More than Forgiven (Covenant Theology #3) | Theocast

Hi, this is John, and today on Theocast, Justin and I are continuing our conversation. This is part three, as we talk about the pastoral implications of a section of Reformed theology called

Covenant Theology, and we're going to be talking about the covenant of works and the work of Christ, and specifically, the

Bible lets us know that we have been more than just forgiven. We have received the work of Christ, and we learn that through the covenant of works.

It's a great conversation. If you don't understand the doctrine of imputation or the covenant of works, and you don't rest in it, we're going to help explain that to you, starting from Genesis and walking all the way through the book of Revelation.

Stay tuned. If you'd like to help support Theocast, you can do that by leaving us a review on iTunes and subscribing on your favorite podcast app.

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Thanks for listening. Welcome to Theocast, encouraging weary pilgrims to rest in Christ, conversations about the

Christian life and lively ones at that, from a pastoral and Reformed perspective. If you don't know what the word

Reformed means, go to our website. We'll help you explain the five points of Reformed theology. Your hosts today are happy and excited.

Because everything has five points. That's right, if you're Reformed. Your host today, caffeinated as always, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church, Justin Perdue.

And I am John Moffitt, pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee. And Justin, two days in a row, we're trying to get caught back up from all the different vacations and all the stuff that happens.

Like perpetually lately. I feel like we're always behind. We're on the hamster wheel of a weekly podcast, bro.

Just like, right. We're into our second year, believe it or not, right? This is our second year. We're embarking upon our third year.

Oh, my goodness. Wow. Time flies. We have well finished, too. I mean, yeah, that's right.

Because we're over a hundred and something episodes. But yeah, we do 50, about 50 episodes a year. So it's a lot of information.

You don't care about that. One thing I will tell you is that last night was a joy for me. First Tuesday and Wednesday of every month,

I teach a class at our church and I had the joy of teaching the second part of covenant theology.

We talked about the covenant of works last night and it was about an hour and a half class and I just thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was so much fun. Speaking of, Justin. I was going to say, John, it is incredible that you mentioned the covenant of works.

I know. And what's interesting is that providence of God. And I scheduled that class not knowing we were going to be talking about this in our schedule.

So it's right. God's providence, which means I'm really prepared to talk today. He knew lots of notes.

All right. So for the listener out there, we're getting right to it today. I mean, we're like under two minutes and we're already do it.

We're already pivoting. Getting the goods, man. Little, little pat on the back for us. And so today we are in our third of three episodes on what we're framing as pastoral and practical implications of covenant theology.

Just really quick recap. In the first episode entitled Unperplexing the Old Testament, we tried to declutter and unconfused, unperplex the

Old Testament for people because a lot of times for folks, the Old Testament is just disjointed stories and different kinds of literature and people aren't sure how it hangs together, how it works.

Don't know, really know what to make of it. So we tried to help with that in the first episode. We pray that by God's grace, there was some success there.

And then in the second episode entitled the Bible is not an instruction manual, we were trying to make plain quite simply that the

Bible is about redemption and we need to use the Bible in the way in which God intended for us to use it.

It's not an instruction manual. It's not a how to guide. It's not a medicine cabinet. A lot of ways that people approach scripture is not helpful, but when we approach it as the testimony of Christ and the story of redemption and how

God plans to save us, then it's incredibly helpful and actually life giving. So that was the second episode.

We hope that was helpful to you today in our third of three, we are going to be talking pointedly about the covenant of works, but really what we want to do is help people understand how an affirmation and an understanding of the covenant of works as it's revealed in the

Bible helps us better understand what Jesus came to do for sinners. And it leads us to a place where we can see beautifully how the work of Christ in the place of sinners is absolutely and utterly sufficient to save.

And therefore there's nothing that we can add to the work of Christ and there's nothing we need to do actually, because Christ has done everything.

So not trying to steal our thunder there, John, but that's, that's where we're headed. And we're going to track along in a way that I hope makes some sort of logical sense for people.

And so I'm going to just get the ball rolling downhill a little bit, I hope. And I'm not going to do what

I've done in the previous two episodes and giving a flyover of the tri -covenantal framework of the Bible, the three big covenants in scripture, the covenant of redemption and eternity past the covenant of works, which we're going to talk about more today, the covenant of grace, which we've alluded to throughout and inevitably we'll talk about today to go back to those previous two episodes from the last two weeks, you'll get a little more info on those three big covenants.

And also there's always our teaching series on covenant theology. You can go back and listen to those too. We'll put in the show notes. So we're going to not waste, waste, that wouldn't be a waste of time, but people understand what

I mean by that. We're not going to take a lot of time talking about that today. We're going to go ahead and get into the covenant of works.

And so when I say covenant of works, I am referring, we are referring to what the

Reformed have understood for centuries as the covenant that God made with Adam in the garden of Eden, where God made

Adam obviously, and the moral law of God was written into humanity and written into creation.

So that's a piece of this, but then God gives Adam some specific instructions as to how he's to live and what he's to do.

And he gives him one sanction, one prohibition in particular and attaches a sanction to that.

If you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the day that you do that, you will surely die.

And so that prohibition and that sanction is the test of the covenant of works. And the understanding is, is that if Adam had obeyed

God perfectly, if he had kept that covenant and fulfilled its requirements and had not violated that prohibition, then he could have earned eternal life for himself and all of his children, all of his posterity.

And that is symbolized by the tree of life that also stands in the garden of Eden.

And it becomes quite clear as the rest of the scripture unfolds that Adam had that capability and that potential was there for him to earn eternal life and righteousness with God, but he failed to do it.

And we're going to unpack some of that in today's episode. So John, why don't we do you riff on the covenant of works a little bit more too, man?

I kind of said some general things about it. You taught on it last night, and then we'll move from that covenant of works to think about how

Adam and Christ relate a little bit. It's one of the mistakes we make when we're studying the Bible. So this is a little bit of a defense just so you understand why we're so passionate about this.

Why are you so defensive, John? You know, I'm a pastor. I don't know.

So the defense that we make is that when you read Genesis, you can say, well, the word covenant's not in there and the concept is not in there, which we would argue the whole setup of a covenant is in there.

And the only reason why it's so important for us to see this is that the new Testament, whether you want to embrace the word covenant of works or not, the concept of failing and succeeding is definitely there.

Now I know some people have a problem with the word, but I think the concept is more important that you embrace because if it's dealing with two things, federal headship, and it's also dealing with imputation.

Federal headship means the representation of one for many, right? We understand federal headship, meaning like when

Paul says in Adam all died, he's saying Adam is the representative of the human race.

And when Adam failed, all of those who come after Adam also fall in him, meaning that they are condemned and sin.

This is why this is so important because he then makes the exact opposite and says all in Christ are made alive.

So Adam is the one representing humanity. Christ is the one representing the chosen or the children of those who have been adopted by the father.

And if you reject the one, which is Adam's imputation or we gain Adam sin by a federal head, you have to reject

Christ as being the one who represents us. Now that go ahead. I was going to say really just going to pick up on a couple of other things.

The Bible is very clear that Adam represented all of us in the garden. That's a big, big piece.

The scripture also is very clear by way of necessary inference that if Adam had obeyed, there is life and blessedness.

And if Adam disobeyed, there is death. And so those things are, I think, undebatable, right?

So I continue. No, you're good. So passages, uh, to help you understand this Romans five, 12 first Corinthians 1521 for as by one man came death by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

So you see this correlation first Corinthians 1522 for as an Adam all died. And what does it say for as in Christ all are made alive.

So the, um, you can say, well, John, that's not really talking about the covenant works there. That's just talking about, you know, the implications of it.

Well you have to understand Paul is referencing Adam because Adam is the first man.

And what is G or Adam? Yeah. It's the first man. Perfect man. Who is the second man who we described as, as the second

Adam. And the reason why it calls them. That's right. The second Adam is you, you are seeing where Adam failed

Christ succeed. What's helpful for this is language of glory. We've heard this in Romans when

Paul says for all have sinned. And then it says a phrase I never paid attention to before Justin, but it says all have sinned in what fall short of the glory of God.

And you ask yourself, well, I've always been told that's missing the mark, but that's not what he means.

It means that you have fallen short of being in the presence of the glory of God. And when one enters into the presence of the glory of God, you now are in the presence of him and there is no means of sin.

You cannot, there cannot be sin in the presence of God in his glory. What is amazing is this.

It says where Adam failed, the second Adam succeeded. And listen to this, where the second

Adam succeeded, Hebrews two cells says this, right? It was fitting that he for whom by whom all things exist and bringing many sons to glory.

So what's interesting is that the work of Christ is concluded by the writer of Hebrews is that when he finished his work, he brought us into the glory of God because he succeeded where the first Adam failed.

So if the first Adam would have succeeded, what the writers are saying is he would have brought all the posterity.

He would have brought all those with him into the glory of God. Justin, this is an important doctrine of imputation, right?

It is being imparted to us. It's being given to us by grace. We don't deserve it. That's right. It's being accounted to us that by grace, meaning we didn't deserve it.

So when Jesus obeyed that was given to us now that we started at the beginning and we started at the end, let's connect how it all comes about between the two, because it doesn't go from the scene of the garden to the scene of the cross.

There's a lot that happens in between to give us clarity. So what like, let's start working through the covenants and think to ourselves, go ahead.

Yeah, we'll do it. Let's do it. This will be a fun exercise. We haven't scripted this. So that's always kind of enjoyable. People get to hear us process.

So yeah, we begin with this covenant of works in the garden. And the thing that this covenant teaches us amongst other things is it gives us a template, uh, kind of like shows us what

God requires of man. So we understand that what Adam failed to do and what he lost for himself and us is what we're going to need someone else to come and do and someone else to regain, you know, and give us.

And so that's where the covenant of works is massive. And we're going to think more about the covenant of works as it sort of is seen throughout the rest of the

Bible here in just a minute. Right. So that after that covenant God makes with Adam, the next covenant that God makes with a human is with Noah.

And just really quick on that one, he makes the covenant there to sustain the creation and to not judge it like globally, like he did in the flood.

And so the point there is, I'm going to sustain the creation with the ultimate goal being the savior is going to come and redeem people.

And my plans of redemption are certain because the stage on which that redemption is going to be accomplished and played out is going to be preserved.

It's such an important covenant. It's so we, uh, I often never understood the reality of how important the covenant of grace is.

You know, this goes back to our episode of one, Justin, when we were in the old Testament, God is revealing who he is and can he be trusted?

And what Jesus, what God says is, and you say Jesus, cause Jesus was there. Um, he looked in on the world and there was none righteous.

They were wicked, every evil intention, every thought and to prove how awful it all was.

He destroyed the world except for one family. And that's because he made a promise to Eve and to Adam that he would restore them.

And what I love about this is he put a bow in the sky saying, this is me proving to you that my promise of redemption will be fulfilled even though you are evil.

Yep. So true. So, I mean, between that covenant with Adam and the covenant with Noah, many will know, and we talk about this all the time.

And I kind of just like drove right by it and I'll just go ahead and allude to it. There's the promise of the redeemer in Genesis three 15, you know,

Adam fails and Eve fails and Adam thereby plunges us all into ruin.

But God right then promises that there would be one who would be born of woman who would come and save us all.

And so that promise is going to be the driver of the rest of scripture. And so then, yeah, God makes the covenant with Noah to sustain the creation so that that redeemer can come.

The next covenant is with Abraham. And so God calls this man out of paganism and he does preach the gospel to Abraham and says, through your offspring, and he's referring to Christ here, will the entire world be blessed.

And we understand via the apostle Paul that what is meant there is that the promised offspring singular of Abraham is the one through whom the nations will be saved.

And then God begins to form through Abraham and his physical lineage, a nation that we will know as Israel.

And that nation will be the nation that will quite literally give birth to the redeemer.

And God is going to reveal a number of things in and through that nation, including the law that he gives them in the covenant he makes with Moses.

That's right. So you what's there's two things happening. You're seeing the covenant of grace, the promise of redemption clarified and you also are revealed.

That's right. You are also seeing, remember the conclusion we can make from the new Testament is that Jesus came and fulfilled the covenant of works.

Cause that's where Adam failed. Christ succeeded. You are seeing the covenant of works being reset and developed in the issuing of the law.

That's right. So you create a nation and that nation eventually, uh, becomes in covenant with God.

And in that covenant, they are entered into the Mosaic covenant, which is where I know you're going. Well, yeah, you're good riff on it.

Yeah. Well, and it's, so the reason we're not just jumping from covenant covenant, you have to understand this is the flow of the

Bible. There's two things happening. You're seeing God reset for restoration.

You're also seeing God's faithfulness and kindness and patience in the midst of evil. I mean, think about who he's dealt with.

Adam and Eve sinned. Abraham is, Oh, Noah is a drunkard. Abraham's a hoodlum, but so are his sons.

I mean, David, you just start walking through who God's using. It's insane. I've alluded to this a lot.

I'm preaching in Genesis and week after week, after week, after week, you are smacked upside the head with the sinfulness of God's people, you know, both violating the moral law, right?

I'm thinking Romans five, like 12 to 14, right? They're not sinning like Adam did.

They're not violating a particular prohibition, but they're violating the moral law and they're doubting the promises of God left and right.

So they're constantly sinning. And then in the face of that, God is faithful. He is gracious.

He is merciful. He is showing himself to be a God of steadfast love. And he basically over and over again shows himself to be a redeemer of these people.

You can't escape that. It's just on loop throughout the book of Genesis. And I would argue, and I know you agree it's on loop through the old

Testament wholesale. Yep. That's what's going on. All right. Keep going. Yeah. When you have this structure, it actually allows you to see what's coming next and how it connects.

So you have, you have Adam failing, you have promise. So this is what I love about the story of Genesis, right?

So Adam and Eve fail. God immediately shows mercy by covering their nakedness and their shame and then promises grace.

Right? So now we know a savior is coming, but what is that savior going to do? He's not going to be right.

He's not just washing away their sin. It's important. He's not resetting the scene. If he was,

Jesus was just coming to pay for their sins, they would still not enter into glory. They would just be without shame because they would still need to achieve righteousness, right?

So they would reset the scene and then be put back into the garden and they would have, you know, it would be the test all over again. So what's, what you're, what you're watching is

God providing forgiveness and covering iniquity and promising righteousness, which is the covenant of works, which gets us into to the

Mosaic covenant. And that's how we know because the law is then set up saying, do this and you receive blessings from God or ultimately do this and live.

Correct. Leviticus 18 .5, Deuteronomy 27. Cursed is everyone who doesn't do all of this. So Justin, this is helpful for people who have read

Leviticus and Deuteronomy and say, man, that is a very complicated section of scripture. I don't understand. What you should be reading this as the one who comes in perfectly obeys this has to be

God because nobody can do this. But I mean, again, the, the Mosaic covenant is so helpful for us.

And we, you know, given our theological convictions as 1689 Federalists understand that the

Mosaic covenant and the giving of the law in particular is a reissuing of the covenant of works with the gracious provision of the sacrificial system.

But all of that, the law, the sacrificial system, and the whole ceremonial law that involves feasts and the priesthood and all these things, all of that is a pointer to Christ who he is and what he would come to accomplish.

And so it's clear that just as Adam was our representative in the garden, the savior, the one who would be born of woman is going to come and represent us and he's going to do all of this stuff and be all of this for us.

That's right. And so that's as we're kind of kicking the ball down the field, advancing the ball down the field, that's the stuff that we're seeing.

So he's going to come and he's going to be a physical descendant of Abraham. He's going to be born of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Judah, and he's going to fulfill the law, the moral law and all it requires.

He's going to be the fulfillment of the ceremonial law because he's going to be the atonement for our sins.

He's going to be our high priest who will intercede for us and be the mediator between us and God.

He's the ultimate fulfillment of the temple. Totally all of that. And then we move even further down the road to learn more about who this savior is going to be.

And we get the covenant with David. And we've talked about this a little bit in past episodes, but just in brief,

God promises David that one of his sons will sit on the throne, like the throne of Israel, but the

D throne, definite article and reign in the land and administer justice and all will be well provided that David's son keeps

God's law. And we learn through like second Samuel seven and other passages that the

King, this Davidic son, should he keep God's law is going to represent the people.

The name by which he will be called is the Lord is our righteousness. So he's going to be the

Lord, right? He's going to be a son of David. He's going to represent the people and be their righteousness.

He will keep the law for them. And so now we have even more information about who this savior is and what he would be for us in our place, right?

As our representative. And that sets the stage wonderfully for Christ to show up. But do you want to riff on any more of that before we get to Jesus proper?

That's right. When the, what helped me, you know, the Davidic covenant became one of my absolute aha moments, my favorite covenants.

I agree, man. Right. Cause it's like, man, it made the whole old Testament make sense because it's developing three things.

It's developing the relationship between God and humanity. It's developing the work of Christ and it's clarifying something

I never understood, which is imputation. Because literally when the per the covenant says when the

King perfectly obeys the law, he will earn righteousness, not only for himself, but for all in the kingdom to eternally live with God in this new kingdom.

And what's amazing is that Jesus shows up on the on the scene. And what are the new Testament writers say? Well, he's the prophet, the one who perfectly proclaimed

God. He's the priest. He's the one who sacrificed himself as the final sacrifice.

And he's the King who perfectly obeyed the law. He did the covenant of works. If you're new to Theocast, we have a free ebook available for you called faith versus faithfulness, a primer on rest.

And if you struggled with legalism, a lack of assurance, or simply want to know what it means to live by faith alone, we wrote this little book to provide a simple answer from a reformed confessional perspective.

You can get your free copy at theocast .org slash primer. You know, it's wild.

I mean, even in the genealogy that begins Matthew's gospel, it's incredible how that starts the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

It's like, exactly. He comes from Abraham and he's the son of David. I remember the first time that I read, like once I had the these reformed covenantal lenses, the first time that I was reading through Jeremiah and I read

Jeremiah 23, five and six, and I read Jeremiah 33, 14 to 18. I about fell out of my chair in terms of just,

I mean, I'm not kidding. Jeremiah 23, five and six, you get the things that I said a minute ago, like I'm going to raise up for David, a righteous branch and he will execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In that day, Israel will be saved. Judah will be saved. You know, all of this and the name by which he will be called is the Lord is our righteousness.

Well, you get that whole formula in Jeremiah 33, 14 to 18, but you also get there how

David will not lack a son to sit on the throne. And you also get this whole business of how the, the, there will not be a priest, you know, the lacking of a priest to offer sacrifices perpetually.

And you're just like, Oh my gosh, like this is wild. Like all of the things that the

Bible says, the Old Testament says about Jesus. It's a living book. How Christ comes and perfectly fulfills and accomplishes all of that stuff.

It is. So hopefully in us geeking out, what you are seeing is the connection. So we are, we're flowing.

What we just, what we just did is walked you through the major high points of the Bible. And I think in my opinion, the major high points, the major mountain peaks are the different covenants that kind of guide you through the story.

Each covenant builds upon each other and it helps you get to the final covenant, which you're going to take us to.

The new covenant, which in our framework is our, in our understanding is the establishment and accomplishment of the covenant of grace, right?

Where righteousness and atonement are counted to sinners credited to centers on account of Christ received by faith, grounded completely in grace, not merit.

So that's the covenant of grace to where we are. So I want to, I want to start with this, John, like even connecting

Jesus and Adam again. Yeah. As Calvin said it this way, everything that we lost in Adam, we have in Christ.

I agree with that. And at times I slightly tweak that to say we have gained more in Christ than we lost in Adam.

And what I mean by that is, yeah, Adam was sinless, but he could sin.

Whereas in Christ, not only are we sinless, but we have righteousness like definitively counted to us.

And one day raised imperishable, we will not even be able to sin and we won't want to do it.

So it's better than the original state, which is why I like to say that we have actually gained more in Christ than we lost in Adam.

But connecting Jesus and Adam again for just a minute, if you have these lenses on things just start to pop off the page as you read and study scripture.

So when you think about the ministry of Jesus Christ and how it starts in Matthew's gospel in chapter three, the first thing that happens in Christ's initiation of his public ministry is he's baptized by John the

Baptist. And there's that whole account of how John's like, ah, I shouldn't be the one to baptize you. You should baptize me. And Jesus responds to him in verse 15 and says, no, it's appropriate.

That we would do this in order to fulfill all righteousness. It's very clear that Christ is doing this and he's being baptized by John in order to fulfill righteousness, not for his own sake, because he doesn't need that, but for ours.

Then, and that's again, that imputation, that representation, he's going to give us everything we need. But then immediately thereafter, you have the temptation of Jesus recorded in Matthew four and Luke four.

What's going on there. I love to riff on this and I'm going to just kind of do this in a quick way and somewhat restrained, a little bit reverse thrust here.

Try not to get too excited. I don't, I can't tell you how many times, John, I've heard the temptation of Jesus Christ taught in this way.

Like the takeaway from that passage is that you too can defeat the temptation of Satan with the word of God.

And I'm like, with all due respect, that's secondary. That is not the point of that passage. The point of that passage is that Jesus is the new and better Adam.

Adam was tempted by Satan in a garden paradise when he had everything in the world going for him.

Jesus is tempted by Satan in a wilderness, having not eaten for 40 days with everything stacked against him.

Adam failed. Jesus succeeded. Worship, trust him, rest in him.

I mean, that's the conclusion. Have faith in Christ, who is your redeemer, the son of the woman who's come to undo and to accomplish everything that Adam failed to do.

That's right. And undo everything that Adam ruined. I mean, and we would have done the same thing. I'm not,

I'm not slamming Adam and throwing him under the bus, but this is who Christ is. That's the point of those passages.

And then of course, we've already alluded to the language of the apostle Paul in first Corinthians 15 and Romans five, where he so beautifully helps us see how all of humanity is either in Adam or in Jesus.

That's right. In Adam, there's sin, death and ruin in Christ. There is righteousness and eternal blessedness and life.

And so it's so clear. Yeah. Well, this is so important when Jesus says it is finished on the cross.

He doesn't mean he actually meant what he said, right? He doesn't mean I paid for your sins. He, when he died and then he rose again in conquering death, what he also accomplished was that moment of death.

He proved for 33 years I completed what Adam failed in and I finished it.

Like not only did I pay for your sins, but I also earned for you righteousness.

This is why out in Paul makes that conclusion right in Adam all died. And because of the life, much more shall we say, be saved by his life is what he says.

Yes, we are cleansed by his death, but he says much more. Are we saved by his life?

Meaning that he completed what Adam failed. The covenant of works. What it does is that it connects the fall of the world to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the promise that was given to Adam, Jesus completed it.

And that's why there's nothing left to do. This is why Paul says you are saved by grace that you may not boast.

It's not only your forgiveness of sins, you know, Justin, this is what was confusing for me. Um, and in reformed theology and covenant theology really shined a light brightly on this in that, yes, my sins were washed away, but not only were my sins washed away, but everything that would ever be required for me to perform in such a way that God would look at me and call me righteous was also given to me.

I was given mercy and then I was given grace and grace is to receive righteousness that you didn't earn.

Word. I've said it this way many times. I know you agree wholeheartedly with what I'm about to say. Many people have heard it said to be justified is to be it is as though you have never sinned.

All right, that's true. And that's only the half of it. That's right. To be justified is as though I have never sinned.

And it is also counted to me as though I have done all of the good, righteous works of obedience that Christ did.

That's right. It's both. And so it's a declaration by God. What is to just to be justified is to, for God to declare us just.

And that's not just that we're without sin. It's that we are righteous. And good gracious.

It makes all the difference in the world when we understand both of those things that we don't want to cut the work of Christ in half in that regard.

Right? Like you said it earlier, he didn't just give us a clean slate. Cause if he comes and gives us a clean slate, we can blow it up and mess it up.

And we would, but he, he has come and actually done the whole thing. And he said, it is finished. He meant what he said.

And if I can, I want to connect the, the garden of Eden and even the end of Genesis three to the work of Christ for just a second.

Cause I think this is a pretty cool connection to make. And this even popped a new for me when

I preached Genesis three in this current sermon series that we're in. So at the very end of Genesis three, there's this part where God drives.

I mean, in the word that is used there, it's like God literally like threw Adam and Eve out of the garden.

I mean, he expelled them. Right. And so he drives them out of the garden and he puts cherubim, like scary angels with flaming swords to guard the way to the tree of life.

What's going on there? The whole business of that, of course God is separating them from his benevolent presence and like, because he's holy and they're not, he's driving them out.

That's true. But the whole business of the text is explicitly clear that the angels, you know, and the swords and all that stuff is to guard the way to the tree of life.

What's that about? Well, that's because Adam had one opportunity to earn eternal life and he messed it up.

That's right. And now God is driving him away from the tree of life because he will not achieve eternal life through that means anymore.

He can't have access to it in that way. Neither can we. We can't earn eternal life any longer.

It's going to have to come through another way. Well keep that imagery of the angels and the, you know, the cherubim and the swords guarding the way to the tree of life and guarding the way to God.

And that shows up over and over and again in the scripture. It shows up on the curtain that's made in the tabernacle to separate the holy of holies from the rest of the temple complex, to separate the people from eternal life in the presence of God.

Well, that exists in the temple in Jerusalem when Christ is on earth and remember what happens at the moment he dies, that that curtain is ripped in half from top to bottom.

In other words, God did this. There is now access to God the way it was lost in Adam.

We had no access to the tree of life and we had no access to God in Christ. We have all of that restored.

We have access to God and we have eternal life and that that curtain that had the angels and the swords and all of those things, it's ripped in two because of the work of Christ.

And so that's how I think we should understand the end of Genesis three. We can't earn eternal life anymore. We had one chance, we blew it.

It will now come by grace through faith in Christ who has earned eternal life for us as is beautifully symbolized by the ripping of that curtain upon the death of Christ.

When he screams out and proclaims it's done. You know what's interesting? Um, I make a connection to what you're saying.

The reassuring ruler walks up to Jesus and say, what must I do to inherit the kingdom of God? Yeah. You know what he responds with?

The covenant of works. He does. He says you must obey the law. He gives him law.

That's right. Well, I mean, and so, yeah, if we're asking that question, what must we do to inherit eternal life? It's like, well, keep the law.

And we know from Paul, you know, in Galatians three, Romans five that the purpose of the law, you know, primarily was to increase the trespass.

And that means to show us the depth of our sin. We can't keep the law, which is,

I mean, Paul says that over and over and over and over again, that by works of the law, no one will be justified because nobody's good. Nobody can do this.

It has to take God to do it. Correct. Now we're justified apart from the law, though the law and the prophets bear witness to, you know, this righteousness of God, that's going to be given to sinners through faith in Jesus.

That's right. That's the gospel, man. What's interesting, Justin, which is part of this podcast is that it's, you can understand why

Paul takes such great offense when Jesus comes and he does something that millions of people could not do.

He perfectly obeys the law. I mean, perfect without question.

Thought, deed, desire, motivation. Right. And then Jesus says, all right, it's yours. Like by faith through grace,

I'm going to give it to you. And then you stand up and go, yeah, I want to take a shot at this. It's kind of like, what in the world are you thinking?

Have you lost your ever loving mind? So let me get this straight. Millions of people who have never been able to accomplish this.

And you're going to now try and add to a perfect righteousness. You're going to try and add to perfection.

It's so offensive. It's so unbelievably offensive. And that's why Paul will say, if you're going to do anything for merit, you better do it all.

It's all or nothing in the economy of God. But then just really quickly, like pastorally, man, we got a few minutes left here on the regular episode.

Let's just riff on this for a minute and see where it takes us. You just kind of stated it in one way.

Like you can't do anything. Like how absurd is it when, you know, this is what it takes and Jesus came and did this.

Like you can't do anything. The way I might want to pivot that is say two questions. Like, what could you do to add to this, the work of Jesus and maybe even secondly, like what do you need to do to add to this?

Like those are two massive questions. I mean, the answer to that, what could you do? Nothing. I mean, how could you ever add to what

Christ has already accomplished? What do you need to add? Nothing. Right. And I mean, this is where kind of where we started a right understanding and affirmation of the covenant of works and understanding what that was with Adam and what we lost there when

Adam broke that covenant helps us better understand and apply to our hearts and our minds what

Jesus has done in our place. And it helps us to see that. Yeah. Okay.

Everything. And by everything, we mean everything that God has required could ever require of us.

Those have been met. Those requirements have been met in the person and the work of our

Lord Jesus Christ. And we receive what he did by faith and are united to him and are then represented by him.

And that is all we need in order to have peace with God now and in eternity.

It helps us better understand the gospel and how good that good news is because I think the sneaking suspicion,

John, amongst a lot of us, and I think we've been taught this in some instances is like, yeah, you know,

Christ has saved us and Christ has done these things, but dot, dot, dot, dot, you know, there are these things that you need to do.

And I always want to be like, well, what do you mean when you say we need to be doing stuff? Help me understand what you're saying and what you mean by need to do it.

Are you telling me that where saving faith is present, there will be good works present. If that's what you mean, I agree with you.

Amen. But the works don't contribute. The works don't contribute. The works don't save. But if you're telling me and you're telling us that there are things that you need to do above and beyond what

Jesus has already accomplished for you in order to be finally saved. No way, man. Biblically.

That's, that's not gospel anymore. We've turned the, we've turned it back into a covenant of works to some measure.

When I was in seminary, I was working two jobs. My wife was working, lived in California.

So that should say enough right there. California. I got to say that once every few episodes. Yeah. Come on now.

Cali. When I was in seminary, we just had no money.

And I remember there are months where I'm trying to figure out the timing of the mortgage or the rent coming out my school bill.

And I was worried about the sufficiency of my bank account bouncing and just lived in that constant fear of timing and what's going to hit and what check's going to come.

And you could say I lived a very unrestful life. What the

Paul is telling us is that your account with God is sufficiently funded by the work of Christ.

And you shouldn't worry about things bouncing because when payment comes due, it's already been paid for sufficiently.

Yeah. Crisis like, Hey, I got this. That's right. And that's what it means to rest because when your account with God is sufficiently funded by Christ and it cannot be depleted because that's what mercy means to not receive what you deserve.

And grace is to receive everything that you don't deserve. That is to me what it means to rest.

And on top of that, once you sufficiently rest in the account that has been fully funded by Christ, you now have the means to give away that which you have received.

So when it says those of you who have been chosen by God to receive this account credited by Christ should walk in a manner worthy of it with gentleness and meekness and patience.

So I am not gentle, meekness and patient. I am not godly because I must maintain or increase my account.

My account is full and it's satisfied and I'm resting in that. Therefore I have every right and joy and happiness and excitement to give away that which

I have received. I give away righteousness because I am fully funded. I am not trying to maintain or keep a heavy balance.

The balance is full. So you always, it's as a dear friend of mine has been speaking to me lately,

Mike Ebendroth, he says it's guilt, grace, gratitude. Which is a classic reform paradigm.

Right. And it is our guilt leads us to grace and grace leads us to gratitude because we have been sufficiently funded by the covenant of works in Jesus Christ.

Yeah. Cause Christ fulfilled a covenant of works for us. And that merit is then given to us by faith in the covenant of grace.

That's how these things hang together. And it's a beautiful, beautiful, like cohesive thing that makes tons of sense and hangs together.

And it's glorious news for centers such as us. And it's the only hope and assurance that we have.

It's the only peace before God that we could ever have. And I'm with you, man. We need to talk accurately about how we think about good works and obedience.

We riff on that a lot on this podcast, but so often we are taught or it's implied in the teaching that we sit under that we need to do good works at least in order to maintain our status, if not to somehow add to our status.

And it's like, neither of those are true. Those are both actually Roman Catholic by definition. So the council of Trent said the canons of Trent indicate those things.

And we're Protestants last time I checked. And so we, we believe, we actually believe that we can't add to our justification, but we don't even maintain it through good works and obedience because Christ has done it all.

And then our sanctification and our good works, that transformation of life is simply an outflow and a necessary consequence of justification.

And I'll say it, I'll say it again, and I'm happy to take the bullets. If you want to see sanctification occur in your church, if you're a pastor, or if you want to generally see sanctification occur amongst your friends in the church, then emphasize the work of Christ and the grace of God in justification.

Meditate on that, go deeper into that. And it's incredible how good works and obedience will flow from that abundance.

Like you said, John, from that just abundance that can never be depleted because it's

Christ for us. I mean, this is Philippians, right? If there'd be any hope, think on these things.

And then what does he give them? He gives them, he tells them to obey from their hope. It's so good.

I mean, this is even, we quote it all the time, but second Peter one, you know, the divine, the divine power of God is granted to everything for godliness.

It's Romans six as well, that you, you've been set free. You've been united to Christ. You've been set free. You've become obedient from the heart.

It's so good. That first John, you know, we purify ourselves as he is pure. You know, we love because he loved us.

I mean, it's like the Bible. This we know love the Christ laid his life down for the church and we ought to lay our lives down for the brother.

So Justin, uh, we're going to move into a second podcast and in doing so you and I have this conversation and really kind of the setup of this podcast.

Hopefully you were encouraged by this. Uh, we have a second podcast we do called Semper Firmanda. This is where we get into a little more technical and I would say often punchy.

Watch out. One of the things that happens is there are men in theological denominations and movements and even modern day who deny a covenant of works.

And in doing so, they end up getting tangled up in the nets and saying things and believing things and confusing, uh, the works of righteousness that are ours and the works of righteousness that are

Christ. And when you openly deny the covenant of works, you start messing with imputation. So we're going to talk about some of those theological confusions, things like future justification or final justification, final, sorry, final justification.

And we'll talk about why a covenant of works prevents you from making such conclusions.

So that'll be in the SR podcast for those of you that are new. Uh, first of all, welcome. We hope this was helpful. Our major goal today was that you would find sufficiency in Christ and trusting in him.

And we believe that the reformed confessions and the reformed faith has done a superb job of protecting

Christ and him crucified. And we are so thankful for the heritage that we live in. And Sipra Firmanda literally means what

Justin? Always reforming. That's right. We're always trying to look to Christ and learn more about him into the scriptures.

And so Sipra Firmanda is just a second podcast we do. And that's for those who have partnered with our ministry who support us on a weekly basis.

And we also have an app that you can come in and join with where we do discussions in there and groups, local and online, all of that good stuff.

If you want to learn more about that, you can go over to theocast .org. Uh, Justin, as the word of God says, consider how to build one another up.

You have definitely done that to me today, my friend, I pray that we've done that to you on this podcast, rest in Christ.