Does keeping the Sabbath mean you are living under the Law but not under grace?

There is a theological term called the “Law of First Mention” that helps us find the answer to that question.

The Law of First Mention means that when we find the first place in Scripture that something is mentioned, it lays a foundation for that thing throughout the rest of Scripture.

Because God was orderly in the way He laid out His Word, and because we confirm Scripture with Scripture, we can determine that when something in the Bible is mentioned for the first time - and the context in which it is mentioned - it will lay the foundation and the context for the rest of that thing throughout the rest of the Bible.

The first time we see rest or “sabbath” mentioned in Scripture is in Genesis 2.

“And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” Genesis 2:2-3

We know this is the first sabbath because of the phrase “and He rested”.

In Hebrew, that phrase is שָׁבַת, translated as Sabbath.

To give this passage context, we must look at these verses within the full context of the story, so we will go back to Genesis 1.

Frankly, we cannot go back any farther than that, because Genesis 1 is the first book of the Bible.

In Genesis 1, God created the world. He began with nature: light, water, land, plant life, the solar system, marine life, birds, land animals…

And then man on the 6th day.

And on the very next day of man’s life, God taught him rest.

I would think that God’s first lesson to man would be the most important thing God would want him to know.

The Sabbath precedes the Law - meaning the Law given to Moses - as it is seen from the very creation of the world.

God didn’t give Moses the Sabbath; God gave mankind the Sabbath when He carefully and intentionally taught it to Adam.

God made rest so important to mankind that it appears in the Bible approximately 150 times.

Health experts claim that we need approximately 8-10 hours of sleep, which is 1/3 or more of one day (24-hour period).

Without adequate sleep, our bodies cannot detox and repair the way they need to.

But Sabbath is more than sleep. It is so much more than physical rest.

Throughout 2026, I will be sharing what I am learning about Sabbath rest: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Together, we will look at what the Sabbath is and what it is not.

We will look at what it means to keep the Sabbath as a believer under grace and the dangers of making the Sabbath legalistic.

I believe God meant for us to live and work from a place of rest, which is so opposite to the message our culture has fed us for the past 20 years.

If you’re ready to:

Move from hustle to rest
Stop burning the candle at both ends
Learn how to calm your heart and mind

Join me right here for a year of rest, recovery, and freedom in the Lord’s Sabbath.

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Why I Am Keeping the Sabbath