Is the Sabbath Saturday or Sunday?

from the old testament

• In Genesis 1–2, God created the universe and everything in it in six days and rested on the seventh day (Genesis 1:1–31; 2:1–3).
• In Exodus 20, the Israelites were given the Ten Commandments that included, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8). To keep it holy involved doing no work on this day.

from the new testament

• In the New Testament, Jews continued to keep this Sabbath law. The religious leaders even accused Jesus of working on the Sabbath when He healed a man on a Saturday. After Jesus’ resurrection on Sunday, the "first day of the week" in the Jewish calendar, Christians began to gather on this day to worship Christ (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2).
• Later in the New Testament, the apostle Paul corrected Christians who argued that they must keep the Jewish laws. He was distressed at the Galatian Christian’s immaturity regarding the observance of special days: "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain" (Galatians 4:9-11).
• In Romans 14:5-6 Paul commanded the Roman Christians, "One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord." It is clear here that the Saturday Sabbath was not a requirement for Christians. There was nothing wrong with keeping the Sabbath, but it was also no longer a law for Christians.
• In Matthew 11:28–30, Jesus invites the weary to come to Him. Rest is found in Christ, not a specific day.
• Paul specifically addresses the Sabbath in his examples to believers in Colossae: “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (Colossians 2:16–17). Christ is our Sabbath rest.
• We enter God’s rest by faith, not by a day (Hebrews 4:9–10). Our deepest Sabbath rest is spiritual—trusting in Christ’s finished work.
• Paul calls us to glorify God in everything in 1 Corinthians 10:31—eating, drinking, and every act. Worship is not restricted to a specific Sabbath ritual.

implications for today

The Sabbath has always been on Saturday. Some early Jewish Christians observed the Sabbath on Saturday and then gathered with Christian believers to worship on Sunday. Sunday worship became a tradition among Christians very early, but was never demanded as a law. Instead, it was later in church history that some attempted to argue that Sunday was the Sabbath and required rest, church attendance, and that businesses be closed.

Scripture actually teaches that Christians are to gather regularly, and worship is to occur at all times. The earliest church in Jerusalem added to their number daily (Acts 2:47). Acts 2:46 states, "And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts." This suggests that early Christians gathered several times each week, either as a large group or in homes, to worship Christ and enjoy the encouragement of fellow Christians.

The Sabbath was a law for the Jewish people, not for Christians. Many Christians have met on Sunday for worship since the earliest times based on when Jesus rose from the dead. Yet Scripture also reveals that the earliest church worshiped much more than once each week. The decision to practice a Sabbath rest, whether on Saturday or Sunday or some other day, is a personal choice, not the command of Scripture.