The Sabbath REST

Dear Sons,

I can share with you only what "I see in part" on the subject of the Sabbath. The Sabbath, along with all the other shadows and types

within the Law (for that is all the Law had) found their true substance (upostasis in the Greek) in Christ. This means that the Sabbath as well was a shadow and type of what God would fully accomplish in the coming of Messiah.

The Sabbath shadowed man's need to "cease from his own works" as a sign and remembrance that it was Yahweh that had set Israel apart and made them holy. We too have a sign that we have been set apart unto the Father through the work accomplished in Christ Jesus. That sign is that we too have ceased from our own works, not works of righteousness, NO! - rather we have ceased from the "works of the flesh!" Paul describes these "works of the flesh" in Galatians and contrast them to the FRUIT of the Spirit. When we cease from "walking according to the flesh" by the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus - we become the "true circumcision" done without hands. We become those who "cease from our own works" and begin to manifest the works of "God at work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Therefore, I do not only observe one day of cessation from my works, but I have ceased altogether from doing "the works of my flesh".

Christ has become my Sabbath of which HE is Lord. My rest comes from and IN Him. He is the one whose Spirit so works in me as to set me from the slave labor to sin and grants me the freedom to live in Him. In Christ I rest, and the "putting off of my sinful flesh" is the sign that I have been set apart unto Him, just like Abraham's circumcision was a sign of the righteousness he had by faith before he was circumcised.

The writer of Hebrews made it clear that the Law contained only

shadows and types. Paul echoed this same truth in Colossians chapter 2 - "Let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance is of Christ." In the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those from under the Law. We have been redeemed from the shadows and now live in the LIGHT of the world. The Law was only put into effect to lead us unto Christ. Christ is the end (the goal, the fulfillment, the climax) of the Law. All the Law and the prophets prophesied until John - from that time on "THE KINGDOM OF GOD" was proclaimed because "THE KING HAD COME". The one whose shadow was being cast by the brilliance of His light dispelled the shadows and caused those living in the land of the shadow of death to see a GREAT light. In Him was LIFE and that LIFE was the LIGHT of men. The shadow of Sabbath has been dispersed by the real and full REST in CHRIST!

Love, your bother in CHRIST - My only glory, My Sabbath, My Messiah

This is from a series of letters that Alan wrote to the boys in 2008.  Pictured above, Joseph, Benjamin, Eric Armstrong and Ryan Cooper (two of our other "sons" :)