Black Rock Seventh-day Adventist Church

At His death, didn't Jesus nail the Sabbath to the cross? Let’s look at what was nailed to the cross in Colossians 2:14-17.

“Having wiped out [blotted out] the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”

Browse: Is the Sabbath for the Jews only?

Browse: Is Sunday a memorial of Jesus’ resurrection?

Symbols and shadows

The law of ceremonies that pointed to Jesus, the Lamb of God, sacrificed on the cross for our sins, was nailed to the cross. There, at the cross, type (the Passover lamb) met antitype (Jesus, the lamb of God). The symbol faced reality and shadow found its substance. Paul sums up the meaning of all Jewish ceremonials as follows: "Which are a shadow of things to come.” So the sabbaths mentioned in Colossians 2:16 are those sabbaths that were types or symbols of something better to come.

Old Testament ceremonial sabbaths

If you study the ceremonials of ancient Israel, you will find seven yearly ceremonial sabbaths that had to do with the annual Jewish feasts. These sabbaths came on different days of the week, through the years, just as your birthday does. They were shadows of things to come.

What was nailed to the cross?

The seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth commandment was not a shadow waiting for its fulfillment. It was not symbolic of anything connected with the cross. The seventh-day Sabbath is the memorial of a completed fact, the creation of our world in six days. The seventh-day Sabbath of the 10 Commandments had no connection with the ceremonial sab­baths. Those ceremonial sabbaths of Colossians 2:16 were nailed to the cross or ended at the cross. While on the other hand, the seventh-day Sabbath, as a part of God's eternal law, is never-ending and will continue to be kept in the new earth when sin is forever gone. (see Isaiah 66:23.)