The Covenant of Works

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 2:1-25

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Well, as you have your Bibles open to Genesis chapter two this morning, we're going to consider another very important theme, an important topic that emerges here in chapter two and then carries us through the whole of scripture.
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And I realized that for the past several weeks now, we've been looking at Genesis in this way.
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It's sort of what we set out to do, and sometimes the effect of that is it feels less like a sermon and more like a theology lecture, and I sympathize with that.
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But I assure you what we're uncovering has all sorts of implications, and hopefully that we'll see as we move forward in Genesis, we'll see a lot of these dots connect, and therefore a lot of the implications and applications will arise.
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So put in the hard work now to try to grasp and do the best we can so that there's fruit and there's a harvest as we continue to work through Genesis.
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This morning, we want to consider the covenant of works now, and perhaps you've never even heard of that phrase, or if you've heard of it, you would have no idea how to define it, and it might seem somewhat complex.
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I hope it'll become more clear as we unpack it together this morning. We won't say everything that could be said about it, but I think we'll say enough that you'll have a good handle on it.
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Don't be afraid of fogginess as you work through this. It's still a blessing to you, even if you can't quite work everything out or don't quite follow.
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That's okay, because over time, things begin to click and fall into place, and so you have a piece of a puzzle.
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You're not quite sure where it fits, but as you continue to look at the Lord's Word and as we continue to grow together, things become more clear.
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Now, I'm saying this up front not to scare you or make it seem like we're about to jump into trigonometry, but it's just to say that I realize these are big concepts.
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This is very important, and for some, they just kind of check out before they even get in.
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And so I'm sort of saying, don't check out, pay attention. This is very important and very helpful.
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So we want to consider the covenant of works, and as I've said, it's a very distinctive doctrine for us especially as Reformed folk.
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It's part of our greater Reformed heritage. It has been really a mainstay, not just with the
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Reformation, long before that in the early church fathers throughout the Middle Ages, but I think the development came to its high mark in the 17th century.
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And then, of course, our confession, which was written toward the end of the 17th century. It reflects this theology and the development that has taken place through the ages.
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Now, I'm convinced, and I think our church fathers were convinced, that to lose sight of this is ultimately to muddle
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God's salvation as it is given to us in Christ. So it's very important. Three parts we want to consider this morning.
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First, just the covenant of works. What is it? How does it function? What does it require?
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What's the nature of it? Secondly, the covenant of works and the law. How does it relate to God's law?
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And then the covenant of works and the gospel. How does it relate to the gospel? And so first, the covenant of works, and I draw your attention to chapter two, verses eight and nine, and then we'll jump down to 16 and 17, okay?
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Chapter two, beginning at verse eight. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
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Notice God formed man and then put him in Eden. It implies that man was not created in Eden, but was rather put there, and then he was given a function.
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Out of the ground, the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
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The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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Verse 16. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.
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When we talk about the covenant of works, the first thing we need to do is establish the fact that there's a priority to covenant.
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Not just the covenant of works, but whenever God deals with mankind in a significant way, he does so by way of covenant.
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When God designates an end or a given purpose, he acts by way of covenant.
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There's a priority to God making a covenant. This is again and again revealed in scripture, and it's one of the reasons that we as Christians reflect that same priority in our most meaningful relationships and in our most meaningful pursuits.
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We reflect this covenantal priority. Now our church's confession, which again,
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I'm bringing this up just because I think it's the most helpful summary. One of the great things about a confession is that it helps summarize doctrine, and you could spend time in any of the places in our confession
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I might mention this morning and look at the passages they're drawing upon. They're saying we're building this doctrine on these passages.
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Our church's confession, the second London, picks up on this point in chapter seven, paragraph one.
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The distance between God and the creature is so great that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to him as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he has been pleased to express by way of covenant.
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Now notice some things that are going on here. First, the distance between God and the creature.
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We began our time in Genesis didn't we talking about God's transcendence. God is God and we are not the distance between God and the creatures that he made is so great that in order to interact with the creatures, he must condescend.
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Notice they could never have attained the reward of life. What is that?
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Just notice it and we'll come back to it. They could never have attained the reward of life unless God condescended and he's condescended how by way of covenant.
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So we're saying at the beginning as creatures, we owe perfect obedience to God simply because we are his creatures and he is our heavenly father.
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He's our maker and our provider and so we owe him perfect obedience, but he voluntarily condescends to lay out a reward of life for such obedience and he does so by way of covenant.
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Now what's being said here? God is condescending and creating a covenant and holding out a reward of life to be the answer or the fruition of perfect obedience.
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The covenant with Adam is what's in view here. God made a covenant with Adam and this has been the uniform acknowledgement of the church even where debates have turned over what the nature of that covenant was or what was emphasized in it.
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Even within our reformed circles, you might hear the covenant of creation or the covenant of nature or the covenant of life, but most commonly we refer to this as the covenant of works.
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Now there are some in our day that argue there is no covenant in Genesis 2. Some even within our own rather narrow tribe of reformed
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Baptists have recently argued that there is no covenant of works and that reformed
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Baptists have not held to a covenant of works. In fact, we should reject it or we virtually empty it out in our confession.
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Now this is an aside for those who have ears in the relevant chapters, chapter 7, chapter 19, each paragraph one, the
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Westminster confession, this avoid declaration, the parent documents of our confession. They state the covenant of works and our confession removes that phrase, the covenant of works in those places.
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That's why some say, oh, it's reformed Baptist. We have, we sort of reject or we empty out the idea of there being a covenant of works.
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And I hope it'll become plain this morning that we do not, we maintain this and hold this.
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It's a vital doctrine. I think we'll see by the end of our time that our confession shares in this uniform recognition that God made a covenant with Adam in Eden in chapter two, verses 16 and 17, and that this was a covenant of works to emphasize the fact that God made a covenant with Adam.
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I want to draw upon the work of Edward Fisher. We think when it was first published in 1645, it was just published by E F, but really there's no other
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E F that fits as well as Edward Fisher. And so it's always been attributed to him. And this is a book he wrote called the marrow of modern divinity wrote in 1645.
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It was used very influential well into the early 1700s. I know little birds told me, as some of you read
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Sinclair Ferguson's, the whole Christ, you'll have heard of the marrow from that book.
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This follows the dialogue between a character, no misstep. He's sort of the legalist.
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No, Mr. Namas law. So there's no misdone. And there's evangelist, the evangel, the gospel.
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And so there's this discussion, this dialogue between the legalist and the evangelist, the one who's trying to work out how
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God's law operates and the one who's trying to understand the gospel. And they're discussing the covenant of works.
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And he's responding to the charge that in Genesis two 17 and we, we read it, you don't find the word covenant.
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So how can we say there's a covenant here? Right? Genesis two 16 and 17, the Lord God commanded the man, there's a command saying of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat for in the day you eat of it, you shall die.
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There's a command, but there's no covenant here, right? And so evangelist replies, though we read not the word covenant between God and man, yet what we have recorded there amounts to as much for God provided and promised to Adam eternal happiness.
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You might be coming with where should God offer eternal happiness, right?
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We're going to unpack that. But for now know that eternal happiness is what our confession is calling the reward of life and called for perfect obedience, which appears from God's threatening for if a man must die because he disobeyed, it implies that God's covenant was with him for life.
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If he obeyed, do you see now you have the elements of a covenant, you have a reward or a benefit for a condition, a threat or a curse, and then the condition for either, right?
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Here's the condition of obedience. And if you obey, you'll receive the reward or the benefit of the covenant, which is life.
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And if you just obey, you'll receive the curse, which is death.
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And so the dialogue is establishing what our confession is drawing upon. Evangelistic continues.
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Yeah, indeed, perfect obedience was due for men unto God, though God had made no promise to man.
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For when God created man at first, he put forth an excellency from himself into him. She's saying the same thing our confession is saying.
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This wasn't an extra thing that man was doing. We were made in God's image. We're supposed to offer obedience, perfect obedience to God.
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But God is voluntarily condescending to make a covenant and reward that obedience or curse the disobedience.
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Therefore, it was a bond and a tie that lay upon man to return that again unto God. So that man being
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God's creature by the law of creation, he owed all obedience and subjection to God, his creator.
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But then you might ask what no Mr. Asks, why then was it needful that the
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Lord should make a covenant with him, promising him life, threatening him with death?
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If he owes him obedience anyway, then why make a covenant? Evangelist replies, as only a
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Puritan could with four reasons in the first place, I pray you understand the man was a reasonable creature.
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And so out of his judgment, discretion and election, in other words, what he chose able to make a choice of his way.
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It was me that such a covenant should be made with him, that he might by God's own appointment serve him with the reason he was made with.
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In other words, God wanted Adam to know the difference between good and evil, but he wanted him to know the difference between good and evil from the side of good, from the side of I learned the difference by trusting and obeying
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God, not from the side of being evil. That was the problem of the fall, which we'll get to in some weeks.
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Secondly, it was me there should be such a covenant made with him to show that he was not such a prince on earth.
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He had a sovereign Lord. Yes, you're made in my image, but you're not me.
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Remember that I'm the sovereign. You're not such a prince on earth that we're on equal playing fields.
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I make a covenant with you. You don't make a covenant with me. And therefore, God set a punishment upon the breach of his commandment, that man would know his inferiority, that things between him and God were not as between equals.
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Thirdly, it was me that there should be such a covenant made with him to show that he had nothing by personal, immediate, underrived right, but all by gift.
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See, everything that God gives to Adam is a gift. It's part of the overflow of the abundance and the graciousness of God.
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So you see, it was an equal covenant, which God out of out of his prerogative royal made with mankind and Adam before the fall.
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So again, you see the point, although man was obligated to be obedient to his creator, even without a covenant,
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God, nevertheless, voluntarily condescended to make a covenant with man, holding out a reward of life for obedience to the you shall not command and the curse of death for disobedience.
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This is what we mean by the covenant of works. It requires perfect obedience.
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Essentially, the covenant is this obey and live, disobey and die. That's the covenant of works.
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This is this is a huge point, and it will be a huge point as we move on. The covenant of works is obey and live, disobey and die.
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Notice there's not a hint of mercy. Notice there's not a hint of pardon. Notice there's no provision for forgiveness.
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The covenant of works is if you obey, you live. If you disobey, you die. Now, it's very important to keep the requirement of perfect obedience and therefore the curse of disobedience in plain view.
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Charles Hodge, the great 19th century Princeton theologian, again, just reflecting, building upon this view, this this understanding of the covenant says the condition of the covenant made with Adam is perfect obedience.
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That that statement is correct may be seen from the nature of the case clearly revealed in the word of God.
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Listen to this. Such is the nature of God and such the relation which he sustains with his moral creatures.
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That's sin. In other words, the transgression of the divine law must involve the destruction of fellowship between man and his creator.
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It's so perfect that the least transgression must destroy the fellowship God has with man.
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Therefore, the apostle says, this is James to 10. He who offends in one point who breaks one precept of the law of God is guilty of the whole.
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Secondly, it's assumed everywhere in the Bible that the condition of acceptance under the law is perfect obedience.
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God doesn't grade on a curve. The whole argument of the apostle
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Paul in Romans and Galatians reflects this idea. Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law to do them.
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If you don't do them, you're cursed. That's that's the significance of the law. Romans and Galatians are founded on the assumption that the law demands perfect obedience.
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If you don't grant that Paul's whole argument falls to the ground. Now, listen to this. The specific command to Adam not to eat of a certain tree was, therefore, not the only command he was required to obey.
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It was given simply to be the outward and visible test to determine whether he was willing to obey
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God in all things. Does God really care about the fruit of a certain tree?
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Was there something so magical about the tree? There was this eternal destiny bound up in the physicality of the fruit.
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Hodges saying, of course not. It was practically arbitrary. Think of sitting down your child, if I were to open up a box of Crayola, 96 count every color.
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Not say, Elsie, out of all of these colors that I've given to you, you may freely color with any except this tangerine.
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And I just tilt it up just a little and I walk away. What color is she going to be attracted to?
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Well, of course, her sinful nature will draw her to the tangerine. Adam was created without a sinful nature, without this leaning.
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But you see that there's nothing magical about the tangerine crayon. It's my command that matters. That's what
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Hodges getting at here. The specific command to Adam not to eat of a certain tree was not the only command he was required to obey.
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It was given as simply the outward invisible test to determine whether he was willing to obey God in all things because he was created.
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Holy right. Adam had pure affections. And so this was a test of his obedience.
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And if he could obey this command, he could obey all. But if he was to break this command, he breaks all.
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He was shown then something was was wrong for him simply because it was forbidden, not because it was evil in its own nature.
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This is very important. God created everything good. There's nothing evil within the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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It was in. Sometimes you hear theologians say it was a sacramental tree. Here's this tree.
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You want to know good and evil? Obey my word and you'll know the difference between good and evil. Good is what
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I declare evil is what I forbid. That's what you need to know, Adam. That's what you need to walk in.
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This is how you'll pass the test. Adam tries to shortcut that to gain that knowledge the wrong way.
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So he's learning that something isn't wrong with the fruit or the tree. What God had made was good, including
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Adam. It was simply wrong because God forbade it. Would he obey God in that?
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The command to not eat of the tree was the outward invisible test. And the whole point we're making with the covenant of works is the idea of the reward of life followed that test.
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And so Hodge continues. It seems to be reasonable in itself and plainly implied in the scriptures that all rational creatures have a period of probation, a period of testing.
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If faithful during that period, they are confirmed in their integrity, no longer exposed to the danger of apostasy.
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Where is he getting this? Think of this is a very brilliant insight. Thus, we read of the angels who kept not their first estate and of those who did.
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Those angels who remained faithful have continued in holiness and in the favor of God. Do you see what he's saying?
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There was apparently a time when the angels were under probation, as it were, and many angels fell.
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But those that did not fall, that did not apostatize, were confirmed in holiness and favor. It's therefore to be inferred that had
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Adam continued obedient during the period allotted to his probation, in other words, if Adam had passed the test for as long as that test was given, neither he nor any of his posterity would have ever been exposed to the danger of sinning.
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Do you see this is the standard reformed theology of the covenant of words?
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This is from our confession, Chapter 19, the first paragraph. Listen to this. God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written on his heart and a particular precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, by which he bound him and all his posterity, because all are in Adam to personal, entire, exact and perpetual obedience promised life upon the fulfilling, threatened death upon the breach.
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So there's the covenantal elements. It's acknowledged that God created Adam and original righteousness.
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He was a perfectly holy man when God created him. No change, no deference, no bent towards sin.
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And in that state, Adam possessed both the ability to sin and the ability not to sin, which is where we as Christians are today.
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We as Christians, the unregenerate, do not possess this. You, brother or sister in Christ, you possess this ability that Adam had to sin and also not to sin.
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What does Paul say? Whatever is not a faith is sin. For the ungenerate man, he can do nothing that isn't tainted by sin.
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Only Adam and now believers. This side of Christ's return are in this state of being able to sin and not to sin.
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But Adam never achieved what we will achieve through Christ, which is being confirmed in a state in which it's no longer possible to sin.
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That's glory being confirmed in holiness and righteousness made like unto him all agree that Adam owed perfect obedience to God as a creature.
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But there was something more in the Garden of Eden between God and Adam. It wasn't just a creature creator relationship.
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What is that something more? It's God condescending of his own will to make a covenant of works.
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And the whole point is that this covenant was of a temporary nature. It was a probationary period.
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You can have an eat of anything that I've made, but not this tree. Here's the test. If you obey me here, you obey my whole law.
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If you fail me here, you break the whole law. If you pass the test, you receive the reward of life.
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I will confirm you in a way you will never be able to fall. But if you fail, you receive the curse of this covenant death cut off from my fellowship forever.
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It's not as though Adam would have lived forever under this condition of being able to send. What kind of reward is that?
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You know, for three trillion years, you can avoid that tree. And then there's that one on the three trillion and first day you finally succumb.
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And now here comes the curse. You see, that's what we're getting away from. The hope that we have in heaven is not that we can be there for a million years.
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But then on the next Wednesday, we blow it all and have to get kicked out. What kind of that would make heaven a terror.
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The joy of heaven is I don't have the possibility of sinning anymore. I'm confirmed in a state of holiness and therefore can dwell with God everlasting.
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Adam was not meant to live under this covenant forever with the possibility of sending only a breath away.
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To be suspended in that state would have been never to receive the reward of the covenant, the blessing of being confirmed in glory.
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To be in such a condition for eternity would not be the everlasting bliss that we receive in Christ, the last
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Adam in our glorification. So last week I said this. This was a quote from Richard Barcello's Eden, though a glorious place was not the end, but the beginning to an end.
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It had within its seeds of a better world, a better world where sin could not enter, which could never lapse into a curse condition.
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What I'm saying here to paraphrase is man, though made in glory with original righteousness.
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That was not the end, but the beginning to an end, because even when we were made in original righteousness, we had the possibility of sinning.
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We were made for an existence that sin could not corrupt, that sin could never enter into our condition.
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Or propensity, our ability. We know that Adam failed the covenant and therefore all in Adam were brought into that fallen state, into the curse.
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So how does the covenant of works then relate to the law? The covenant of works is significant also because it establishes
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God's law with all of humanity. All humanity is under the headship of Adam.
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And this is why the covenant of works is so important. We cannot rightly understand the good news of the gospel without the bad news of the law.
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When you rightly understand what the covenant of works is, you see just how bad the bad news is.
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We cannot understand the bad news of the law without rightly viewing its relationship to Adam in the garden as a covenant of works.
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What was given to Adam in the garden, written on his heart and by particular precept, was later revealed to Israel upon Mount Sinai.
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This was God's moral law, God's law. God's law was written upon Adam's heart in creation and then a precept was given to Adam in the garden, thou shalt not eat of this tree.
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Mankind ever since then has had God's law, continued to be written on his heart, Romans 1. And that law was actually carved by the finger of God upon the stone tablets upon Mount Sinai.
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This is all God's law. First given to Adam as God's son, then given to Israel as God's son.
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Okay, follow the train here. I realize we're getting maybe a little foggy. Again, our confession is very helpful in summarizing this point.
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This is from chapter 19 and I'm just going to point out the parallel here. We've already said this,
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God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart, that's Romans 1. And a particular precept, okay, from this law, a precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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By which he bound him in all his posterity to personal, entire, exact, perpetual obedience, promising life upon the fulfilling, threatening death upon the breach of it and doing him with power and the ability to keep it.
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We've said this is the covenant of works and I've said this establishes the law with all of mankind.
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Chapter 2, chapter 19, paragraph 2. That same law, which law?
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The law that was written upon Adam's heart. The law that was made in a particular precept not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
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That same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall.
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Adam's testing was temporary, the law is not. And it was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai.
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Yes, that same law delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in Ten Commandments. Let me just make sure we're all tracking here.
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God's moral law was engraved on Adam's heart, issued in the precept not to eat of the tree and then given again as Ten Commandments.
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This is the moral law that's written on our hearts. Adam, in that state of original righteousness, would have known intuitively what
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God's law required. But ever since the fall, we repressed the truth and the awareness of that law and unrighteousness.
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We no longer can think through the implications of that law and what it requires of us. Adam would have known by that one precept that all the law was contained in that one precept.
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You think of Jesus, when he explicates the law, he's not adding to it, he's simply revealing what's always been there.
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You're breaking the commandment not to murder if you hate your brother. He's understanding the implications of the law.
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Jesus is able to reduce the law to essentially two sentences. But it is also able to expand it such that it encompasses every aspect of human life toward God and toward neighbor.
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This is a big claim. Adam had one command, one thou shalt not, but what
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I'm saying is the whole law was comprehended in it. Again, we see this point made in the marrow of modern divinity.
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He says, as he's giving several reasons why it was such a great offense.
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It wasn't just this, oh, you ate the fruit, now there's something magical about this fruit. We've already said, no, no, no, it was breaking what
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God had forbidden. Transgressing his command. That was what was the great offense. And then he unpacks what made that so horrific, such an abomination.
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And then he says by the end, nay, how could there be a greater sin committed than that when Adam at one clap broke all ten commandments.
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And now Nehemiah goes, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Ten commandments, there was only one command. Did he break all ten commandments?
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Say you, sir, I beseech you. It's not like Bunyan, Puggins, Fox, there I beseech you. Pray tell, show me where in.
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And evangelist says, first, what's the first commandment? You shall have no other
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God before me. He chose himself another God when he followed the devil. Second, you shall not make an idol.
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He idolized and deified his own belly. As the apostles phrases, he made his belly, his
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God. Third, not to take the Lord's name in vain. He took the name of God in vain when he believed him not.
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Fourth, to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. He kept not the rest and the estate wherein God had set him.
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Fifth, you shall honor your father and mother. He dishonored his father who was in heaven. And therefore, his days were not prolonged in the place that God the
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Lord had given him. Six, you shall not murder. He massacred himself and all of his posterity.
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Seven, you shall not commit adultery. From Eve, he was a virgin, but in eyes and mind, he committed spiritual fornication.
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Eight, you shall not steal, but he stole like Achan. That which God had set aside not to be meddled with.
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And then his stealth or his stealing is that which troubles all of Israel, indeed the whole world. Nine, not to bear false witness.
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He bore witness against God when he believed the witness of the devil before him. Ten, you shall not covet.
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He coveted with an evil covetousness like Amnon. Remember Amnon coveted and raped
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Tamar in 2 Samuel 13. Like Amnon, which cost him his life and all of his progeny.
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You see, Adam failed at every point to uphold the perfection that the law required.
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He was the head of all humanity and we all fell in him. As James 2 .10 has said, to be guilty of one part of the law is to be guilty of the whole.
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Israel received that internal heart engraved law upon Mount Sinai. Remember, they are
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God's son. They're the next Adam as it were. They're meant to finally have the law and experience the presence of God.
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The tabernacling temple presence of God. As Adam would have found it in Eden. And yet, when they're given the same law, just as Adam was given it.
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If you do this, you will live. If you do this, you will live. What do they do?
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They fail. God, as he's prosecuting the hardness of Israel and Judah and Hosea.
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This is chapter 6 of Hosea. Oh, Ephraim. What shall I do to you? Oh, Judah. What shall
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I do to you? Your faithfulness is like a morning cloud. Like the early dew, it goes away. Your faithfulness comes and fits and starts.
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Therefore, I've hewn them, I've chopped them by the prophets. I've slain them by the words of my mouth.
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Your judgments are like light that goes forth. How quickly does light spread? God's like, that's what my judgment is going to be like upon you.
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I desire mercy, not sacrifice. And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
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This is verse 7. But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant. They dealt treacherously with me.
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Do you see? Hosea 6 -7. This has always been understood by the church fathers and throughout the
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Middle Ages, throughout the Reformation. It's always been understood as Adam. The problem with the word Adam in Hebrew is it can be translated as mankind or humanity.
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And a lot of modern translations say like a man or like mankind, they transgressed the covenant. I think that's an improper translation.
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Like Adam, they transgressed the covenant. My son, my son that I gave the law to, the covenant
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I made with them. Israel, just like Adam, they broke that covenant. What am
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I going to do? Both Adam and Israel break the covenant that is given to them by God.
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That covenant contains the blessings, the promise of life and everlasting presence in God.
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And then the curse, the curse of death and exile, removal from the presence of God. The hope of blessing was utterly lost in Adam's failure and then again by Israel's failure.
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And Paul can sum up this whole statement in the words, in Adam all die. 1
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Corinthians 15 -22. In Adam all die. That's what we've been establishing up to this point.
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This is why the covenant of works is so important. Mankind outside of Christ is still under Adam.
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Still operating under that covenant God made with Adam. And in Adam all die.
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Now we've been plunged into this cursed condition where we're no longer able to even begin to keep the perfections of the law required.
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Adam had a shot. We don't. This is the glory.
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This is what leads us into our third and last section. How the covenant of works relates to the gospel. What Paul says in 1
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Corinthians 15 -22 is, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
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This drama of redemption was bracing and yearning for that gospel promise that comes right after Adam's fall.
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The promise of a seed, a serpent crushing seed who would come from the woman. The good news of a new
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Adam, a true Israel that would bring the covenantal blessing of everlasting life upon his people.
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So we see how the covenant of works relates to the gospel. This is the beauty and the glory of it all.
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This is why you must, you must understand and hold on to the covenant of works. Our confession again by way of summary in chapter 7 is talking about God's covenant.
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And though it doesn't go into detail about some of the other covenants within God's word, it's trying to give you the biggest tectonic plates of how salvation unfolds to us in three paragraphs.
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And the first is this covenant of works. And then in the second paragraph, it talks about this covenant of grace, which immediately follows the covenant of works.
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Adam fails the covenant of works, Genesis 2, Genesis 3, the gospel promise comes. And so begins the covenant of grace.
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Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, it pleased the
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Lord to make a covenant of grace, wherein he freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ.
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This is our confession, chapter 20, part one. One of the things I love about being a
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Baptist, great documents, the Westminster, the Savoy. We copied everything that was worth copying, which was 99 % of it.
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But we have a few distinctives, and one of them is chapter 20. Chapter 19, we follow of the law of God.
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But then we say, boy, we spent a lot of time talking about the law. We should spend some time talking about the gospel.
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And they don't do that. So let's add chapter 20 on the gospel. In 20 .1,
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what's the very first thing they say about the gospel? The covenant of works being broken by sin and made unprofitable unto life.
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God was pleased to give forth the promise of Christ. You see, the first way they understand the gospel is by seeing the contrast between the covenant of works, which is broken by sin, and the covenant of grace that brings forth
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Christ. In conjunction with the last few weeks of what we've been talking about, mankind is the image of God, Jesus Christ as the true image, the one to whom is given all dominion.
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Let's try to just bring that into this discussion. Adam fell from original righteousness as God's image.
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And therefore, he could not enter into the glory that was his destiny due to his sin. Jesus comes as the last
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Adam. Jesus takes his seed where Adam could not take his seed into the glory, into that confirmed state of glorification.
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How does Jesus do that? This is why it's important. How does
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Jesus do that? To make sure you're tracking, let me just ask the question.
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If I ask you, does righteousness come through the law?
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What's your answer? You don't have to say it out loud. Just think about this. Think very carefully.
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Think precisely. Does righteousness come through the law? We're talking with a
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Roman Catholic friend. Does righteousness come through the law? What's your instinct?
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Let me even be more specific. Does righteousness come through obedience to the law, such that we are saved by works?
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Think very carefully, very precisely about what's being said here. Does righteousness come through obedience to the law, such that we are saved by works?
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Well, you might, because you've been well -trained, you're a gospel -believing believer. You might say, no.
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No, no, no. Like Pavlov's dog, I'm trained, whenever saved by works is in the phrase, the answer is always no.
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No, saved by grace, not by works. Isn't that what Paul emphasizes again and again in Ephesians? And if you're taking it in that way, if it's being brought to you in that way, say a
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Galatian Judaizer is pressing you, then you'd be right to answer what Paul answers,
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Galatians 2 .21. I don't set aside the grace of God. If righteousness could come through the law,
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Christ died for nothing. Right there, grace, not law. Righteousness needs to come to us by grace, not by law.
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We're tracking with that, but we have to be more precise. The detail of the question makes a world of difference.
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And this is why the gospel turns upon the covenant of works. Let me put it this way, to help you keep in line with what we've been pursuing these past several weeks.
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A sinless image -bearer, made body and soul, was called by God, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth.
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And as we'll see in two weeks, next week we have Jason Austin coming to preach, but the week after that, as we'll see, he's given a helper to complement him in dominion.
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He was made Son of God. He revealed God's word as a prophet.
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He's given the law to obey. He's put in the garden to work as a priest, tending and keeping and guarding, as it were, mediating the presence of God.
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He's called us to do the earth and rule over the creatures as a king, starting in the garden of Eden, but then expanding it to the ends of the earth.
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Prophet, priest, king, image -bearer, in covenant with God. But he broke the covenant.
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He transgressed the law. He sinned, and he brought the curse upon all his house, upon all his posterity, and so he was exiled from God's presence, exiled out of Eden, exiled from the temple of the garden.
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Now he's a corrupted image -bearer, disobedient to the law, a covenant -breaker in rebellion against God.
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And so what does God do? When the fullness of the time came,
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God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, who, being in the form of God, did not grasp at equality with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a slave, coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
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You will never understand how salvation works. If you look at it from the outside and think, oh,
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I put my faith in Christ, Christ died to forgive sins, and all that's true and wonderful and amen.
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But if you want to actually take the outer covering off of how salvation works, and see the gears and the machinations, and see how
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God designed it to function, you must understand the covenant works. What does it mean that Christ was born under the law?
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What does it mean that Christ became obedient? Does righteousness come through the law?
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The answer must be an emphatic yes! This is why we are saved by works, not our works.
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But the works that save us are the works of Christ. What is the righteousness that makes us righteous?
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What makes His blood righteous, meritorious? It is His perfect obedience to the law as a covenant of works.
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When we say from Romans 5 that Christ is the last Adam, this is what we're saying. He's born under the law in the same way that Adam was in a sense under the law.
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That covenant that is to us a covenant of grace was to our Savior a covenant of works.
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And He lived in perfect obedience to the law. He did what the first Adam could not do.
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He obeyed that covenant of works perfectly. And therefore, He received the merit, the reward of everlasting life.
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But along the way to deal with covenant breakers, those who are dead in Adam, dead in trespasses and sins,
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He took the curse of that covenant, the death and the separation of God from that covenant, and He went to what to us is our tree of life, the cross.
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Put another way, the fruition of our salvation, which is the new covenant, that is the fulfillment of the covenant of grace, it's the new covenant, was a covenant of works for the last
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Adam, for Christ. Even though He was perfectly obedient,
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He received the curse, the penalty. He received the death as though He were a covenant breaker.
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He received the curse on our behalf. He became, as Paul says, a curse for us. Brothers and sisters, the covenant of works is significant for this reason.
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The whole earth is comprised of only two groups of people. Every single person you meet in your life will be in either one or the other of these two groups.
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They're either law breakers or law keepers. They're either under a covenant of works or they're in the covenant of grace.
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To zoom in even further, they're either in Adam or they're in Christ. There's only two groups of people, two ways to live and two ways to die.
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In Adam, in Christ, those are the two groups. By works that you can never achieve, that will never meet
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God's standard, that's one way to live. The other is by the pardoning mercy of God through the blood of Jesus Christ.
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And two ways to die, you either die in the Lord or you die in your sins. What does Jesus say in John 8?
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Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. You're either in Me or apart from Me.
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You see, the covenant of works continues even after the fall. Man's moral inability does not take away his moral responsibility.
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It's tragic because man has fallen, is unable to keep the demands of the law, often even unable to recognize the demands of the law.
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And yet they will be held to the account of God's perfect requirements. Romans 5, 12 through 20, you could spend a month unpacking
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Romans 5 and I'm just going to breeze through it just to show you again why the covenant of works is so important.
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We are coming toward a close. I realize we're getting close to time. Romans 5, beginning in verse 12,
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Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned, right?
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All men in Adam sinning. Verse 15, For if by one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man,
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Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned.
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For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses, all the sins of all of his people, resulted in justification.
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And now look at Paul's zooming in. For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one,
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Jesus Christ. Now, he's zooming in more. Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.
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Okay, zoom in even more, and here's the point. Here's the covenant of works. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.
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Please don't ignore that word, that instrumental word, by. By one man's obedience many are made righteous.
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The only way to be free from the demands of the law as a covenant of works is to be in Christ, in a covenant of grace.
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And this is what Paul says in verse 21. As sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life, do you see?
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That's the covenant of works, isn't it? That Christ has achieved. Obedience to righteousness, to the reward of life, eternal life.
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That is the covenant of grace. Adam's disobedience brings death. Christ's obedience brings life.
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The first and the last Adam were under the covenant of works. As all human beings are under unless they are in Christ.
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And therefore under grace. Which is Paul saying, and this is what he means, not under the law, but under grace.
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Christ's obedience doesn't just bring life as though we're restored to what Adam once had. We're restored to what
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Adam could not achieve. The reward of life, eternal life. John 17, 3. This is eternal life.
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That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. He is life.
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He is the covenant of grace. The covenant is in His blood. Do you know
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Him? That God would open your eyes to see the terror of being under God's curse because you're under a covenant of works that you've already broken and therefore you're guilty of all of it.
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There's no way of repairing that. You're ruined from the start. Yet God sent
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His Son to take that curse and to fulfill that covenant so that in Him we are law keepers, covenant keepers.
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We're dressed in the righteousness of His obedience. And in Him we have life and life everlasting.
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Listen, you're either in Christ or in Adam. There's no neutrality. There's no middle ground. If you're in Adam this morning, meaning you don't know
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Christ, you don't trust Christ, you don't follow Him. If you're in Adam, here's the terror of it all.
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It is impossible for those in Adam to keep the covenant of works. It is impossible.
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But you are directly responsible for all of it. I'll say that again.
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It is impossible for those in Adam to keep the covenant of works, though you are directly responsible for all of it.
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You're a creature. God makes the terms of His covenant. But if you're in Christ this morning, here's the beauty of it all.
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It is impossible for those in Christ to lose the covenant of grace, even though you're directly responsible for none of it.
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Do you see the difference? In Adam you cannot keep the covenant of works and you're responsible for all of it directly.
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In Christ you cannot lose the covenant of grace and you're directly responsible for none of it. He did it by sheer grace.
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This is why we must understand Genesis 1 -3 in order to understand anything. This is why we cannot know the grace of God, the covenant of grace, the
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Gospel, unless we understand the covenant of works. This is why we must send the Law before we send the
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Gospel. You must know as a Christian what you've been freed from. The Law is a curse for people that are fallen.
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The Law is a curse. And you've been freed from that. Because even though the
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Law is righteous and holy and good, you could not keep it and therefore it could only condemn you. But you've come to Christ, the last
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Adam, who kept that covenant of works, who kept that Law in perfect obedience. And not only did
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He satisfy what God required and receive the merit that He gives to you, everlasting life, He also, by His own body broken on the tree, handled the curse.
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He paid the curse. If you're in Christ, you cannot lose the covenant of grace.
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And you're directly responsible for none of it. It's given as a free gift to all who believe.
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This is the glory and the beauty of the good news. Bad news doesn't quite cover bad, does it? Well, neither does good news.
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Good isn't the right word. There is no English word that can contain just how good this news is.
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Let me close with words from a hymn. Just, I think, beautiful words. Not all the good hymns were written 200 years ago.
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This one was written in 1986 by a man named Kenneth Pulse. And he's just emphasizing again why we have to understand the
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Law and even begin with the Law if we ever want to understand and rightly apply the
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Gospel. You don't look at your own walk and your own life and begin with the
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Gospel. You begin with the Law so that you have a need and a refuge in the Gospel. This is a few stanzas.
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Listen to this, brothers and sisters. Send the Law before the
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Gospel. Shine the light revealing sin. Men will see they need a
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Savior as their hearts are bared within. Weep, you sinners, under judgment.
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See yourself before God's Law, full, deserving condemnation. Dread the wrath of God in awe.
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Alright, there's the Law. What do we do now? Come, you sinners, and take comfort.
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You convicted and dismayed, for God's love is only sown in furrows that His Law has made.
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You see? The Law is digging these trenches in your soul.
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But that's where the love of God is sown. Come, you sinners, look to Jesus. He has fulfilled the
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Law's demands. Christ will turn your dread and sorrow into love for God's commands.
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How? On the cross was Christ afflicted. There endured the wrath of God.
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The covenantal curse that was upon Adam. Now the
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Law no more condemns us. Satisfied by His shed blood,
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God has set His Law before us. Let His Word be our delight as we travel unto glory, persevering in His light.
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Let's pray. Oh, Father, we are humbled to consider this gift that is given so richly, so freely, so costly, this gift of Your Son, whom
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You sent in the world to be a Savior of sinners lost and ruined by the fall. We think of our
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Savior, whose whole life was lived in the perfect satisfaction of what
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Your Law required. He lived before you in that perfect communion in joy and delight that Adam was meant to live before you in.
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Finding the delight of Your Law that David found throughout Psalm 119 and many other places as he delighted and meditated upon Your Law day and by night, he knew, as Paul could say in Romans 7, that Your Law was holy, righteous, and good.
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And yet, that same Law, Lord, was a heavy yoke upon our necks. It condemned us in word and thought and deed.
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It reminded us that we could never achieve or satisfy the perfections of who You are and what was required to enter into Your presence.
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And therefore, it wasn't just His active obedience, His active righteousness, but it was His passive submission to Your will that He would be the
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Lamb to be slain. That He was led silent as a sheep before shearers.
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He was led to the slaughter willingly, setting His face toward the cross so that His body and His blood could be an atonement for our sins, for our covenant breaking.
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That He, as the last Adam, would bring His people into that confirmed state of glory, into a time and a place, into a presence that we'll never be able to sin again, never face the temptations of departing from You or from Your ways.
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Oh, we're thankful, Lord, knowing that we could not do this in and of ourselves, knowing that we as sinners are dead in our trespasses and sins.
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We thank You that in due time You sent Him to save us. And You sent Your Spirit, Lord, to open our eyes, to take out that heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh that You've brought us into this new covenant.
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We're thankful, Lord, that we have a Savior who loves us so. We pray,
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Lord, that we would understand the cost of our salvation and therefore the cost of our discipleship, that we would count the cost and count it worthy,
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Lord, whatever You require of us, whatever You require of our efforts and energies, our ambitions, our resources, our desires.
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Let us count it as a worthy sacrifice to be made at the altar of Him who loved us, who was made a slave for us, who became obedient to the point of death for us.
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Let us live for Him who gives us life everlasting. These things we ask in Your Son's name.