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<<the argument from redemptive history is one of the most helpful … of biblical arguments against a Christian seventh day Sabbath.>>
<<the argument from redemptive history>>— What is it?
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<<<Here’s Vos:
Inasmuch as the Old Covenant was still looking forward to the performance of the Messianic work, naturally the days of labour to it come first, the day of rest falls at the end of the week.>>>
In order for this to be true, let us get it true and change the Present into the Past Tense, and say, <<Inasmuch as the Old Covenant was still looking forward to the performance of the Messianic work, naturally the days of labour to it _came_ first, the day of rest _fell_ at the end of the week.>>
Now it (the translation of?), is correct as well as true. So let’s listen on to what (Vos or Pipa or Shane Lens?) has or had to say . . .
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<<<We, under the New Covenant, look back upon the accomplished work of Christ.>>>
My first objection must be against the arbitrary differentiation between, or splitting up, of <<the Old Covenant>> and <<New Covenant>> of God.
While Vos presupposes the Covenant relevant and valid at the time when God created our world, it nevertheless was God’s, Covenant and God’s only, and Eternal Covenant. It was the New Covenant of old, in the beginning. Itself never was an ‘old’ Covenant; and never in the Scriptures is being called an ‘old’, or ‘the old’, Covenant.
Vos supposes the time at the creation when there was only God’s Eternal ‘Old’ Covenant which cannot and never does get ‘old’ like man’s covenant. God’s Covenant has always been triumphant.
Man’s ‘covenant’ on the contrary from its beginning was old and obsolete because it was a covenant of works. It never would or could become ‘new’ or lasting. The ‘old covenant’ from the beginning was man’s undertaking to obey God, and came after and in response to God’ Covenanting the Gospel of his Son with man. Man’s covenant has always been disastrous failure.
<<<The first Adam worked towards rest (the Covenant of Works); the last Adam worked so we can rest (the Covenant of Grace).>>>
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<<<We, therefore, first celebrate the rest in principle procured by Christ, although the Sabbath also still remains a sign looking forward to the final eschatological rest. The Old Testament people of God had to typify in their life the future developments of redemption. Consequently the precedence of labour and the consequence of rest had to find expression in their calendar.”>>>
We being New Testament Christians because of the everlasting Newness of God’s Covenant in Christ, <<in principle>> celebrate the Sabbath-rest since Christ in the beginning already had procured the Gospel and New Covenant-Rest-of-God, for us
“Therefore only indeed, does the Sabbath-rest still remain for the People of God”— <<a sign looking back>>, “because Jesus gave them … the People of God … the Rest of God”— <<a sign>> “therefore indeed”, <<looking forward>> to “the Body of Christ’s Own … eating and drinking of Christ the Substance, holding to the Head, Christ. Having Him, the Nourishment ministered by joints and bands knit together in love, the Body grows with the growth of God … to the full stature of Christ”.
Christ is <<the final eschatological Rest>>.
The Old Covenant typified to the People of God the future Christ and how God’s Covenanted Redemption would unfold in and through Him.
From the beginning God’s Rest received precedence and expression in the Everlasting Covenant of His Grace. The Rest of God reflects in “The Seventh Day” of the creation week therein that God
“hallowed the Seventh Day” for Jesus Christ; and
“blessed the Seventh Day” in Jesus Christ; and
“finished all his works on the Seventh Day” through Jesus Christ; and
“from all his works the Seventh Day RESTED” by Jesus Christ.
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<<<The New Testament Church has no such typical function to perform, for the types have been fulfilled. But it has a great historic event to commemorate, the performance of the work of Christ and the entrance of Him and of His people through Him upon the state of never-ending rest.>>>
How sad we find no Scripture for this. Because the Rest of God is no <<<state of never-ending rest>>>, but it is the culmination of the exercise and performance of the “exceeding greatness of God’s Power according to the WORKING of his mighty Strength which He wrought—‘energised’ [ἐνήργηκεν] fulfilled, ended, finished IN CHRIST WHEN HE RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD.” Ephesians 1:19.
Jesus’ Resurrection has been God’s Rest of, and on “the day The Seventh Day Sabbath OF THE LORD GOD” in the beginning; at the exodus; at the giving of the Law; and at and with Jesus’ resurrection in the tomb. Last, in the Last Day when Christ shall come again and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, Jesus’ Resurrection will be God’s Rest and Triumph “in the day The Seventh Day Sabbath OF THE LORD GOD”.
Never has there been reason that God’s Rest Day will fall upon another day than His own Day of Divine Rest, The LORD’S Sabbath Day, “the day The Seventh Day Sabbath OF THE LORD GOD”—“The Lord Jesus’ Day”—‘Kuriakeh Hehmera’.
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<<<We do not sufficiently realize the profound sense the early Church had of the epoch-making significance of the appearance, and especially of the resurrection of the Messiah. The latter was to them nothing less than the bringing in of a new, the second, creation. And they felt that this ought to find expression in the placing of the Sabbath with reference to the other days of the week.>>>
Very true except the inclusion of <<the appearance>> simultaneous with <<the resurrection of the Messiah>>. Jesus’ first appearance was not at the same time or on the same day; “He appeared to Mary Magdalene on the First Day of the week”.
But it is true that to <<<the early Church … the resurrection of the Messiah was nothing less than the bringing in of a new, the second, creation.>>>
The first Christian Church certainly felt that the Resurrection of Jesus “in the fullness of day (‘opse’) on the Sabbath (‘sabbatohn’)”, <<ought to find expression in the placing of the Sabbath with reference to the other days of the week>>. That was why Matthew 28:1 placed the descent of the angel of the Lord to cast the stone away from the sepulchre, “late on the Sabbath in the very mid-inclining daylight towards the First Day of the week”.
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<<<Believers knew themselves in a measure partakers of the Sabbath-fulfillment.>>>
So why may believers no longer know themselves in a measure partakers of Jesus’, <<Sabbath-fulfillment>>—“according to the Scriptures”, “the Seventh Day GOD, thus concerning spake (in times past through the prophets but in these last days by the Son): And God the day The Seventh Day from all his works rested”?
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<<<If the one creation required on sequence, then the other required another.>>>
If the first creation required one sequence, and the ‘new’ creation required <another>, the ‘new’ creation would not be the first creation of God renewed, but changed. And God would change, would have changed, and be, changeable.
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<<<It has been strikingly observed, that our Lord died on the eve of that Jewish Sabbath, at the end of one of these typical weeks of labour by which His work and its consummation were prefigured. And Christ entered upon His rest, the rest of His new, eternal life on the first day of the week, so that the Jewish Sabbath comes to lie between, was, as it were, disposed of, buried in His grave” (p. 158).>>>
The Lord Jesus did not die <<on the eve of that Jewish Sabbath>> supposedly “the Seventh Day Sabbath OF THE LORD GOD”. He also did not die <<at the end of one of these typical weeks of labour by which His work and its consummation were prefigured.>> He died in about the middle of the week on the Fifth Day of the week on the eve of “That Day … great day sabbath of”, the passover!
And He rose “in the Sabbath’s fullness being in the mid-inclining daylight towards the First Day of the week” as God entered upon the “Rest-of-God” in Christ The Rest and “Beginning of the (new) creation of God” Revelation 3:14.
“It was night and it was day the Sixth Day”; and “God in the cool of day” that followed, called man and found him as covered with sin as naked. In that night God killed a sacrifice and clad Adam and Eve in its skin—<<in principle>> as with the righteousness of Christ.
It was on the Seventh Day so that no day <<came to lie between>>, or followed after that day in which God at first through Jesus Christ redeemed man <<in principle>>. The Sabbath from the first day after man’s creation on the Sixth Day, was his first day of eternal life.
The Sabbath of the LORD GOD was not <<disposed of>> but was planned and willed and provided unto man’s redemption— “the Sabbath was MADE FOR man”. And in Jesus’ grave the sabbath by no lesser virtue than of the blood of Christ for the salvation of man, was preserved to “REMAIN a Sabbaths-rest for the People of God”.
