Adamic Administration - Preliminary Considerations — John Murray

Let us pray, O Lord our God, Thou art the same yesterday and today and forever, and we do beseech Thee that we may know what is the power of the exalted Redeemer, who is Himself the same yesterday and today and forever, who is faithful in all His promises, in all His purposes of grace, who is faithful to His commission, and who will not cease the activities that were His of Thy right hand, until He will have calcinated the interests of Thy kingdom.

Forgive, O Lord, our sins of unfaithfulness, unfaithfulness to Christ, unfaithfulness to Thee, the living God, unfaithfulness to Thy vocation for which we are called. Forgive our sins, our immatriculate promises.

Wash us in the blood of Christ. Sanctify us more and more by His Spirit. In His name, amen. I wish you would turn that off for a little while, because it won't be very long. Turn on your instrument if you want to, Mr. Chow.

The Adamic Administration and the Covenant of Works

I'm going on now to deal with the next topic. And I call the next topic the Adamic administration. The Adamic administration. Is there somebody opening the window? Yes. Thank you very much. The Adamic administration.

Now that is the same topic which in the history of covenant theology has been called the covenant of works. The doctrine embraced under this topic is the same doctrine that has been historically embraced under the rubric the covenant of works.

But I am not adopting that terminology, because I do not think that we have sufficient biblical evidence by which to call it the covenant of works. Even if we might properly use the word covenant to designate this administration, it would not be proper to call it the covenant of works.

The Covenant of Life Terminology

You are going to use the word covenant. It's far better to use the other term that has been used also in covenant theology, namely the covenant of life. Covenant of life. In dealing with this topic, the doctrines and followings will be the preliminary considerations.

Covenants, then two, that would be the purpose, the distinguishing character of this administration. The distinguishing character. Now, first of all, then, preliminary considerations. And how to be one special act of providence.

Humanity's Created Moral Obligation

What do we mean by that? Well, we must remember that man was created a self-conscious, free, moral, religious agent. And that status, or that identity, presupposes an inherent and inalienable obligation to love God and serve Him with all the heart and soul and strength and mind.

Because there is no rational, moral being who is not under obligation to God in every aspect of his being and in every relationship in which he exists. Man was created, however, not only a rational being, rational, responsible agent, but he was also created very good.

And as we found already, that meant that he was created in knowledge, righteousness and holiness. And therefore, disposed by his very nature to that obedience. He landed often as a rational, responsible being.

That is to say, he was created with a character fitted him for the fulfillment of all divine obligations. For if man has created God, fulfilled his obligations to the full extent of God's demand... I repeat, if he fulfilled the obligations revolving upon him to the full extent of God's demand, then he would have been righteous.

Not only be righteous, but he would maintain his righteousness. And being righteous to the full extent of the divine demand, he would have the corresponding divine approval. We use another term, the corresponding justification.

And with that justification, there would have been life, inevitably. In God's government, as a government of absolute equity, there are these consequences emanating from righteousness, namely justification and life.

Could not be otherwise, because the judgment of God is always according to truth. And hence, righteousness, justification, life, is an invariable combination, invariable combination in the government of God.

Hence, if Adam and Eve had retained the integrity in which they were created and fulfilled that to which they were disposed by God's creation, they would have enjoyed the corresponding justification of life, corresponding justification of life.

The Uncertainty of Adam's Original State

You can very readily see that this conception, this conception of status that would have been existing for man, or something which is conceivably higher, that in respect of which it falls short, is the uncertainty, the contingency, the mutability that attaches to it.

Uncertainty, the contingency, the mutability. Because up to this point, the maintenance of this status of justification and life is altogether dependent upon the continuance of righteousness, the continuance of obedience on the part of our first parents.

And in anything that I have said up to this point, there is nothing which perfectly eliminates the possibility of defection. Possibility of defection on the part of Adam and Eve. There is not only this uncertainty with respect to the continuance of this righteousness, integrity, obedience, but there is also uncertainty attaching to the blessedness, a blessedness which Adam and Eve would have enjoyed in the possession and exercise of this obedience, exercise of this obedience.

Since there is, since there is the possibility of defection, there is also, going along with that, the possibility of poverty, corresponding justification of the corresponding life. Now, the construction, the construction which has been made of the various data of revelation, is to the effect that God added, God added to Him original creative action, special act of providence.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

Special act of providence. And this special act of providence is indicated by prohibition respecting the three of the knowledge of good and evil. Three of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2 .17, this special act of providence is epitomized in the prohibition respecting the three of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now that it's His, a special act of providence, lies on the very surface of the narrative. Genesis 2, special act of providence, and they put an additional, an additional, an additional on the part of God because it was to man that already created death in His image.

But God said that, to every tree of the garden thou mayst be eaten, but of the three of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

That was not involved in the creative act itself because it was to man that already created the fact where it was born. Therefore the institution, institution of constitution, which is indicated by that special act of revelation, is to, out of it to, we come to the purpose.

Probation and the Possibility of Indefectible Righteousness

What was the purpose of this special institution or this special constitution? By Satan, the three of the knowledge of good and evil, what was its purpose? Well again, the most reasonable, at least the most reasonable inference is that by this constitution, or institution, there was provided for man the opportunity, unlosable blessing, from a state of indetect, passing into a state of indetectible righteousness, and therefore unlosable blessing.

Now in the history of theology, that has been stated in terms of Latin formulae, that there was given to him the opportunity to pass from acquisition, passe peccare, passe non peccare, non passe peccare.

Necessary for me to draw your attention to these Latin formulae for two reasons, of course. First is that they are the formula used in the discussion of this matter. The second reason is that we have to give some appearance of being very large.

Well, these formulae are very easily interpreted. Passe peccare means possibility of sinning, passe non peccare is the possibility of not sinning, and then non passe peccare is not possible to sin. They're all verbs, of course.

Passe peccare, passe non peccare, non passe peccare. That is that he would be elevated to a condition in which it wouldn't be possible for him to sin, and that means simply to a condition of indefectible righteousness and the corresponding unlosable blessing.

Intensified Probation and Obedience to God's Will

That would be the purpose. And the way that was instituted by God was that of making our first parents to pass through an intensified probation, subjecting them to an intensified probation. And the instrument of this probation was to create the knowledge of good and evil, create the knowledge of good and evil.

And the purpose, then, of the probation was to test us to His unswerving commitment to the will of God, to test man in respect of his unswerving, undeviating commitment to the will of God, to questioning obedience to God's revealed will.

That, of course, is the supreme test of obedience in every occasion, in every instance, to the revealed will of God, out of deference simply to the will of God. Now, the distinguishing character of this administration.

The Adamic Administration versus the Mosaic Covenant

It is very necessary to appreciate the uniqueness of this administration. It is an administration that is given to man in a state of innocence, and therefore an administration could have relevance only to original state of integrity.

This administration must never be confused with what the Scripture calls the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant in Scripture refers to the Mosaic Covenant, the Sinaitic Covenant. And the Sinaitic Covenant is not a repetition or a reproduction of the Adamic administration.

The children of Israel didn't exist in the Garden of Eden. They didn't have access to, or the lack of access to, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And they certainly were not in a state of original integrity.

So you see that this Adamic administration has referred simply and solely to Adam and Eve in their state of original integrity, but also to the implications for them and for all arising from their failure of tenuously state within the world created.

Covenant Administrations after the Fall

It is a simple fact that all covenants referred to in Scripture, all covenantal administrations referred to in Scripture are subsequent to the fall of man. The first covenantal administration is that to Noah, Genesis 6, 18, at least the first recorded.

Genesis 6, 18 was the first reference to covenant in Scripture. That, of course, is subsequent to the fall of man. We call the pre-Diluvian Noahic covenant, followed by the post-Diluvian Noahic covenant, Genesis 9, and followed after that by the Abrahamic covenants, Genesis 15 and Genesis 17, and so on.

But all covenant administrations are subsequent to the fall of man and contemplate, therefore, in one way or another, the needs arising from man's fallen state. That's one reason why I hesitate to give the title covenant to this administration.

Further Biblical Data on the Adamic Administration

So much for the preliminary considerations. Now we come to Romans 2, and that's concerned with the biblical data. Biblical data. Supporting biblical data. And, of course, there are very good men of biblical data.

We'll proceed to deal with them tomorrow.