Covenant Theology: The Covenant of Works (Part Three)

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In this session, we are going to talk about the covenant of works, the covenant of works being the conditional covenant that God made with Adam in the

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Garden of Eden. This covenant, perhaps more than any of the other ones, is questioned by some, but it's our conviction that a denial of the covenant of works has a lot of fallout.

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It brings with it a lot of confusion and causes a lot of problems with respect to the nature of the gospel and the nature of what

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Christ accomplished on behalf of his people. The covenant of works is really important. Let's begin the conversation by talking about this covenant that was made between God and Adam in the

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Garden. Let's talk about the parties. It might be obvious. Let's talk about some of the positive commands, the laws, the conditions, the prohibitions, the rewards, and the sanctions that come along with it.

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The parties are pretty easy to see in Genesis 3. It's God and Adam, and you are given a positive command as far as not to do this.

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He's adding something to the original rules that were set up in the Garden. Adam was to rule over the

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Garden. He was to name the animals. He was with Eve to reproduce, fill the earth, and subdue the earth.

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Then you have this language that the positive command or a positive law has been given.

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That is an additive, and that is, don't eat of this particular tree.

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What we have within this structure is that you have both parties and then you have the command.

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The result of breaking this covenant is, lest you shall surely die. Just really quickly on a positive law or a positive command, what's meant by that is that to do or not do the thing in question, in and of itself, is not inherently good or bad.

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But because God, in this case, has attached good or bad, right or wrong to it, it now is really that.

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It is right to obey it and wrong to break it. Always important to remember that whenever we talk about God's interaction with man,

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God is the one who gets to set the stage. God is the one who gets to set the standards, the rules.

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It's on his terms. It's always on his terms. Lest we think that Adam went to God and said, hey, here's the rules.

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Here's the agreement I'll make. No, that is not the case. God is the one who condescended, if you will.

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Often we use the word condescending to mean talking down to and making fun of you, but God has to condescend and talk to Adam.

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This is what he said. Let's keep in mind the prohibition that he gave, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.

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We also need to remember that within this,

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God showed Adam. Lest we think that it was just like God is saying, hey, here's all the things you can't do.

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Remember all the things that God said Adam could do. God is the one who sets the parameters by which he relates to man.

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I think often using kingly language is helpful. God is the King of kings. He is the

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King of the universe. God creates this kingdom and puts Adam within it. In there, he has

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Adam as a ruler within his kingdom. Then he says, there are also some rules that are things you can't do, particularly one.

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What's hard for us is we can see that, but where we struggle a little bit is, how is that a covenant?

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A big piece of that is the fact that accompanying these things that Adam is to be doing, and then the positive law, you're not to do this, are sanctions.

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In particular, one big one. If you violate this law, this command not to eat of that tree, you will surely die.

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That sanction piece is huge because that's a massive part of what a covenant is.

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There are sanctions that come along with the terms, with the conditions. We see that quite clearly in the account of creation in Genesis 1 -3.

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When and if you do this, you will surely die. That's important. Unless people think that we are making up these categories, this is how the

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Reformed have understood it. We're going to speak to the confession that our churches hold in the 1689

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Lenten Baptist Confession, specifically chapter 6, paragraph 1, where the framers of this confession write,

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God created a humanity upright and perfect. He gave them a righteous law that would have led to life if they had kept it, but threatened death if they broke it.

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This is covenant of works language. It's clearly conditional. It's very much conditional.

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As John mentioned earlier, complete and total freedom. Obey it and good comes.

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Break it and bad comes. It's conditioned upon what you do, which is why we call it a covenant of works.

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The 1689 says this, you just read it, that God promised Adam eternal life if he obeyed.

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Somebody's going to come in and say, did he really promise that? Our answer is yes.

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Genesis 2 -9 reads this way, and out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

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The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

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We have this language of the tree of life that stands as a covenant symbol in the garden.

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The tree of life is there. Where else does the tree of life show up in Scripture? It shows up at the end of the story in Revelation 2.

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John writes this, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

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To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

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When we connect Genesis and Revelation, the beginning and the end of the movie, to use some of the terms that we were using in the previous session, it's quite clear that this tree of life thing is significant.

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It was in the garden before, it will be in the paradise of God forever, and to be granted to eat of the tree of life means that one has eternal life.

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We would argue that even the presence of the tree of life in the garden of Eden represented this.

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Adam and Eve would have the right to eternal life and would have eternal life forever if they kept

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God's covenant. We've been pointing this out throughout our series that the

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Old Testament will often clarify or give further explanation of what's going on, and this would be a good example of this.

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Paul does this. We are told that Adam is the representation of all humanity.

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Where we get this is in Romans 5 verse 17. It says, For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, which means

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Adam was the representation of all humanity, and because of his trespass that passed down. Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteous reign in life through the one man,

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Jesus Christ. So we're now seeing a comparison. He says, Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

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You're seeing here a comparison where you will hear later on in 1 Corinthians where Paul says, where the one

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Adam failed, the second Adam succeeds. You're hearing this language of Paul saying

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Adam failed the covenant that was given to him. Christ has now come.

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We're going to talk about this in a minute. He has now fulfilled that covenant for us so we can have eternal life.

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Jon Moffitt Federal headship might be a new term for people, so we want to explain that a little bit.

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The second thing I'm going to ask a question, and I know how you're going to answer it, but I'm going to throw it out there because somebody could be asking it. Are you saying how

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Adam behaved in the garden, how he failed in the garden, is on me?

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Jon Moffitt We inherited it. Yes, that is true. For instance, we do have representatives in our own country, and they make decisions for the country.

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We inherit whatever decision, good or bad, that may be. If you're in a nation with a king, the king makes decisions and the subjects are passed down because they are the representatives, the federal head.

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It's hard because we think we need to have a fair shot at this. It's not fair for God to give us a fair shot, which is a whole other explanation.

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Some people do reject. I don't believe that because of Adam's sin, God held me guilty.

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If you say that and you believe that, you then are also rejecting the gospel. It also says you will be considered righteous because you didn't do it.

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Jesus is now your federal head. That's exactly what Paul says. One man's trespass is death, one man's act of obedience is righteousness.

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Jimmy Buehler Maybe a simple analogy would be this. When you are in a courtroom and you are the defendant, you are only going to look as good as your lawyer who defends you.

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Right? If your lawyer is poor, if your lawyer does not understand the law, or if your lawyer does not represent you rightly or fairly, you are going to be handed the punishment.

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However, what we are saying is, to stretch the analogy, I'd rather my defense lawyer be

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Christ than Adam. Absolutely. To connect Adam's failure and death, but then the idea of Adam succeeding, which he did not do,

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Christ did, to life, consider these things. In Hosea 6, verse 7 pointedly, there is language used by the prophet that Israel, like Adam, has failed to keep the covenant.

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By implication, the covenant that Adam failed to keep is this one.

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Now, fast forward to 1 Corinthians 15, verse 22, where Paul writes,

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For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

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We understand Adam's failure brought death. Christ comes on the scene as the second

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Adam, as the new and better Adam. What does his success bring? It brings life forever. I think it's entirely reasonable to look back upon what

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Adam did or did not do and say, Adam's failure brought death, which God was clear about.

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Had Adam succeeded like Christ was, it would have brought life with it. I think that's an entirely fair and reasonable connection to make biblically.

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Justin Perdue is referencing their failure to keep the Mosaic law, which was, do this and receive.

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The same thing for Adam, do this and receive. Let me ask a trick question here. What makes people righteous?

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Well, what makes them righteous is their acts of perfect obedience. Maybe a better question is, what pleases

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God? Perfect obedience. This is where we get into the idea of imputation.

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Give an illustration of what imputation is. To impute would mean to what? Credit. To reckon, to count, to credit.

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For example, if JP wants to go buy a car, he's in need of a car, but he needs $10 ,000 to do so but has no money,

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I could impute $10 ,000 into his account. It's an accounting term.

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It is an accounting term. This is how our confession in chapter two says it.

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By this sin that we've referenced, falling in the garden, our first parents fell from their original righteousness and communion with God.

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We fell in them, and through this death came upon all. All became dead in sin and completely defiled in all the capabilities and parts of soul and body.

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That is to say, when Adam's sin occurred, it was imputed to us.

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It was counted to us. You may say that is not fair, by which our response, which

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I said in the last episode or the previous one, is that you're certainly not going to think the gospel is fair because whose perfect works save you?

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It's either yours or Christ's. It's the defense lawyer's situation you have to be saved by works.

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We are saved by works, asterisk. It just depends on whose you want to be saved by.

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This has been said by many. We are all saved by works, just not our own. It's the works of another, namely

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Christ. This is going back to the word concept fallacy where someone says, never in the context does it say

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God made a covenant with Adam, but all of the parts are there.

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Everything you need to have a covenant is there. There was a covenant.

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The covenant God made with Adam was just like the covenant God made with Israel through Moses. He's equating those things.

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In this day and age, the word covenant is just so foreign because we frequently don't have covenants with other people.

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We hear it in the marriage context, but outside of that, not really a lot. We hear contracts. That's very common or much more common.

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But within the biblical era, covenants were all over the place. You see them even in ancient writings outside of the

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Bible. I think we have to understand the Bible in its time, the

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Bible in its own space. Though we may not see the word covenant, it doesn't necessarily mean that it was foreign to its original readers and or hearers.

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Justin Perdue The covenant of works is really important. We've stated that a number of times. The covenant of works gives us a framework to understand what it is that has to be accomplished in order for redemption to be a thing.

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It makes clear what's necessary. It sets up in that sense what it is exactly that Jesus needs to accomplish.

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He needs to accomplish perfect obedience. He needs to accomplish perfect fulfillment of all righteousness.

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We see this covenant of works pattern in other places in the Bible. It's not just in the

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Garden of Eden. As we read further on into the story, we come to the

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Mosaic covenant that God makes with Israel through Moses in which he gives them the law.

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We do not understand the covenant to be the covenant of works, but it is like the covenant of works in that it is conditional.

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The terms that God requires are made very clear. Then there's obviously the gracious provision of the sacrificial system and the like.

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That matters because even the Mosaic covenant we understand is helping us understand what exactly it is that Jesus will do.

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That's right. It's really important that we understand the distinction between covenant of works and the covenant of grace that we're going to get to later on.

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You see that distinction between works and grace made all over the place in the New Testament. The concept of imputation or having the obedience of Jesus accredited to me so that when

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God looks at me, my Father looks at me. He declares me, even though I'm not righteous.

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He states of me, you are righteous. The terms are defined very clearly to Adam, don't eat of this, and then he failed.

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Jesus can't come and fulfill that particular command or law because that whole scenario is now over with.

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We need to know where is Jesus going to succeed, how Adam should have succeeded.

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This is where the Mosaic law comes in. He comes in and proves what reflects the entirety of God's nature and His holiness, which is the law.

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Jesus comes in and perfectly obeys to every letter of the law, therefore proving that He not only succeeded in one obedience of the law.

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It's an overwhelming example of Jesus didn't obey one, but thousands of laws to prove that He is the rightful representative of us and has gained all the righteousness that is needed.

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If you start rejecting or not clearly seeing what's going on with Adam in the garden, then the

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Mosaic law becomes confusing. When it says He obeyed, you're asking, what did

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He obey? I was going to say, what are

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Jesus' final words before He dies? It is finished. You don't yell out a phrase like that unless you're actually accomplishing something.

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Unless you're actually finishing something. That has to be wrestled with if you want to deny a covenant of works framework.

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Justin Perdue Entirely. In using all the language that we're using in this session, and we've been using it before this session, and talking about covenant heads, federal heads, representation, and talking about what we are in Adam and then what we are in Christ, in speaking that way, we are following after the pattern of the

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Bible. One could argue from the

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Bible that Jesus is the first covenant theologian that shows up on the scene because he talks this way about himself in terms of what he's come to do.

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Think about the Sermon on the Mount where he says he's come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. He understands all of Scripture to be about himself and what he came to do for the sake of his people.

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But then we also are speaking the way that we are. We're talking like Paul. Paul is the preeminent covenant theologian of the church.

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This is not new language at all. This did not just pop out of nowhere when the

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Reformation happened. This is clear biblical language in speaking the way that we are.

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Jon Moffitt I think this is a confusion that ends up happening where people see the Mosaic law of how

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God saved people in the Old Testament. They did the law, and if they did the law,

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God saved them. Clearly, Israel could not keep the law.

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By the time that Jesus comes in, they're in Roman suppression. They're waiting for a king to come back and sit on the throne so they can be a people again.

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They're thinking, Jesus is going to come and remove all these laws so that we can just sit underneath his new rule.

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He's going to make it easier. Jesus is like, you missed the point of the law.

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The point of the law was for me to come. Again, this is Jesus giving the final and clear interpretation of the

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Old Testament. When it was originally given, did they fully understand that? No. We'll get into this in our next session on the

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Davidic Covenant. In the Davidic Covenant, there is this explanation that the king is to obey the law and in doing so, earn right passage for all in his kingship to the eternal kingdom.

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Justin Perdue The king is to represent the people. As the king goes, the people go. Jon Moffitt That's right. When Jesus says,

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I have come to fulfill it, he is saying, I have come to earn what Adam could not for you, which is eternal life.

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Justin Perdue This is where, in its original context, a word that flies around churches so frequently is the word gospel.

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Gospel in its original context is a declaration of victory.

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It was typically used when a king won in battle. Exactly what you're saying,

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Jon. When we preach the gospel, we are preaching that King Jesus has won.

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He has achieved final victory on behalf of his people over the powers of sin, the devil, and death.

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What is the response? Believe. Accept. Receive.

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It's news of a victorious king who is coming, representing his people, and has conquered all of their enemies.

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Jon Moffitt Live in fear no more. Justin Perdue It's the greatest news in the world. This is huge.

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It not only makes sense of Jesus when he shows up, but if we understand the covenant of works and we see how the covenant of works is woven throughout the

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Old Testament, it makes

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Jesus obvious by the time he shows up on the scene. Think about the first things that happen in his ministry.

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The very first thing as he is an adult and is going to enter into ministry is his temptation.

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In his baptism, it's important that he says to John the Baptist that we need to do this so all righteousness will be fulfilled.

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He didn't do it for his own sake. He did it for the sake of his people. His temptation is massive because you have the new and better Adam show up on the scene.

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The first one was tempted in a paradise, had everything going for him, and fell. The second

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Adam shows up, is tempted in a wilderness, has everything stacked against him, and succeeds.

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It's wild how so often that text is preached, and that's not how it's interpreted, but it makes

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Christ obvious when we understand the covenant of works. This is the new and better Adam who's come to actually succeed here, where the first one fell.

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Jon Moffitt Right. Now connect this to the covenant of redemption. When you connect these two together, you're realizing the

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Bible is this massive connection that becomes alive.

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It really does, because it's the flow of a story. You don't have time to stop and apply, because you have to see what happens next.

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What happens next is this crescendo. It's building, it's building, it's building to the point that Christ is on the cross and he says, it is finished.

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You have to ask, he didn't just pay for your sins. This is him crushing the head of the serpent, which is told to us in the garden, but he completed what

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Adam failed in. That's the finished part. When you don't understand a covenant of works and you can't see that framework, it is finished.

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In my opinion, it's only half as good. He only cleaned the slate, that's all he did.

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Justin Perdue I think when we ask ourselves, how is it that a sinner like us could ever eat of the tree of life, the only answer to that is we will do it in Christ or not at all.

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It beautifully hangs together. Jon Moffitt Even understanding why he kicked him out of the garden and protected the tree, lest Adam eat of it and eternally live in that state.

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Justin Perdue Let's bring this to a practical sense. What does this matter for the everyday believer?

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What does this matter for the person who's perhaps new to this? I want to throw in one thing.

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I think what this does, understanding the covenant of works, is that it helps us understand two things.

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One, the total, utter depravity and hopelessness of our own situation.

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In that, when Adam fell, we fell with him. That is how

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God is seeing us outside of Christ. Two, I think it also helps us understand and appreciate the depth and the richness of Christ's work on our behalf.

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It's not just Jesus coming down and making things easy. You heard of the

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Ten Commandments. Things are different now. It's all about your heart. That's far more condemning because I know my heart and I'm pretty sure you guys know your own, or at least some of the wickedness that exists there.

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Where Jesus comes down and says, No, I'm going to fulfill all righteousness. I'm going to fulfill this on your behalf or on my people's behalf.

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We understand the depravity of our own situation, but also the depth and richness of the work of Christ.

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I think this matters for every Christian because every Christian in his or her sane moments, like you alluded to, the only thing consistent about me is that I'm inconsistent.

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I struggle and I'm weak. I don't do the things that I want to do and I do the things that I don't want to do.

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This understanding of the covenant of works has everything to do with the sufficiency of Christ.

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When we say simple things like, Jesus is enough, dear

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Christian, weary saint, weary pilgrim, look to Christ because he is enough.

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That has everything to do with what we're talking about because Jesus did not just come to atone for our sins.

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He did not just come to make it as though we had never sinned. He came to fulfill and accomplish everything that would ever be required of us.

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We can look to sinners and say, it is finished. It's done. Rest. You can't say that without this kind of framework in terms of understanding the

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Bible. Jon Moffitt Yeah. When we share the gospel of people, we're sharing a double joy. The double joy is not that God has only forgave your sin, which is great, but guess what that does?

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That just makes you neutral. You have a clean slate now. Being debt free doesn't mean you're wealthy.

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Being without sin doesn't mean you're righteous. That's what we call the passive and active obedience of Christ.

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In his passive obedience, Christ died for our sin, but in his active obedience, he lived a perfect life as if we lived a perfect life.

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It's credited to us. It's like we did the good works he did. The good news of the gospel is that in Christ, it's as if we have no sin and it's as if we are completely, totally, 100 % righteous.

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This is, again, going back to the covenant of redemption. God in his kindness and wisdom and glory has decided this, as Ephesians 1 says, that we should be holy and blameless in his sight.

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It's this covenant of works that sets the table for the active obedience of Christ.

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That is absolutely key that people understand that. The covenant of works makes plain what Jesus must accomplish, and he does.

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Praise be to his name. Justin Perdue Something I say in my church every week, and I say it because I want the covenant of works to sit on the hearts of the people, is that everyone in this room, because of Adam, is in equal need of grace.

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What often people think is, if I do good works, then those will be accredited to my account. The problem is you inherited the debt of Adam, which is a total.

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Not only did you inherit his debt, you had inherited his rebellious nature. When you stand before God, it doesn't matter what works of goodness you think you've accomplished.

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They cannot erase the need that you have, which is forgiveness. What the covenant of works does for you is it squashes any kind of self -righteousness.

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I know some people say, I just don't see how

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God could count me guilty for something I didn't do. This is his universe, and it's the way in which he has designed it.

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Lastly, he didn't leave it that way. Just as unfair as it may seem that you have been counted with Adam's sin, it's just equally, if not more unfair, that Christ had to pay for those sins and then earn for you what you needed.

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You don't want fairness. You want good news. That's what you want. You do not want fairness. You want grace.

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Jimmy Buehler You can say that same sentence and mean two very different things and have two very different senses of understanding.

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You can say, I just don't understand how God could hold me accountable for something I didn't do. That is completely, totally unfair and garbage.

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Screw that. Or you can say, I can't believe that God would account me for something that I did not do.

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Praise be to his name. Justin Perdue We've already gotten to the point where we're talking a ton about Christ and what he has accomplished in the place of sinners.

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In our next session, we're going to go on to talk more pointedly about the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace is a big deal because that is the covenant under which the works of Christ are applied to sinners.