In November 2024, I was privileged to travel to Australia for the fourth time and present a series of meetings. During my time there, I was able to have a lively discussion with a local pastor regarding God’s law. During that conversation, the question came up about what makes the Sabbath holy. I told the pastor then—and if he reads this blog, I want him to know now—that I really appreciated our spirited discussion because my mind has been processing it and such discussions are part of what helps me grow, examine different perspectives, dig deeper into the Word, and advance my understanding. I hope our conversation was equally beneficial to him.

What our different views boiled down to was the pastor took the position that the Sabbath is holy because God declared it to be holy. It was made holy by God’s executive action as Sovereign of the Universe at the end of creation week to set it apart by His declared word.

But this explanation did not sit well with me, for my understanding, my reality, is that God is the Creator and His laws are design laws, the protocols built into reality, like the laws of physics, health, and the moral laws. What I understand the pastor to be saying is that the Sabbath is holy not because of some inherent aspect of its creation, not something built into the Sabbath by God’s actions that objectively sets it apart, but because God used His Sovereign right as Creator and Ruler to make an edict, a ruling, a proclamation, a declared statement.

Such an action is the type of authority, methods, mode, and law used by created beings, the artificial use of position, of office, of power, to set something apart arbitrarily because the ruler said so, not because it is so.

For instance, declaring that green lights mean go and red lights mean stop is an arbitrary use of authority to set one color apart from another, not by something inherent in the two colors, but by an external rule that is declared by the ruling authority and then enforced by external judicial process. This is the law of creatures, imposed rules with externally imposed penalties.

My view of the Great Controversy, the war between God and Satan, is not over who has power but over whether we can trust God with His power. Satan first undermined trust in God by alleging God governs through the use of made-up rules and externally inflicted punishments for rule-breaking. In other words, Satan alleged that God’s laws function no differently than a creature’s law, and, therefore, God ultimately functions like a creature, imposing rules and using power to punish rule breakers.

So the Sabbath is a great test case—are all of God’s laws truly design laws, protocols built into reality, or are some of His laws arbitrary, simply made-up rules imposed by God by His declaring it to be so?

The pastor who took the position that God’s declaration makes it holy referenced creation week and God’s setting apart the seventh day:

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done (Genesis 2:2, 3 NIV84).

The pastor’s interpretation of this passage is that God’s actions are the actions of a ruler imposing a difference by His word or authority.

But consider the following evidence in the very narrative of creation, when God made another declaration:

The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18 NIV84).

Was it good for man to be alone until the Lord said this? Was it only when the Lord said it was not good that it became not good? Or did the Lord say it because there was something missing and He had not quite completed His creative work yet—and it was, in reality, not good to leave it uncompleted? Did God’s declaration make it so, or was it already so, and thus God, who always speaks truth, declared it to be so?

The issue I am disentangling is this: Which comes first—reality, the way things are, or God’s verbal description, or declaration, of the way things are? In regard to the Sabbath, was it holy the moment God created it? Was there something about its creation, something built into it or associated with it by creation, that objectively set it apart from all other days—and God’s verbal statement about it announced the reality of what was already true, or was it that God’s verbal description made it so?

Those who operate upon the human-law model automatically think that God’s verbal statements are the legal edicts that make it so. Whereas those who see God’s law as design law understand His statements are announcements of truth, of the way things actually are.

At the Second Coming, when Jesus separates the “sheep” from the “goats,” does His action, His judgment, His proclamation, make some into sheep and some into goats, or is He separating them based on reality, on who they have chosen to become? (Matthew 25:31–33).

In the last days, it is declared:

He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still (Revelation 22:11 NKJV).

Is it that this declaration causes some to be unjust and filthy and others to be righteous and holy, or does this declaration describe what already is?

Consider this Bible commentary, which describes the author’s view of Lucifer’s rebellion in heaven, how Lucifer had been making allegations about equality with Jesus and the unfairness of how Lucifer was being treated; this is God’s response:

The King of the universe summoned the heavenly hosts before Him, that in their presence He might set forth the true position of His Son and show the relation He sustained to all created beings. … There had been no change in the position or authority of Christ. Lucifer’s envy and misrepresentation and his claims to equality with Christ had made necessary a statement of the true position of the Son of God; but this had been the same from the beginning. Many of the angels were, however, blinded by Lucifer’s deceptions (Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 36, 38, emphasis mine).

Did Jesus become fully and equally God only when and because God said it, or did God say it because Jesus was, in fact, fully and equally God and always had been? When God declares something to be so, does His declaration make it so, or was it already that way, and God, who is truth, will speak or declare it to be so because it is the truth, because it is that way?

And this is true of God’s law. God’s laws are design law, the protocols reality is built upon, emanating from His being, sustaining all things. God’s verbal description of His law does not establish it. He states it because it is the way things are, as He created reality to exist and operate.

The Sabbath Sanctified

So is the Sabbath holy because God said so, declared it holy, or did God declare it holy because it was holy?

The Bible says God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath day—what does that mean? Does it mean that God blessed it by legal declaration, making an imposed law that requires external enforcement through inflicted punishments? If that is what God did, then that would not have been a blessing but a curse, for that is the way Satan’s kingdom works; that would have sustained Satan’s charges against the government of God rather than refute them. No, God did not make a legal rule, an imposed law.

God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath by action, conduct, and creation—by reality. The Sabbath was made, created, built into time by the God who controls space and time, whose laws are the basis of the operations of all reality. And the Sabbath was made in the context of a war against God’s rulership. The Sabbath was set apart from the other six days not when God used power but when He stopped using power, when He rested, when He refused to enforce law by the use of power and, instead, left all His creatures free to think and decide for themselves!

The Sabbath was created at the end of the creation week of this planet and is invested, made, created, and built by God with the revelation of truth, love, and freedom—when God refused to use external power to punish Lucifer, to force Satan to comply, when God refused to operate in the way of a creature. Thus, the Sabbath is holy, made and created as a sign, evidence, revelation, and demonstration of God’s character of love and design-law methods. It exists because God exists and because God is love—and love exists only in freedom. Thus, for the same reasons God found it necessary to declare the true position of Jesus, God also declared the reality of the sacredness, holiness, and blessedness of the Sabbath day, for in six days God created but on the seventh day He rested! The Sabbath day is special, distinct, set apart but not by God’s declaration; it is so by God’s action in its creation—for it reveals the glory and holiness of God. The Sabbath is not holy because God declares it holy; no, He declares it holy because it is holy!

God does not choose might and power as the attributes He glories in. No, God glories in His character of love. The Bible doesn’t say “God is power” even though He is all-powerful; the Bible says that “God is love”! (1 John 4:8).

God has demonstrated that the attribute He prefers to be known by is not power, but His kindness, love, mercy, gentleness, and self-sacrificing character. When God showed Moses His glory, He said,

“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin (Exodus 34:6, 7 NIV84).

Solomon’s temple was blessed by the Shekinah glory of God’s presence on the day of its dedication (2 Chronicles 5:13), yet the Bible tells us Herod’s temple was more glorious despite it being so puny compared to Solomon’s that the elders who saw the foundations for Herod’s temple wept (Haggai 2:7–9; Ezra 3:12). How could the smaller temple be more glorious? Because Jesus walked the courts of Herod’s temple! And God identifies Jesus, who is selfless, meek, and humble, as the more glorious manifestation of Himself than the brightness of His own Shekinah. God glories in His character of love, and love operates only in freedom.

On days one to six of creation, we learn that God is powerful and the Creator, but day seven is set apart by Him as the day He reveals His character of love, the day He says is His day because it is the day He rested. Again, God does not identify power as the attribute that He personally glories in. No, God glories in being love, and love exists only in freedom. Thus, the Sabbath is set apart by God’s investing it with His character when He refused to use power to put down a rebellion. And God created the Sabbath for humans; He foreknew we would be caught up in a war for our hearts and minds, a war in which might and power would be viewed as being right. But God says to His faithful through history, “Remember the Sabbath—remember that I rested; remember that even though I am the Creator, I don’t use my power to force, to coerce, to punish; I give you real freedom, so each week remember the freedom you have when you return to love and trust in me, for it is by trusting me, loving me, and choosing my methods of truth, love, and freedom, all invested in the Sabbath, that remove your fear, cleanse your guilt, give you new hearts and right spirits, and make you a holy people who represent Me.”  

God wants His people to be faithful to Him, like Job, Daniel, and the three worthies who would not bow to the golden idol, but such faithfulness, love, and loyalty cannot be obtained by God using imposed rules with threats of external punishments. Such love, devotion, and loyalty happen only through the design laws of God—truth, love, and freedom (Zechariah 4:6). All such friends of God (John 15:15) are those who have rejected the imposed-law lies that creatures use and have returned to worshiping God as Creator and have become so settled into the truth that they cannot be moved. They are the loyal, the faithful, the righteous who are fully persuaded in their own minds (Romans 14:5).

In His foreknowledge, God knew the need of humanity, knew how deeply we would fall for the imposed-law legal system and, before the fall of Adam and Eve, gave human beings a special gift, an evidence, built right into time and that cannot be removed—the seventh-day Sabbath is a sign, evidence, proof, that God is love and that He gives us real freedom. It is a reminder that God is the one who makes us holy through His methods of truth, love, and freedom, which win us back to love and trust.

I encourage you to reject the imposed-law lies and return to worshiping God as Creator, recognize the Sabbath is holy because it is invested with the design law aspects of God’s character of love—truth, presented in love, while leaving us free. And all true “Sabbath-keepers” are those who have God’s living law written upon their hearts and live out God’s living law in how they treat others; they present the truth, in love, and always leave others free to decide for themselves.