Selected Writings of Charles Stanley: Volume 1, What Is the First Day of the Week or the Lord's Day? (28:1-6)
There are those who can see no difference between the seventh day, the Sabbath, and the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, except the mere change of the day. What should we think of the intelligence of a person who could see no difference between a corpse and a living man? Just as blind must that man be who sees no difference between the ministration of death and the present dispensation, which is after the power of an endless life, in which all is perfect and eternal, and of which the Lord’s Day is the joyful expression. The offerings of the former, the dispensation of works, could never take away sin, could never give the conscience perfect peace. The work of its priesthood was never done. But in this dispensation of grace, “after He [Christ] had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12). “For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14).
Now, as there is such an immense contrast between the dispensation of works by Moses, called the ministration of death, and the dispensation of the fullness of life eternal by Christ Jesus, so the Holy Ghost has most carefully distinguished between “the seventh day” of the one and “the first day” of the other. Indeed, to take in the full range of God’s thought would be to see the one as the last day of the old creation, and the other as the first day of the new. God’s rest in the old creation was broken by sin, since which the whole creation groans. God’s rest in Christ, the head of the new creation, can never be broken. “We might as easily mingle light and darkness as the principles of the two dispensations; and hence the necessity of seeing the former to be utterly abolished by the cross of Christ before we can have the least apprehension of the present in the power of resurrection. Everything in the past is on the principle of obedience to a carnal commandment; everything in the present springs from the power of a risen life. Oh, that we did but know more fully “the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10). (See Philippians 3:1-12.)
This will account at once for the striking contrast between the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian’s first day. The one was strictly commanded, and legal obedience enforced on pain of death to those who had engaged to keep the covenant of works. But to believers, as sons, there is no command at all to observe a Sabbath. Obedience in them is that of sonship. There is nothing in common between the two; all is contrast: and not only so, but the one can only begin on the ground that the other has really come to an end.
Turning to Matthew 28:1 we read, “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.” It was then the angel of the Lord said, “He is risen” (Matthew 28:6). So in Mark 16:1, “And when the sabbath was passed,” the glory of the resurrection at once burst forth. The shadow of the sabbath passed over the sepulcher of Jesus and disappeared; it vanished before the glory of the risen Son of God. It is very remarkable that Jesus remained in the silent tomb until the sabbath was fully come to an end; and not only so, but until the dawn of the first day of the week very early in the morning. The night seems to have been added on, as it were, in perfect keeping with the fact that the church has to wait a little while; the night of which is now far spent. The dawn of the resurrection morn shall soon break forth. The sun of the new creation shall soon arise in all his strength and glory, to set no more.
The Sabbath as a shadow having served its purpose in pointing to Christ, and now having thus passed away, let us inquire what there is in the Word of God respecting the first day of the week. Great as was that work of creation from which God rested on the seventh day, yet infinitely greater was the work of redemption, from which Christ rested, and which God declared accomplished and accepted by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
On the first day of the week He was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). He “was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father” (Romans 6:4). “God raised Him from the dead” (Acts 13:30). “This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner” (Acts 4:11). The Epistles also are full of the glory of the resurrection of Christ. The whole question of our salvation hangs on the resurrection of Christ.
Now it was on this first day of the week that Christ arose, the firstborn from among the dead — the first-fruits of them that slept (1 Corinthians 15:20; Colossians 1:18; Revelation 1:5). “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118: 22-24). The question is, On what day did God take up from the dead His rejected stone and give Him this glory? Plainly, on the first day of the week, This, then, is the day of all days which the Lord hath made; and without a command those are glad and do rejoice in it who are one with Him that is raised from the dead. I know this passage looks forward to Israel as to the time of the manifestation; but faith sees in the resurrection of Christ the pledge and assurance of all that is yet to come. “Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:14). As Jesus was the firstfruit pledge of the coming harvest, so that day on which He arose is a foretaste of the eternal peace and joy at His right hand in the glory.
It was on that first day that Jesus opened the Scriptures and showed His disciples how He ought to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory. (Luke 24 — see the whole chapter.) It was on that same day at evening, being the first day of the week, that Jesus for the first time declared the glad tidings of peace through His broken body and shed blood. “Peace be unto you” (Luke 24:36), and He showed them His hands and His feet. Oh, what a gospel of peace in the wounds of Jesus alive from the dead! And again, the next first day He came with the same message of peace. Who can tell the deep joy of the soul which has long been tormented with the awful sense of sin — when, for the first time, “Peace be unto you” is heard from the lips of Jesus, and conscience is forever satisfied, because God is glorified by the wounds on the risen body of Jesus. Surely that soul will rejoice on the day, the first of all days, when God raised up His Son from the dead.
But the disciples, though thus blest, were commanded to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father — the Holy Ghost (Acts 1:4-8). Now, it is most remarkable that the Holy Ghost did not come until the day of Pentecost was fully come. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place ... and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:1,4). Surely there must be some reason why the Lord Jesus remained in the grave until the Sabbath was so fully past, and the Holy Ghost remained away until the Pentecost was so fully come; for the Pentecostal scene — like the resurrection — began early in the morning on the first day of the week.
The institution of this Pentecostal feast in Leviticus 23 will throw much light on this part of our subject. The sheaf of the first-fruits in verse 11, “He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath.” Now the morrow after the Sabbath must be the first day of the week. Christ was that firstfruit sheaf which was waved in resurrection acceptance on the morrow after the Sabbath — not on the Sabbath, but the first day after the Sabbath was passed — on the very day the Jewish priest waved the literal sheaf Christ arose from the dead. “And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord” (Leviticus 23:15-16).
To my own soul the typical instruction in this is very full. The waving of the firstfruit sheaf was on the morrow after the Sabbath, and the two wave-loaves are also offered on the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, or first day after the Sabbath. How wondrously everything met in Christ. On the very night the Passover was slain, Jesus was offered, the Lamb of God without spot. On that very morrow after the Sabbath, when the wave sheaf was waved, on that very first day of the week Jesus, our Surety, was raised from the dead and accepted for us. Seven Sabbaths had to pass away, and the morrow after the seventh must be fully come — the Pentecost — before the Holy Ghost could be given to baptize the disciples into one body, the church of the living God. Then was the church, answering to the two wave-loaves, to be taken from Jew and Gentile, presented before the Lord. The sweet savor offering connected with the sheaf of the firstfruits, contrasted with the leaven baked with the loaves of these firstfruits, is full of solemn instruction as to the perfection of Christ, who “hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor” (Ephesians 5:2), and the leaven of imperfection that is found in the church. As to itself, it is only as seen in Him who loved it and gave Himself for it, that it is without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing (Ephesians 5:26-27).
But why, I ask, were they to wait, and why did the Spirit delay until the Sabbath was seven times past, and this first day of Pentecost was fully come? Was it not to show that the Sabbath, with the whole economy of the law, must be seven times past, utterly past, before God could begin to build the new-creation church? It may be necessary to notice, for some, that the church had no actual existence before the day of Pentecost. When Jesus told Peter about the church, He did not say, On this rock I am building, but on this rock I will build My church. Now, that Peter afterward understood this to refer to resurrection is very clear (Acts 4:10-12; 1 Peter 1:3-4; 2:4-9). Surely, as living stones we are not built upon a dead Christ, but built up in Him who is alive from the dead. Unless Christ raised from the dead is seen to be the foundation of the church, the church of God is not seen at all. That there may be churches or assemblies of men without any connection whatever with the resurrection of Christ is very certain. But that the church of God is risen with Christ is also quite as clear; for “He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18). Alas! resurrection is beyond man’s thoughts altogether. But it is God’s thought, and that which is the marvelous contrast to everything that is earthly.
Should the reader wish to see more of this, let him turn to the Epistle to the Ephesians. The resurrection of Christ in mighty power is seen in Ephesians 1:18; the church is then seen as His body, raised up with Him, in Ephesians 2, and thus built upon Him, the chief corner stone. Ephesians 3 shows this mystery to have been kept hid from ages.
To return to Pentecost. On this first day the glad tidings of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus was proclaimed for the first time to the wondering multitude. Three thousand heard the Word, received it, and were baptized. When God formed man of the dust of the ground all his members were fashioned, but he was not a living soul until God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Even so, it is quite true, the disciples of Christ were gathered together, but they were not a living temple of the Holy Ghost until He descended on the day of Pentecost. What a change! a timid band of fearful men now stand forth in the mighty power of God; and this great event took place on the first day of the week, even the morrow after the seventh Sabbath. Surely the believer needs no command to remember with gladness such a day.
Let us now notice Acts 20:7, “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.” It does not say, when the disciples met to keep the Sabbath; no, the word Sabbath is never once used in Scripture to denote the first day of the week. But they were disciples thus met, and their object was not even to hear Paul; no, the preaching of Paul is secondary to “breaking bread.” What was this breaking bread that was thought so much of by the early disciples, not on the first Sunday in the month, or the second, but on the first day of the week? The first Sunday in the month has no meaning in it, except as it expresses man’s self-will, to do as he likes for his convenience.
“For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread: and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is My body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
This passage is full of solemn instruction as to what it is for disciples to break bread. It is the Lord’s redeemed people, remembering their Lord’s death, and showing it forth until He come. This was the object of the disciples when they came together on the first day of the week. Am I a disciple? Have I redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of my sins? Then with solemn, holy joy, let me eat of that bread, and drink of that cup, on the first day of the week — that is the memorial of His broken body, and of His shed blood; let me thus confess and show forth that my salvation is not by works, but entirely of Christ.
But let us beware of making the supper of the Lord, either a mass, or a sacrament of works for salvation; no, it is the commemoration of that finished redemption which is the eternal salvation of every one that believes. It is for those who believe God and are saved (not for those who doubt God’s testimony and hope they may, partly by works and partly by Christ, be saved) thus to show forth the tokens of this finished work; and though truly blessed for the Lord’s believing people at any time to break bread, remembering His great love, yet how very fitting, on the day of His triumphant resurrection, to come together to break bread in remembrance of His death. This is no matter for human choice. If a child delights to do its parent’s will, simply because it has discovered its parent’s pleasure, much more surely, in the true spirit of sonship, shall we delight, yes, rejoice, in the first day of the week; and loving Him because He has so loved us, we shall with longing hearts desire to do the will of Him who has thus saved us by His grace.
Christ loved to reveal Himself to His disciples on the first day of the week; and faith will still count on this.
The Holy Ghost was pleased to use the preaching of the gospel on the first day of the week; faith will count on His still loving to bring many souls to Christ on that day, and of course at all other times.
Disciples came together then on the first day of the week to break bread — disciples should love to come together now to break bread. Disciples then made collections for the poor on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:2) — they should love to do the same now. Oh, how thankful should we be that we have such an opportunity — such a privilege — on the first day of the week to meet together, to break bread, to preach Christ, and to care for one another, none molesting or making us afraid. Shall we lightly esteem such a favor? Oh, no, God forbid! How can they who are not their own, but bought with a price, even the precious blood of Christ — how can such say, “I am not a servant, but a son, therefore I will do my own pleasure; I will go here and there; I will do my own will”? Ah, this savors more of Satan than of the spirit of adoption and love. Oh my brethren, we need more to feel the claims of the mercy of God, and more yielding of our bodies to God!
One word as to Revelation 1:10, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” This is the only passage in which “the Lord’s Day” occurs in Scripture, and I doubt not it means, as commonly understood, the first day of the week — the day which the Lord has made. The sum of it all is this: the Lord’s people, on the Lord’s Day, remembering the Lord’s death, and preaching the gospel to the world.
But, it may be asked, is there no command to the world about Sabbath-keeping now? Nothing, I answer, but to hear the gospel, believe and live. Man never could enter into rest by works. Peace and life are God’s free gift. Every act of obedience must spring from life in Christ. We are created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, Jesus said, “My peace I give unto you” (John 14:27). “For He is our peace, who hath made both one [that is the Jew under law, and the Gentile without law], and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances” (Ephesians 1:14-15). “And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh” (Ephesians 1:17).
In conclusion, should the reader be one of those who has long and anxiously desired this “peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7), this assurance of perfect rest in God, and has never yet found it, let me ask. Have you not sought it by the works of the law, Sabbath-keeping, or what not, instead of looking simply to Jesus? Are we not told that He hath “made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:20), and that since Christ hath been set forth crucified, “as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse” (Galatians 3:10)? You cannot possibly have both. If you cling to the law and try to do the best you can, you let go Christ (Galatians 5:4). If you cling only to Christ, you magnify the law, for all its condemnation fell on Jesus — its ministry is abolished and you are free, you are justified, you have peace, you cease from works, you enter into rest, even the true Sabbath of God. The love of God fills your soul, the Spirit of God bears witness that the blood of Jesus has cleansed you from all sin. The Lord’s Day will no longer be a day of bondage and sin, but a day of thanksgiving and joy. You are a new creature in Christ Jesus — old things are passed away — all is new. The new nature will as surely delight to do the will of God as the old nature is contrary to Him.