Fall in North Georgia is a splendid affair. The weather dips cold followed by a warm spell that accentuates the marvelous colors displayed across the countryside. Trees exploding with reds, yellows and hues of brown glow in the crisp sunlight and stimulate a creative melancholy. Autumn seems almost divine and majestic.

Part of my sadness about autumn is that the Indian summer announces the desolation of winter. Trees will drop all those wonderful leaves and will stand as barren reminders that the weather is too cold to enjoy without bundles of garments. I try to enjoy it while it lasts, and I do. Yet in a matter of weeks it will be over and then the long wait for spring will follow.

Friday was an exciting time as a child. At the ring of the bell the school halls would explode with children eager to escape to a weekend of friends and fun. We would pile onto busses or into cars with a cheerful and light attitude. School was out and we were free. The weekend was here at last.

But for we who grew up in the Seventh-day Adventist church, Friday was like the fall colors. The freedom and the peace of Friday evaporated into the enslavement of the Sabbath. We enjoyed a taste of joy for those short hours before sundown, only to put life on hold until the following sundown released us again. Well we knew the verse that told us we should consider God's Sabbath a delight, but we found no delight in it. Televisions went cold, and radios were tuned to the Adventist or Christian stations. Record players droned some hymn or there would simply be the silence of boredom to herald the end of another week and the beginning of limbo.

Winter brings some delights, depending on the region. Ice provides the solid ingredient for ice-skating and hockey. Snow provides the malleable ingredient for forts and snowball battles. Christmas comes in the winter and brings cheer, presents and great food.

Sabbath also was not without its rewards. There were some friends that we only saw in Church. Though we were not allowed much free time, we were able to catch up and get into a little mischief. Sermons were long and boring, and often we felt close to death as the minister droned on and our stomachs grumbled loudly. But if the "Little Friend" or other weekly periodical had an interesting story we'd survive. Often there was a "potluck" to look forward to, with lots of food and time to hang out with friends.

The bleakest part of winter is the cold months after the festivities are over. That time until the sprouts of spring seems to never end. Like that time, the hours after church until sundown seemed endless. The list of what we could do never seemed to match what we could not do for enjoyment. We could go on a Sabbath hike with the family, and may even have been allowed to ride our bikes - with the family, and slowly. However we were not allowed to go out and ride our bikes for fun with our friends. Six days a week we could jump the bike over the ramp, but the seventh day the ramp was out of business and resting. We could look longingly at the pool, but could not swim. That was an activity for Sundays and not for Sabbath.

For me, the confusing part of growing up in the church was how often we moved. In one part of the country Sabbath bike riding was taboo while in others there was no stigma. In some Adventist communities kids dashed outside to play with their friends after the dishes were washed and were not seen again until evening worship; in others we were required to reduce our heartbeat to a slow murmur and not excite it until the last Amen at sunset. In all communities there were the rules of what was unacceptable during the 24 hour period known as the Sabbath. In no communities did I understand fully where the Sabbath fit into the Christian life or what it truly represented Biblically.

Was the Sabbath attractive to me as a child? Definitely not. Is this why I do not "keep" the Sabbath as an adult? Absolutely not.

Recalling the silly Sabbath rules incites one of two perspectives. To the convinced Adventist they simply retort that my experience does not negate the theology that requires us to continue to keep the Sabbath as a part of God's binding law. Sunday worship is the mark of the beast. The second group may chuckle, but they feel that Adventists have misunderstood law and grace. Adventists more highly regard the laws given through Moses than the life given through Christ.

Indeed, Paul contrasts the Ten Commandments with the Spirit. "The ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory" but is inferior to the ministry of the Spirit: "how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?" We are "servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, and but Spirit gives life."[1]

Thinking back now makes me shudder: maybe I could have died of starvation and boredom in one of those dry sermons reminiscent of Ben Stein in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". This because the Adventist preacher's letters of the law certainly appeared to be crafted to kill my spirit and continue to deprive me of knowledge of the saving grace and free gift that comes only through faith in Jesus Christ.

Is the Sabbath attractive to me as an adult? Not the Seventh-day Adventist or the Seven-day Baptist Sabbath, no way. Their Sabbath is drowning in old covenant theology melded in an amalgamation that has the appearance of the gospel but the poison of legalism beyond the first bite. A Sabbath that must be kept is a Jewish Sabbath still waiting for the Messiah. The Sabbath that is a delight is the one that stands as a living parable to the rest we find in Christ.

God created the world in 6 days and only after creating trees, flowers, water, light and streams darting with fish did he work on us.  The world was alive and vibrant, overflowing with sounds, smells and sights magnificent beyond words. But words were few since this massive planet with all its wonders had no people yet. There were the screams of monkeys and the trumpets of elephants. There were the crescendo of song birds accented by the thundering hooves of horses and giraffes. Quiet dewy meadows were interrupted by the calls of the dove and the screech of the owl. Rivers resonated with the laughter of water dancing over rocks, while the trees rustled in the wind to the glory of the God that had imagined and created them all. Yet for all the sounds, smells and beauty on the Earth, it was still incomplete and for God it was a lonely garden. God was not finished with his creative Genius.

The very anticipation of heaven reverberated through this new and marvelous garden, for God was about to create again and this was to be His masterpiece. What could exceed the mathematical genius and the physics that laid the framework of the universe? How could God outperform his symphony of sights and sounds? What yet could exceed what had already surpassed the greatest expectation of the celestial spectators? God was about to create a creature crafted in the image of the Creator for whom all creation was a gift.

God said, "Let us make man in our image". And God created you and I, and He created us right in the middle of a finished work of genius. To Adam and to Eve God gave the most incredible endowment – He gave them a world full of magnificent plants and creatures mounted in the setting of a full and marvelous universe.

During the day Adam and Eve would have marveled at the majestic trees heavy with delicious fruit. They would have heard the sounds of the forest and of the plain, and would have delighted in the grand variety of colors, textures and subtle detail. At night they would have gazed breathlessly into the sky at the unfolding expanse of stars, galaxies, quasars and of the lights of their own solar system. Streaking across the sky would have been the band we now call the Milky Way and they would have been delighted with the occasional light show as rocks collided with our atmosphere, lighting up the already brilliant sky.

God created this entire world and gave it to Adam and Eve. God, since He is God did what He does. He creates and He gives. We played no role in laying the foundation and creating our world. To us this was a finished gift. It is no mistake that we were created on the 6^th day and that on the 7^th we rested with God to marvel at his wonderful gift. Is it any wonder that generations later He would again remind a people of this through the symbol of their Sabbath? For in six days the Lord created…everything. Even you. The Lord created it, not you. You were created and what He had already created was given to you as a gift.

Yet when the Sabbath was given in the Law of Moses it was given as a law. It was a part of the "ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones". It was part of the long list of things that God said to do, and if done would result in life. But if not done, would result in death.

Paul also said of the Law that it was given for a purpose. It was to reveal sin[2] and to drive us to Jesus Christ[3], and it even stimulated us to sin[4]. In it's very nature it created a desperate need for a Savior. Standing next to a clear understanding of the depth of the requirements of the Law we were exposed. Our sinful nature and absolute depravity of character and ability to "keep" the law – to perform what the law had required for life – was exposed leaving us naked and ashamed. We were condemned by the law and death was our only future. We needed a Savior.

The words of Jesus sooth my soul: "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."[5] The Sabbath reminds us of creation: God created the whole world and gave it to us as a gift. When the Sabbath law is spoken in Deuteronomy there is a peculiar change to the commandment. In this case they are instructed to remember how God rescued them out of Egypt. The Hebrews were enslaved by a nation, and were unable to rescue themselves. God rescued them out of Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. This was not something that they had done, but rather something that He Himself had done for them.

The Sabbath reminds us of Creation and it reminds us of Salvation. On the Cross the requirements of the law were fulfilled in Christ. Paul said "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."[6]

As Christians we do not walk according to the letter that kills, but rather according to the Spirit that gives life. The Adventist wants to say, "Yes, but God then writes His law into your heart which means He leads us to His Ten Commandments and gives us the power to obey them." The Adventist drags the new believer from the Cross and from Christ and from Grace and returns him under the law; the Adventist ignores the letter to the Galatians. The Adventist ignores the council in Acts 15. The Adventist thinks that just because God said something to a specific people that sounded permanent since it was written in stone that it applies to all people for all time. The Adventist misses the whole point of the covenant made through Moses with Israel[7] and totally misses the very lesson that it was designed to teach. Adventists have a culture that molds their thoughts; any attempt to reveal the plain truths of Scripture about the old covenant contrasted with the new covenant in Christ appears to be a crafty attempt to get out of obeying God.

The delightful message in the Sabbath is that we are given a salvation and Christ is our Sabbath rest. We well remember how powerless we were to earn a salvation by our own works and delight in the works that seem to flow effortlessly from our lives in Christ. We live with a peace that comes from knowing that our standing before God is in Christ, yet revel in the knowledge that all the power of the resurrection is available to us today – in Christ.[8] But we boldly declare that any mention that we must "keep" a law either as a requirement of salvation or to prove our salvation is subtle and even blatant legalism.

Paul declared that we, in Christ, are dead to the Law. That is to say, the Law may still be standing but we are not. Through the symbol of baptism we have affirmed that in Christ we were crucified as the Law required and were resurrected to newness of life.[9] What is the reason we are no longer under law but under grace? It is because we are dead to the law and alive to Christ.

The sanctuary illustrated as a shadow the salvation that was to come in Christ. The rituals illustrated aspects of his sacrifice and what it would achieve. The Sabbath is an illustration of the rest we enter by faith in Christ. Galatians 4 teaches that Christ was "born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."[10] The simple but power truth is that we are no longer under law, but under grace.[11] Yet in Christ we do not rise to new levels of sin, but rise to newness of life – that is the life of God and Christ's character is imprinted on us.

The reason we are known by our Love[12] is because that is how Christ was known and who He was, and is.

How wonderful it would have been to have grown up in a household that understood and lived the new covenant. How wonderful to have known that the Sabbath taught of a completed salvation that Christ earned for us and freely gives to us; one that is ours by faith. How wonderful to have been reminded week after week "come to me…and I will give you rest"?

Yet this is not what the Sabbath taught us as Adventist children. We were imprinted with the idea that if we crack the code of perfect compliance with the Sabbath and other laws, and continue to perform them, we remain acceptable to heaven. But if we do not, we fall out of acceptance and if we do not hasten to repent, may be lost. We feared that if we had not complied with the Sabbath or with some other law and if we were hit by a truck and had not confessed, we could be lost forever.

This is not grace. This is not Christ. This is not the new covenant. This is the letter that kills and contrary to the gospel of Christ that Paul taught.

Adventists never answered the question (like Catholics do not): how many good works are enough? How much compliance is enough? How much effort is enough? Like the Muslims, the Jews and Catholics we work our whole lives hoping that we have done enough.

If we say that we must "keep" any law, we must next define what we mean by keep. If, as with the Sabbath, we accept that "thou shalt not do any work" – what does this mean? Is it work when I chip of the ice from the windshield so we can drive to church? The letter of the law kills because we become consumed with law-keeping and miss the spirit of the law.

We are in Christ by faith, and by faith Christ lives in us. Forensically – legally, we have standing before God because of, and only because of Christ. The life that we now live we live by faith in Christ. We are no longer under the old covenant because it has been replaced by the new in Christ. The "Ten Commandments" is the covenant made with Israel and is not the new covenant.

Christ is our springtime. After the desolation of the winter of legalism and hopelessness Jesus offers us peace. He offers us hope. He is our Sabbath rest. If the Sabbath means anything to us today it is a powerful illustration of how God provides for us a gift that He Himself has created. He provides us a completed creation and He provides us a completed salvation.

"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." Do not be severed from Christ by returning to the law. We want, in Christ, a faith working through love.[13]

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Topics

• Adventism
• Theology
• Gardening

Snapshot

“When I say that I can no longer call myself Adventist, invariably this question is next: What do you do with the Sabbath.

This article attempts to address that question.”

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