The Covenant of Grace - Part III
THE COVENANT OF WORKS
Dr. King Counts
Westminster Confession of Faith (7:2), “The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works, wherein life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience.”
God created man in his image so that he would be able to relate to God and his posterity in a covenantal agreement, a kind of partnership. Moreover, even before Cod made man he made certain obligations for Mankind to keep inherent within the creation. There was a certain order which was contained within nature which men were to observe forever as they lived upon God's earth. Let us look at these first, then we will be better able to understand the Covenant of Works1 and the subsequent cursings upon creation after the fall of Adam.
THE COVENANTAL ARRANGEMENT OF CREATION
We read in Genesis 2:3 that God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and '1blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.” Keeping one day in seven as holy to the Lord is a pattern which did not originate when God gave the law to Moses, but was built into the very creation itself. That is why when we come to the giving of the Law to the 1chlldren of Israel in the dessert, God said, '1REMEMBER the Sabbath day to keep it holy." The Sabbath was not instituted there, but from the time of creation. Again, we can see that keeping the Sabbath was part of the original creative order when in the fourth commandment even the beasts of the field were not to work on that day. Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for Mankind in general (Mark 2:23) and thus reaffirms that all people are obligated to observe the pattern of one in six days as holy unto the Lord.
The Sabbath was a sign of grace, that six days of work would be enough to rest on the seventh. Even more to the point the Sabbath is a sign of holy reverence to the Lord. Therefore, the Scriptures plainly teach that the proper way to keep Sabbath is to keep it Holy, consecrated, completely unto the Lord. It showed forth that Mankind is called to dominion under the authority of God, that is he is not a mere slave in his work, but a free worker before the Lord of the earth. Hence in Israel every 7th and 50th year was a Sabbatical year. Debts were canceled and slaves released with reference to the meaning' of God’s Sabbath. In the New Testament1, the Sabbath is especially portrayed as pointing to heaven and our everlasting inheritance in Christ (Heb 4:8-9)." Prom all of this it is plain that it is a great distortion to assume that the observance of the Sabbath has been completely abrogated.
Just as God instituted the Sabbath at creation, so he instituted the estate of marriage. In Genesis 2:18 we read "it is not good for man to be alone, I will make a helpneet for him.” So, God made woman from the rib of Adam with the explanation, "therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and they shall be joined together as one flesh.” We have reference to the sexual aspect of marriage but also to the intimacy that God had planned to be realized in the marriage relationship. Woman was made to be a helpneet for man. In spite of the outrage of woman’s groups, woman still finds her fulfillment in doing just that, and this is the way that God intended it to be in his creation. Woman was created in the image of God just as Man (Gen. 1:27) and like man was later given the dominion mandate to fill the earth. Yet both Old and New Testaments declare that her primary function is to help her husband in this task (I Cor. 11:19). Hence all perverted sexual relationships, as well as perverted concepts of marriage and the family have forgotten that God has built within creation laws to be obeyed in this area as in all others.
Lastly God also instituted labor in creation. This has already been stated in the Sabbath ordinance. There are to be six days of labor. And this labor was not to be mere busy work, but in order to subdue the earth and have dominion over it.(Gen 1:22-28). In other words, the task of Mankind is to take the potential of the earth and to cultivate it. Every work is to be done lawfully under God, in order to take the raw materials of the earth and cultivate then into a fit holy habitation. Every work of man can be seen in this light. All culture is the result of the process of dominion over the earth. Culture has been defined as, “the artificial secondary environment which Man impose on the natural environment.” This is the continuing task of humanity on planet earth.
THE COVNENANT OF WORKS ITS SIGN AND ARRANGEMENT
It is when we look at the creation ordinances that we can understand better the Covenant of Works. Is there anywhere in the Bible that tells us that there was a real Covenant of Works? Although the Scripture does not explicitly call the arrangement with Adam a covenant of works it seems that this is certainly what the original arrangement with Mankind was. In Hosea 6:7 we read' "Like Adam they have broke the covenant-they have all been unfaithful to me. There was a covenantal arrangement with Adam There were contracting parties, Adam and his posterity and the Lord. There were stipulations, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There was a penalty for breaking the arrangement. There were rewards for keeping the covenant, you may eat freely from all the trees of the garden, as well in all probability the privilege of eating from the tree of Life. The trees, at least in some respects, were signs and seals of the covenant.
It would be a mistake to assume that there was some magical quality about either tree. Man was given dominion over everything. Everything except the trees in the midst of the garden were to be for food for him. These trees were constant reminder that although he was in charge of all creation, he still had to ultimately answer to God. What a small matter it was not to simply eat of a tree. It seemed almost arbitrary and it was in a sense, because the only thing at all that was wrong with eating of the tree was in the fact that God said not to do so. Surely this was a test situation to see if Adam, standing for all Mankind, would keep the covenant and do what he was suppose to do.
THE COVENANT OF WORKS ITS REPENSTATIVES
It is only in this covenantal context that we can understand Romans 5 when It tells us. that Adam was the head and representative of us all. '7Wheref'ore death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come (Romans 5:14f)…” A careful reading of Romans 5 and I Corinthians 15 reveal that Adam stood for us, and that all the guilt, depravity, and corruption of our natures come to us from that covenantal relationship which we have with Adam. The reason that we are born sinners is because Adam was in covenant for us and fell. There were two men who coveantally represented humanity, the first Adam (Verse 12), and the last Adam (Verse 14). There were two acts, one trespass, one man’s sin, one man’s disobedience (Verses 15,16,17, 18, 19), and one man’s act of righteousness, one man’s obedience (Verses 18, 19). There were two results, sin, death, judgment, condemnation (Verses 12,14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, & 21), free gift, grace, righteousness, life, justification, acquittal. (Verses 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, & 21).
“Sin is traced back to Adam because we were in Adam in a peculiar manner, not only as our seminal root but also as our representative (covenantal) head (Murray, The Imputation of Adam’s Sin, p. 82.).” “Adam served not only as the natural head but also as the legal head or guardian of the human race. As the result of the arrangement (covenant) under which God placed Adam there existed such a solidarity between him and all those who were destined to come from him through natural generation, that Adam’s act (while on probation in the garden of Eden) was counted as the act of each of his descendants (Steel and Thomas, Romans, p. 44).” This is the only way that we can understand how what Adam did or what Christ did can count for us. Each served as representatives in a designated covenant relationship.
But why, you might ask, should I be held accountable for what Adam did, I did not. ask him to represent me in the covenant? But think of it, if Adam had not represented us then each one of us would be held accountable to stand or fall in our probation by ourselves, to either keep the covenant or to fall. It was by the same kind of covenantal arrangement that Christ died in our place, because we were in a covenantal relationship with him as he paid the price. It Is only because of' this corporateness that Christ was able to provide an atonement for the sins of his people Could Christ die every time that someone failed their personal test of obedience? No' If Adam the first man, our father coning fresh from the creator's hand, created morally upright and holy could not keep the covenant of works in paradise could we? John Murray writes,
Adam and Christ sustain unique relations to men. And that history and destiny are determined by these relationships is demonstrated by verse 22: 'As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive'. All who die die in Adam; all who are made alive are made alive in Christ. In view of this comprehensive philosophy of human history and destiny and in view of the pivotal and determinative roles of the first and last Adam, we must posit constitutive ordination on God's part to these unique relationships. And since the analogy instituted between Adam and Christ is so conspicuous, it is surely necessary to assume that the kind of relationship which Adam sustains to men is after the pattern of the relationship which Christ sustains to men The Imputation of Adam's Sin, p. 39).
This kind of covenantal relationship should not seem strange to us. In the family the Father is usually the head and what he does or decides affects each member oft the family. In large businesses, agents are given the authority to enter Into contracts on behalf of the entire corporation. In a government, the heads of state enter into covenants for the entire population of their countries.
We can see the same pattern taught and assumed in the teaching of the whole Scripture. The inhabitants of the land of Canna were cursed because of the sin of Ham (Gen.9). The Egyptian army was destroyed in the Red Sea for the sin of Pharaoh. Because of the sin of Achan, the entire people of Israel were defeated in battle (Joshua 7:11-12). In the judgment upon Achan, his whole family were killed. The high priest acted on behalf of the whole people on the day of atonement. Over and over we see the teaching of the Scriptures consistently revealing a corporate responsibility on the basis of covenantal agreements.
When Christ died he paid for price for his people upon the tree. It is only in the covenantal context that we can understand how, "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (I Cor. 15:22)"
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