to bow down to the gods of productivity and
• 20:47
  anxiety. We keep the Sabbath not to earn
• 20:50
  heaven, but because we are citizens of heaven.
• 20:52
  And that final thought on the eternal Sabbath.
• 20:55
  Our weekly rest is a foretaste. Every time we stop, every time
• 20:58
  we gathered to sing, we are rehearsing for the end of
• 21:00
  history. We are practicing for the day
• 21:02
  when all striving ceases and we are fully at rest in the
• 21:05
  presence of God. Here is the challenge I want to
• 21:07
  leave you with, listener. The world says you must be
• 21:10
  constantly on to survive. It screams at you that if you
• 21:13
  stop, you will fall. Christ says that his yoke is
• 21:17
  easy and His burden is light. Who will you believe this
• 21:20
  Sunday? That is the real question.
• 21:22
  Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into reformed
• 21:24
  thinking. We will see you next time.