Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
—Genesis 2:1-3
The Sabbath is a creation ordinance. In the creation narrative, the 7th day is blessed and made holy because God rested from his creation work. It’s the climax of the creation narrative.
As God’s image bearer, the pattern of six days work and 7th day rest applied to Adam. God’s creation account was a pattern for his image bearers to follow.
We know that we need not take the 6-day creation account literalistically. That raises the question, why was it framed that way?
There’s a polemical angle to God’s pattern of work and rest. Contrary to Egyptian beliefs, God rests, and maintaining order is not a struggle. God’s pattern of work and rest: work during the day, rest at night, for 6 days, then rest from work on the 7th (which doesn’t end). According to an Egyptian narrative, creation occurs in a single day, and is reenacted daily. Not only that, but there’s a divine struggle every night. Overnight, the sun battles the dark and chaos, and rises each morning victorious once again.
Contrarily, God reveals in Scripture that creation was once, not repeated, nor does God struggle against other gods to maintain order. God has created, and is in control. There’s no question of whether the chaotic darkness will come again. God is sovereign, and no other.
For us, the modern audience, we need to realize that time and the calendar are not mere conventions. They are grounded in God. There are weeks, made up of seven days, because that is how God wills it.
Besides the polemical purpose, and showing God’s care in making a dwelling place for us, and the detail given to the construction of the first temple, we know from other parts of the Bible that God laid out his work and rest as a pattern for us. Human beings are made in God’s image, and are to imitate him. The framing of the creation week shows us how labor and rest are to be in people’s lives.
If we consider that God established a pattern of work and rest prior to the entrance of sin (unrest) and death into history, we realize that the work/rest pattern is integral to the way human beings are to relate to time, to one another, and to God their Creator.
—R. Scott Clark, Recovering the Reformed Confession loc. 4940
Six days are for us and our labors, and one day is for rest, but not merely idleness, but dedicated to the Lord. Rest and worship go together.
Adam, in his priestly and ruling labors in the Garden-temple of God, was to labor six days and rest every seventh. This is evident from the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy as part of God’s moral law, which does not change. God’s moral will given to Adam was later expounded to Israel in the Ten Commandments.
The Sabbath was also an eschatological sign for Adam of the future rest that will not end. As God rested from his work upon completion of his work, so too would Adam.
A future hope was held out for Adam. Again, God set the pattern. We notice that the seventh day is unique in the creation narrative. It doesn’t end. There’s no “evening and morning.” God labored, delighted in his creation, then ceases his creative work. Rest doesn’t mean idleness, obviously since God still works in providence, God is still working, but certain works, namely creation, ceased.
So too Adam was given labors to complete. Upon completion of his work, perfect obedience to the Word of God given to him, he would cease those works and enter into the Sabbath rest, and disobedience would no longer be possible. The “probation” would be over, and Adam and his posterity would enjoy everlasting rest in God; the eternal life earning would cease, and mankind would enjoy eternal life. The reality pictured by the Tree of Life, the reward of the Covenant of Works, would be theirs.
…by resting on the seventh day, God pictured the rest that He would provide for His people. He offered Adam and his descendants life (eternal rest), so had Adam not fallen into sin, he would have entered into that rest without passing through death. God, by resting on the seventh day, pictured the promised rest, which was a type of our eternal rest.
The Creator’s example of rest is a reason for His not recording the end of the seventh day.
—Joseph Pipa, “The Christian Sabbath”, Perspectives on the Sabbath pg.121
Adam sinned, and did not enter into Sabbath rest.
Tragically, Adam chose disobedience. He broke the covenant. The covenant curse of death, made visible in the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, was now his and all he represented. Therefore, every human being is legally guilty of breaking the covenant, and deserving the penalty of death. Even those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam. Because Adam was the federal (representative) head of humanity, we are all guilty. Guilt was credited to our account. This legal aspect is why Christ had to die.
Not only that, but now the human condition is no longer “possible to sin” as Adam and Eve, but now “not possible to not sin.” Sin is our default setting. Not-sinning is not a possibility. So not only are we guilty for breaking the covenant of works by imputation, but we ourselves also violate God’s law, we are disobedient; so we ourselves fall short of the abiding requirement of the covenant of works. We are still under a curse.
That is why no “son” of God after Adam was able to obey, and fulfill the covenant of works. Noah, Abraham, Israel, David; they all fell short, and could not obey because of sin.
But God is gracious. God gave a different covenant: the covenant of grace. All people after Genesis 3 that are saved by God are saved by grace through faith, not their fulfilling of the covenant of works. A Redeemer was first promised in Genesis 3, the Seed that would crush the head of the serpent. Adam should have crushed that serpent. God has promised One who will do what is necessary. All who are saved are saved by believing God’s promise. And all God’s people look forward to that “better and heavenly country,” that eternal Sabbath rest that we lost.
This good news gains progressive clarity throughout Scripture. Until finally, the reality arrives: Jesus Christ. Another federal head. One who would satisfy both the requirement and the penalty of the Covenant of Works.
Therefore, all people must enter the eternal Sabbath rest by the labors of Another.
God graciously did not cancel the offer of rest after the fall; rather, He renewed the promise of life, not through Adam’s obedience but through a Redeemer. According to God’s eternal purpose, the day of rest became a weekly promise and reminder to sinners that He would provide redemption and rest.
—Joseph Pipa, “The Christian Sabbath”, Perspectives on the Sabbath pg.121
