GOD’S SABBATH
A Change of Law?

Daniel 7:25 refers to man’s changing God’s laws – a thing that is wrong. But, if God has changed his own law, that is an altogether different matter – and wrong not to recognize and adjust to it. So what I wish to do now is to point out that God did make such a change when making Jesus Christ to be our high priest after the order of Melchisedek, and not after the Levitical order of Aaron as he had legislated for priests under the law of which he made Moses mediator and by which he also gave the Ten commandments at Mount Sinai.

 1. Notice first the following from the New Covenant epistle to the Hebrews (American Standard Version):

 a. Chapter 7:11-25 "Now if there was perfection [referring to salvation to the uttermost, v.25] through the Levitical priesthood (for under it hath the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should arise after the order of Melchisedek, and not be reckoned after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. For he of whom these things are said belongeth to another tribe, from which no man hath given attendance at the alter. For it is evident that our Lord hath sprung out of Judah; as to which tribe Moses [through whom God gave the Old Covenant law] spake nothing concerning priests. And what we say is more abundantly evident, if after the likeness of Melchisedek there ariseth another priest, who hath been made, not after the law of a carnal [fleshly] commandment [the Old Covenant law], but after the power of an endless life [of Christ after his resurrection]: for it is witnessed of him, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedek. For there is a disannulling of the former commandment, because of its weakness and unprofitableness (for the law made nothing perfect), and a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God. And inasmuch as it is not without the taking of an oath (for they [after the order of Aaron, the Levitical priest] indeed have been made priest without an oath; but he [Christ] with an oath him that saith of him), The Lord sware and will not repent himself, Thou art a priest for ever; By so much also hath Jesus become the surety of a better covenant. And they have been made priest many in number [successively], because that by death they are hindered from continuing: but he, because he abideth for ever, hath his priesthood unchangeable. "WHEREFORE HE IS ABLE TO SAVE TO THE UTTERMOST THEM THAT DRAW NEAR UNTO GOD THROUGH HIM, SEEING HE LIVETH TO MAKE INTERCESSION FOR THEM."

 NOTE:  The above passage is saying there is no "salvation to the uttermost" (no eternal salvation) under the Levitical priesthood of the Old Covenant. No one priest, and not even the entire succession of the mortal priest, could provide salvation beyond their lifetime upon earth, for the sacrifices they offered year by year availed for no more than a year at a time – hence, not beyond life on earth. Therefore, even those living under the Old Covenant could have eternal life only through the later and perpetual priesthood of Jesus Christ, the benefit of whose one-time sacrifice of himself for sins was retroactive to provide their salvation in eternity (noted below in chapter 9:15) – because the blood of animals that the Levitical priests repeatedly offered could not "take away sins" (Chapter 10:4) to the extent of being "remembered no more," as under the New Covenant (Chapter 8:12; 10:17-18).

  b. Chapter 8:6-13: "But now he [Christ] hath obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant [than that of which Moses was the mediator], which has been enacted upon better promises. For if the first covenant had been faultless [that is, had it not been inadequate for ‘salvation to the uttermost’], then would no place have been sought for a second. For finding fault with them [the nation of Israel, which had come to be divided into the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah], he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took by the hand to lead them out forth out of the land of Egypt; For they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord [see Jeremiah 31:31-34] … In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away."

  c. Chapter 9:15, already referred to above: "And for this cause he [Christ] is the mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they that have been called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance[‘salvation to the uttermost’]."

 NOTE: Please read carefully all Chapters 7-10, from which I have taken only excerpts. And notice particularly that (a) what occurred under the Old covenant were types and shadows of "good things to come" (10:1) under the New covenant, and (b) that, "He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second" (10:9).

 2. Please read also the 3^rd chapter of 2 Corinthians, and notice the following:

  a. What is "written, and engraven on stones," namely the Ten Commandments of the Old Covenant, containing the Sabbath commandment (exodus 31:18; 32:15; 34:28), passed away (vs. 4-16).

  b. It is specifically stated that "the old covenant … is done away in Christ" (v.14).

 #. Please note Colossians 2:16-17, which reads as follows: "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day [all of which pertained to the Old Covenant]: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body [casting the shadow, so to speak] is Christ’s [literally, ‘of Christ,’ as in the King James Version]." Cecil N. Wright