Teaching of the Apostles

Notes

1. The second chapter of Romans bears strong testimony to the worth, obligation, and perpetuity of God's law. The reason why the Jews knew God's will, and approved the most excellent things, was because they were instructed by God's law. That they did not keep the law is true, but that did not affect the law. They simply had its form, its outward observance, but this was "the form of knowledge and of the truth." They observed the seventh day. That was the truth. What they lacked was the life, which Christ alone could supply.

2. The ten commandments are frequently called God's testimonies, because they bear witness against sin and to righteousness wherever found. For this reason the ark in which they were placed is called the ark of the testimony or witness. The law witnesses that all men are sinners and condemns them. Rom. 3:20, 23. But when Christ places His obedience upon the sinner in answer to simple faith, the law of God witnesses that the sinner is righteous, because the righteousness of Christ is the righteousness of the law.

3. God's law is forever established whether man has faith or not. "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke 16:17. "Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." Ps. 119:89. But in the natural heart of man the law is not "established." But faith, genuine faith, establishes God's law in the heart. It puts Christ within (Eph. 3:17), and Christ and the law are inseparable (Ps. 40:7, 8). See Heb. 8:8-10.

4. In the teachings of Christ the principles of the new covenant were laid down; its ordinances of baptism, humility, and communion were all given; the law had been affirmed in both teaching and example to the time of the cross. The seventh-day Sabbath was taught by Christ and kept by Him according to its law till He died. Not one word did He speak, not one act did He perform, which showed any other day to be holy, nor did He predict holiness for any other day in the future. At His death the covenant was sealed. His last will and testament was then confirmed. Nothing could be taken from it, nothing could be added. The new covenant, therefore, confirms the seventh-day Sabbath and no other.

5. The term "Sabbath" is throughout the New Testament fifty-nine times applied to one day of the week alone, namely, the day before the first day of the week. It was observed by the Jews; it was used as a preaching day by Paul to both Jews and Gentiles (Acts 13:42, 44); it was Paul's custom to do this (Acts 16:13; 17:3); and while in Athens, a gentile city, he worked at his trade with a Jew six days in the week and preached every Sabbath for one year and six months (Acts 18:1, 4, 11). Everywhere among the early Christians the seventh day of the week was known by no other name.

6. The term "first day of the week" occurs only eight times in all the New Testament. No other term is applied to that day. Six of the texts in the lesson refer to the particular day on which Christ rose from the dead; but the disciples did not honor that day, for they did not believe He had risen. The next mention is found in the record of Paul's farewell meeting at Troas, where a young man was raised to life. But that day was used as a day of labor. The last text simply gives instruction to each one to lay by himself on each first day a sum for the poor as God had prospered him, so that Paul might get it when he came. Paul never taught first-day observance. See Acts 20:20, 27, 32.

7. The early Christians of Palestine observed the seventh-day Sabbath. (See "Lord's Day," part 3, chapter 4). The practice of the apostle Paul we have already learned. There was never a charge brought against him for transgressing the Sabbath. See Acts 28:17, 21. The fact is admitted by authorities generally that the Christians in Judea were observers of the seventh-day Sabbath.