The short answer is no. A believer is not under the law. We are under grace.
If you ask most believers today if they keep the Sabbath they might say they do, but they really don’t because Sunday is not the Sabbath. Saturday is the 7th day. It is the Sabbath day of rest. But this is for the one who does not understand or has not entered into THE rest, Jesus Christ.
The law is for the law breaker. Those who keep the law in Christ, are free from it. Why? Because if they rest in Christ they keep all the law and the prophets. If they are believers yet do not walk in the Spirit, obeying the Spirit, then they place themselves back under the law and are obligated to labor to keep the law.
How does a lukewarm believer labor to keep the law? They make sure they keep their sabbath day by going to church or setting it aside and doing no labor.
When God said to Israel that they must keep the Sabbath holy, it was because Jesus had not come in the flesh yet to redeem mankind. Once He did, the law is made to be of no effect. What does that mean? We can break the law? Certainly not! It means that if we have discovered that my new birth in Christ and then my consecrated effort to walk in the Spirit, have caused me to enter into His rest…the Sabbath…then I keep the Sabbath holy all day every day.
If I have not seen that the Sabbath is not a day at all but is a Person, Jesus, then I will be compelled to keep a day as my Sabbath.
Paul tells us in Hebrews 4 that the Sabbath is not a day at all, and if it is to us, then there remains a rest that we have no idea about, namely, Jesus Christ and walking in the Spirit, who saved me…the Holy Spirit.
Paul said to the Galatians that someone had bewitched them into falling back into the keeping of the law. He goes on to tell the church that we should let no one tell us what day is holy or anything about new moons or seasons or Sabbaths!!!
The Lord rose again on the 3rd day and at that time in history His resurrection which was on the day of Firstfruits, was on Sunday. This is the 1st day of the week and not the 7th.
So many in the church labor to keep a day they think is the Sabbaths of the law, the 7th day, but they keep it on the wrong day, the 1st day!!!
Can we see that confusion of faces as the Bible says, belongs to the disobedient? Paul goes on to say that one man keeps one day holy, another keeps another day holy, and then yet another man keeps every day holy. Friends, the last one is the correct one.
If you are a believer and walk in the Spirit, then you have entered into His rest, Jesus Himself, and every day is holy to you. Every day is your Sabbath. You are free from the law and from keeping days, weeks, seasons etc.
The law breaker is always the legalist. Why is a believer pressed to lock onto a day and in his flesh restrain himself on that day? It is because he will not keep the spiritual law of walking in Christ. In the legalist’s mind, he can break God’s law and God will overlook it as long as he labors to keep a Sabbath or whatever. They say, God doesn’t mind my bad thoughts. I am clean because I went to church Sunday and did my part in my legalistic rituals and habits.
This poor person is bound by the law for this reason: It is because they refuse to obey God and circumcise the flesh of their hearts and just WALK IN THE SPIRIT.
If we will walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. This is my Sabbath. It should be every believer’s Sabaath. Hide in Christ and you will see. Enter into His rest. This is the Sabbath to keep holy.