Luke 4:16 (Daily Verse and Comment)

  Luke 4:16

(16) So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 
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This basic scripture states what was our Lord and Savior's manner or custom. He habitually kept the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, holy. The carnal mind will explain that Christ only did this because He was a Jew or because He was still under the Old Covenant. Remember, however, that Exodus 31:15-17 plainly says that the Sabbath covenant, made in addition to the Old Covenant, is to continue as long as there are generations of Israelites. It is a separate covenant from the Old Covenant.

Most generally also overlook the fact that Jesusdeclared, in Mark 2:27-28, that the Sabbath was made for man. That is, God made it specifically for man. He also declared that He Himself is the Lord—the Boss, as it were—of the Sabbath. He owns it, and thus He is its Master. He can do with it as He pleases, and it pleased Him to instruct us that it was made specifically for us. It pleased Him to keep it, and we are to walk in His steps.

This is very serious because, if one can throw out the example of the Head of the church, it destroys all consistency in following Christ. Every other example of what He did loses its value. One cannot just pick and choose what he will follow. If we are to be true disciples of Christ and truly follow Him, then we are not free to decide what rules or examples we will follow. We follow what the Boss does.

I Peter 2:21 shows how far we are to go in following what He does: "For to this you were you called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps." If we are to follow in His steps in regard to suffering, we should also follow in His steps in regard to the day of worship. As He set it aside for Himself, as His custom was, we, too, are to set it aside as our customary way of living. The apostle Paul adds in I Corinthians 11:1, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ."

There are numerous references following Jesus' death and resurrection, primarily in the book of Acts, of the apostles and the New Testament church keeping the Sabbath and the holy days, food laws, and circumcision (to a point), and some of the other ceremonial laws as well. It is obvious that they were not antagonistic to Old Testament laws, and they did not look on them as an enemy by which they would be defiled if they kept them.

In addition, the entire Bible contains no reference or controversy about whether the Sabbath should be kept, even as it contains nothing of the sort about whether a Christian should keep the first, second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, or tenth commandments. The apostles knew they should keep the commandments, including the one to keep the Sabbath holy! The only argument was whether justification came from keeping them.

— John W. Ritenbaugh