The website 1888 Most Precious Message has posted an article by E. J. Waggoner titled “The Object of the Sabbath.” In it Dr. Waggoner makes the following statement:
The Sabbath is the memorial of creation, but redemption is creation. David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart.” Psalm 51:1. “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.” 2 Corinthians 5:17. The gospel “is the power of God unto salvation,” (Romans 1:16), and the power of God is seen only in the things that he has made. Verse 29. So the power of the gospel is the power that created the worlds. Therefore, the Sabbath, in commemoration of creation, makes known to man the power of God to save from sin. As it calls to remembrance the power of God as shown in the works of his hands, it reminds us of the words of the apostle: “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10
Creation and Redemption’s Connection
This statement deserves contemplation. The connection between redemption and creation is an important one. When God seeks to do something with humanity, God is not simply doing a renovation project, God is engaging in creation. God has to begin again as in the original creation. God starts over and creates in us that which is not there. The only real way to understand or see this power of God to do something with us is to look at the creation. Look at how God can take nothing and make something. And to do that we need to look at the works of God’s hands.
God Making a Way
I think it is interesting that just as what God does in us through creation, God does things for us through creation. When the old folks used to say, “God can make a way out of no way,” they were simply saying that the creative power of God will be used to make ways where they were not before. All this is simply to say that when we speak of miracles, we are simply talking about the creative power of God, when we speak of hope in hopelessness, we are simply depending on God’s ability to create.
Remembering the Sabbath
And the only mechanism that God has given us to celebrate this creative power is the Sabbath. God has called us to remember the Sabbath so that we can remember this power that does things in us and for us and through us. God calls us to remember the Sabbath so that we can let the world know that God “can-do…” And we as a people have been called to remind the world of this fact. If it had not been for the creative power of God where would we be? If it had not been for the creative power of God I would be nothing! If it had not been for the creative power of God, I wouldn’t have any hope. This is why the first angel in Revelation 14:6-7 seeks to remind humanity of creation. And one day we as a people will proclaim this message “more fully.”