Everything under the Old Covenant has been made obsolete in Christ. The law on stone of the Old Covenant is a ministry of death and condemnation. Why is this? Because the law can never make anyone righteous before God and we know that righteousness is the main point of salvation.
In the New Covenant, Christ is our righteousness, which brings about a rest for the people of God. God is using the book of Hebrews to point this out. God brings us back to His rest on the seventh day of creation to help us understand the finished work we have in Christ. God is not pointing us back to the fourth commandment, but rather, He is pointing us back to the finished work of the seventh day.
Take a close and careful look at the context of Hebrews leading up to Hebrews 4 and notice how its all about the rest we have in Christ and the joy that this rest brings to us.
Hebrews 3:5-7 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you will hear His voice,
Hebrews 3:12-19 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today,'' lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.'' For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Hebrews 4:1-4 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest,'' although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works''
Hebrews 4:14-16 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
There is no mention of the fourth commandment in the entire context, but rather, a command to exhort daily. We find God pointing to the seventh day of creation as He uses it as a picture of what we have in Christ. God has used the seventh day rest of creation many times and for different reasons throughout Scripture to give us a picture of whatever the context is when He uses the seventh day as a picture.
In Christ, everything of the Old is done away with.
Hebrews 8:13 God speaks of these new promise, of this new covenant, as taking the place of the old one; for the old one is out of date now and has been put aside forever.
The words of Jesus abiding in the hearts and minds of God's people will produce a character of love for God and love for neighbor. How this love is manifested is not seen in keeping Ten Commandments, thought many of the commandments will be fulfilled in our lives, but it's much more than that.
In Christ the literal day of the fourth commandment does not even come into play because it's done away with as is everything else of the Old Covenant.
Our focus as a New Covenant believer are the words of Christ. Our example for the New Covenant believer is the life of Christ.
Many people will say that Jesus kept the Sabbath. This is true as far as it was His custom to enter into the synagogs on the Sabbath. But what did He teach while in the synagogs? He taught things that were against the law of the Sabbath regulations to reveal the true meaning of the Sabbath as not a literal day but a life of obedience to God and a ceasing from our own religious works. He pointed to the heart of life, which is love for God and love for people.
Many of the things Jesus did on the Sabbath were totally against the religious rules of Sabbath keeping. These were not man made rules, but rather, they were rules that governed the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. It even got to the point where Jesus came right out and said He is working on the Sabbath and so isn't His Father. He even goes on to say that His Father has been working from the beginning. Why is this? Because the rest of the seventh day of creation was a rest from the six days of creation, not a rest from working in His creation.
What God wants us to understand is that what He has done through Christ is a finished work and has been a finished work as part of His plan as the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.
Nothing in the Old Covenant matters when were in Christ. Jesus becomes our righteousness and our payment for sin, not the keeping of anything found in the Old Covenant. In understanding and believing this there is rest. This is why we are called not to forsake the gathering together. Why is this? Because there is freedom in Christ and where there is freedom we can tend to neglect gathering together.
