God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Burned and wasted we must be; and is it not fitter it should be in lighting men to heaven, and in working for God, than in living to the flesh? How little difference is there between the pleasure of a long and of a short life, when they are both at an end! What comfort will it be to you at death, that you lengthened your life by shortening your work? He that worketh much, liveth much. Our life is to be esteemed according to the ends and works of it, and not according to the mere duration... Will it not comfort us more at death, to review a short time faithfully spent, than a long life spent unfaithfully?
First, the seventh-day commemoration in Gen. 2:3 and Israel’s Sabbath ordinance is transferred to the first day of the week because of Christ’s resurrection. Second, Israel’s way of observing the Sabbath, with all its detailed requirements, falls away, and there is a return to the creational mandate. The observance of this mandate is a day of commemoration of God’s creative rest, a celebration that Christ has entered that rest, that believers have begun to enter such rest, and a pointing forward to believers completely entering that rest. Third, Christ’s coming fulfills Israel’s unique Sabbath commandment, since He is Israel’s Messiah, accomplishing Israel’s end-time exodus and representing true Israel and the end-time temple.
