Is the Sabbath Commanded in the New Testament? Part 2 Scriptures in accordance with YHWH’s will. He said that not an iota or dot would pass away from the Law, the Torah, until heaven and earth pass away and all is accomplished (Matthew 5:18). That is to say, not a single law from the Torah will pass away until the end of the age and the arrival of the new heavens and new earth, when the present created universe passes away (2 Peter 3:7, 13; Revelation 21:1). Moreover, Messiah admonished his followers to do and teach even the least of the Torah’s commandments (Matthew 5:19). So, any commandment from the Torah that is not explicitly restated in the New Testament is nevertheless reaffirmed here. We are to keep “even the least” of the commandments. Not only that, but we must surpass the scribes and Pharisees in righteousness. In other words, our Torah observance must be better than their Torah observance. We surpass the scribes and Pharisees in righteousness by following Messiah’s teachings and example on how to live out the Torah. That’s what the sermon on the mount is all about—Messiah contrasting his correct interpretation of the Torah with the incorrect interpretations of the scribes and Pharisees. Based on this passage, Christian scholar Michael Brown points out that Messiah affirmed the Torah’s commandment against homosexual practice: [W]hen Messiah said He was not abolishing the Law and the Prophets but rather fulfilling them, He clearly intended that this prohibition [against homosexual practice] would continue to stand as well. - Michael Brown, Can You Be Gay And Christian?: Responding With Love & Truth to Questions About Homosexuality (Lake Mary, FL: FrontLine, 2014), 131 So, while Messiah never explicitly repeated the commandment against homosexual practice, he still reinforced its validity in Matthew 5:17-20. The same logic applies to the Sabbath. While the commandment is not explicitly repeated, it is nevertheless reinforced. Messiah affirmed the ongoing validity of the Sabbath by stating that he came not to abolish the Torah and Prophets but to fulfill them—that is, he came to teach us how to live out the Hebrew Scriptures properly. The entire Torah—all of YHWH’s commandments—remains valid until the end of the age. And we are to keep even the least of the commandments. What other ways does the New Testament reinforce the command to keep the Sabbath? We will mention a few. First, remember how Messiah said our righteousness, with regard to the Torah, must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20)? Well, Messiah teaches us what that means with the Sabbath specifically. Messiah taught what it means to keep the Sabbath properly, in contrast to the teachings of the Pharisees. In Matthew 12, the Pharisees accused Messiah’s disciples of breaking the Sabbath. Messiah defended his disciples and said they were innocent of the Pharisees’ charges in Matthew 12:7. Moreover, Messiah declared himself the master of the Sabbath in the next verse Matthew 12:8 - that is, he is the rightful interpreter of the commandment. He criticized the Pharisees for their bad applications of the commandment and restored the Sabbath to its true application. In Mark’s account of this incident, Messiah used this confrontation with the Pharisees to explain how YHWH wanted the Sabbath to be kept from the beginning. He said: Mark 2:27 By these words, Messiah emphasized YHWH’s purpose for the Sabbath, which was to bless mankind with a day of rest. Why would Messiah restore the true purpose of the Sabbath day if he intended to get rid of it? That doesn’t make much sense. On the other hand, Messiah’s teaching on the Sabbath’s original purpose is precisely what we would expect if he wanted his followers to keep it. As Christian scholar Roy Gane writes: Why would He restore something that He was about to do away with? That would make as much sense as remodeling a house before demolishing it! - Roy E. Gane, “Is the Sabbath Part of the New Covenant?” Reflections: The BRI Newsletter (2010): 4-10 Messiah also appears to reinforce the Sabbath’s validity in Matthew 24:20. He said: Matthew 24:20 Here we see Messiah admonishing his followers to pray that they would not have to flee on the Sabbath during the coming tribulation. Again, if Messiah came to do away with the Sabbath, why is he expressing concern over his followers’ ability to keep the Sabbath in the future? If he did not expect them to be keeping the Sabbath, he wouldn’t have said such a thing. What about the apostles? Did they agree that we should continue to keep the Sabbath? The New Testament indicates that they did.