“Lord of the Sabbath” newness has at least three critical applications: priesthood, people, and program…With regard to the priesthood, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would be forever now the one and only perfect and eternal High Priest (see Heb. 7:26 ff)—whose new Sabbath Day would be crowned by the commemoration of His bodily resurrection.

Our blessed and glorious Lord Jesus Christ called Himself “The Lord of the Sabbath” in Matt. 12:8 and Lk. 6:5. Both of these citations refer to the same instance of His disciples eating grain in the fields on the old Sabbath Day.

This “Lord of the Sabbath” appellation that our Messiah gives to Himself is an interesting and intriguing one. He is not found referring to Himself as, “Lord of the Old Testament,” or, “Lord of the Law,” or, “Lord of History,” (for instance), but, “Lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus is “Lord” of all those other things, and everything else God ever did or created–but we do not find Him calling Himself by those titles.

I suspect we believers have underestimated the significance of Christ’s being “The Lord of the Sabbath”–and I hope that this humble effort (of this short paper) will help rectify that situation.

First of all, this helps explain why and how our Redeemer changed the Sabbath Day from Saturday (of the Old Covenant/the old world), to Sunday (of the New Covenant/the new world). This was no minor alteration; it signified the reality that the entire creation was now subject to the existence of the inauguration of, “The new heavens, and the new earth.” This “new world” officially began at the very moment that the foot of the just-Resurrected Messiah touched the once-radically-sin-cursed earth, on that first Easter Sunday morning. From that very moment, the “old” was gone/the “new” had come, (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17).

Read More