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Commentary on "Creation Care"
Day 5: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - Sabbath and the Environment
Summary
In today’s lesson, the author argues that God gave us the gift of the Sabbath, in part, to help us tame our greed because the Sabbath gives individuals an opportunity to take a rest from secular pursuits. In other words, the Sabbath allows people to rest from thinking about acquiring more possessions. Furthermore, the author contends that if individuals refrain from commerce for one day out of the week, we will be helping the environment.
Observations
First, I realize that SDAs are not the only ones promoting this view of the Sabbath. This is a view that has been circulating in the mainstream Christian culture, also. (For example, I’m aware that it is presented in J. Matthew Sleeth’s recent book: Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action ).
Does the Bible indicate the purpose of the Sabbath? It was a sign of a covenant made between God and Israel (Ex. 31:13). Another guideline for Biblical interpretation is not to assume a command made to a group of people is also a command for us today. This will take awhile to unpack, but for further information, see Pastor Clay Peck’s studies on the covenants in Scripture. Also, here’s a clip by Greg Koukl about how to determine if a command to Israel should be followed currently by Christians: Link to clip.
However, the broader issue is that the author is implying that keeping an aspect of God’s law will somehow take greed out of our hearts. Unfortunately, the Bible is clear that the law (which is anything that God commands us to do), can never remove any kind of sin from our hearts. Greed is a spiritual problem that requires a spiritual solution, not a law solution.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (verses 1-4; ESV)
To even hint that keeping a law can in any way reduce some sin in our heart (greed or otherwise) is a form of idolatry. Jesus is the Solution (Romans 8:3). The Sabbath pointed to Him (see Hebrews 3-4). The Bible says clearly that the law does nothing to keep us from sinning. In fact, it only causes us to sin more (see Romans 7).
Tim Keller, in his book Prodigal God discusses the idea that the prodigal son parable in Luke 15 teaches us that there are two ways to be lost. First, there are people like the older brother, who believed that they are somehow in God’s favor by doing everything correctly. They engage in all the right behaviors and they are loyal to His commands and teachings. In essence, these are the kind of people who believe that people are sinful because they do 'bad’ things. Conversely, the younger brothers are making a mess of their lives breaking God’s law because they do not trust hta the Father will protect their best interests. They are lured by the idols of the heart (fame, money, greed, pleasure). So the older brothers strive to keep God’s law correctly, and they often look down on the 'younger brother’ individuals for blatantly disregarding God’s law.
However, the truth is that both brothers were separated from the Father. Both of them were lost because they were each attempting to save/fulfill themselves in some way. In fact, the story ends with the younger brother reconciled to the Father because he repented and saw his need, whereas the older brother remained unrepentant.
The idea that doing something differently on a day of the week will somehow keep us from sin is akin to behaving like the older brother. He thought that his attention to rules would somehow result a reward/benefit/blessing; but at the end of the parable, it was he who was separated from the Father. The younger brother saw his hopeless state and gave up on his self-sufficiency. I pray that we all will realize, on a deep level, that there is no behavior in which we can engage that will reduce the sin in our hearts one iota. We must be born of the Spirit (John 3) and Jesus is the One Who has already cleansed us from every spot. He, not the law, is the exact imprint of the Father’s nature (Hebrews 1:3). We must look to Him (not to any part the law) for not only for our salvation/justification, but for our daily living as well (Galatians 3:1-5).
Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised January 24, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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