Should Christians Keep the Sabbath?

Christians are not bound to keep the Saturday Sabbath as Old Testament Israel was. The weekly Sabbath was part of the ceremonial law given to Israel—a shadow pointing forward to Christ. Paul says so directly: “let no one pass judgment on you… with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17). So a Christian who works on Saturday is not sinning, and no one may bind another’s conscience to a particular day (Augsburg Confession XXVIII addresses exactly this).

Then why do Christians gather on Sunday? Not because the Sabbath command was transferred to a new day, but by the free and ancient practice of the Church, which met on the first day of the week—the day of Christ’s resurrection, often called the Lord’s Day. We worship on Sunday out of freedom and fittingness, celebrating the risen Christ, not out of a law requiring that specific day. It is a good custom, kept gladly, not a new Sabbath legalism.

But the Third Commandment still speaks to Christians—just not about calendars. Luther’s explanation goes to the heart of what “keeping it holy” now means: “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” The true Sabbath rest is not idleness on a set day; it is resting in God by receiving his Word. To keep the Third Commandment is to treasure the preaching and Sacraments, to make a regular, unhurried place in your life to be fed by the Gospel, rather than treating God’s Word as one more optional item crowded out by a busy week.

And there is a deeper rest underneath it all. “There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,” and the one who enters it “has also rested from his works” (Hebrews 4:9-10). The ultimate Sabbath is not a day off but ceasing from the exhausting labor of trying to save yourself, and resting instead in the finished work of Christ. He is our rest.