The Lord’s Day: Sabbath Worship and Rest

Throughout the history of the church, Christians have worshiped on Sunday. But the church has not always understood the significance of this day in the same way. Certainly today, many do not view it as significant at all. Things haven’t always been this way. In this lesson, Dr. Godfrey surveys the recent landscape of the church concerning Sunday and begins to explain how the early church through the Middle Ages understood it in relation to the Sabbath and to the fourth commandment.

Over the course of history, there have been different periods of thought concerning the Lord’s Day. The early post-Apostolic church didn’t connect the Lord’s Day to the fourth commandment, but this connection was made, though not perfectly, by Thomas Aquinas. In this lesson, Dr. Godfrey identifies what was problematic about that basis of Thomas’ connecting the Lord’s Day to the fourth commandment and explores Reformation-era and seventeenth-century consideration of the Lord’s Day, which better reflects the biblical witness concerning the holiness of a weekly Sabbath.

Is the Sabbath simply a Mosaic institution? The biblical data suggests that the weekly Sabbath actually goes back further than Moses, all the way back to creation. In this lesson, Dr. Godfrey defends the position that the weekly Sabbath is a creation ordinance through an examination of key texts, discusses the implications of this truth, and introduces what appear to be New Testament difficulties for this position.

Many question the enduring nature of the fourth commandment because of passages in the New Testament. In Romans 14:5, for instance, Paul speaks permissibly about those who esteem “all days alike.” Does he have the weekly Sabbath in mind here? What about when he refers to “days” in Galatians 4:10 or especially to “a Sabbath” in Colossians 2:16? In this lesson, Dr. Godfrey walks you through these passages to defend the continued relevance of a weekly Sabbath for the people of God.

The Sabbath on the seventh day has been fulfilled in the new covenant, yet the Lord’s Day has been set apart for continued observance of the Sabbath principle found in creation. The Lord’s Day is the first day of the week, and it is the day on which Christians have historically gathered—stretching all the way back to the Apostles—to worship the resurrected Christ. In this lesson, Dr. Godfrey examines the positive evidence of the New Testament that the Lord’s Day is indeed special and of enduring relevance for Christians.

Just as with the Sabbath, the Lord’s Day should not be thought of as a list of dos and don’ts. Yet there is an element of duty when it comes to the Lord’s Day, and Reformed confessional and catechetical statements about the Lord’s Day and the fourth commandment help orient us to its purpose. In this lesson, Dr. Godfrey surveys Reformed confessions and catechisms, as well as Psalm 92, to teach us how any duty on the Lord’s Day ought to translate to delight.