The Adamic Covenant

Good morning men!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

It is a blessing and a privilege to have us all together for another year of combined Sunday School for Advent.

This year we are going to walk through the various covenants in Scripture.

These are stepping stones in redemptive history.

They outline God’s promises to His people from the very beginning and how they all point to Christ.

In order to get started though, we have to answer a very important question...

What is a covenant?

Answers...

A promise.

A contract.

An obligation.

A treaty.

It shares aspects with all of these, but is something completely unique in and of itself.

To understand “covenant” we have to step out of our modern context and understand what both the writer and the intended audience would have been thinking as the words of Scripture were penned and received.

We have to let Scripture interpret Scripture.

It’s not a matter of “what do these words, these promises, mean to me?”

But “how should I comprehend and understand the impact of these promises on the original audience?”

Suzerain-Vassal Treaty

In the ancient Near East, when kings conquered neighboring territories, they would often instate a subordinate “king” to rule over that land in cooperation with them.

International relations were governed by treaties between great kings and lesser kings.

Much like we consider governors to function today.

The great kings were known as Suzerains and they would have ultimate control of policy while demanding loyalty, tribute, and military support in exchange for protection.

The lesser kings were known as vassals and would manage the day to day internal affairs.

But the vassal king’s obedience affected much more than him.

He stood as a representative of the conquered people and his obedience or disobedience directly affected them!

These treaties, these covenants, have been dubbed Suzerain-Vassal Treaties.

God, in His providence, chose to communicate with His people in covenants that mirrored these treaties that they understood.

There is a typical structure found in Suzerain-Vassal Treaties that characterizes the promises that God has given to His people. It begins with...

Preamble - This identifies the great king. “This is who I am. This is who you serve.”

Historical prologue - This section outlines all that the great king has done and accomplished in his reign (conquests, prowess, etc.).

Stipulations - What is expected of the vassal, both in summary and in detail?

Document Clause - A paragraph requiring that copies of the covenant be made and placed in different locations. Also requiring that the document be read periodically to keep the expectations in mind.

Blessings - How will the vassal and people benefit from obedience?

Curses - How would the vassal and people be punished for disobedience?

Annnnd finally, the covenant would be ratified in a ritualistic oath that involved sacrificial blood.

The wording for “making a covenant” in original Old Testament language is to “cut a covenant”.

It’s a bond in blood.

A covenant is a complete and utter claim on someone’s loyalty and allegiance.

We are going to see this pattern followed time and again.

With slight adjustment because our God is benevolent and loving.

His desire is to bless.

But He must offer clarifying curses for disobedience and faltering allegiance.

God is the suzerain and His people are the vassals.

He has entrusted us to represent Him in the kingdom of this world.

But that doesn't mean that He leaves us to our own devices.

He has expectations.

Now there are 2 distinct types of covenant found within Scripture.

Covenants of works and covenants of grace.

And they are distinguished mostly by who bears the curse if the covenant is broken.

Covenants of Works

What is a covenant of works?

Completely dependent on the obedience of the vassal.

One can earn or forfeit blessings.

Curses are earned for disobedience.

What you do, how you conduct yourself affects the outcome.

Covenants of Grace

Now what is a covenant of grace?

Blessings not dependent on obedience or conduct.

No “if you do this, then I will do this”.

Only “I will do X”.

Completely dependent on the Great King, our God, for fulfillment.

List of the Covenants - Can you help me list off the various covenants found in Scripture?

With this understanding of exactly what a covenant is, help me list out the major covenants found in Scripture?

Let’s try to go in chronological order.

Be thinking, “is this a covenant of works or a covenant of grace?”

Covenant of Creation - Original!

Covenant of Redemption - Various covenants that work together and lead to one ultimate fulfillment.

Adam: Covenant of Commencement

Noah: Covenant of Preservation

Abraham: Covenant of Promise

Moses: Covenant of Law

David: Covenant of Kingdom

Christ: Covenant of Consummation

Paul tells us that all of the covenants find a final “Yes” and “Amen” in Christ in 1 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 1:20 ESV

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

All of them point to Christ.

He fulfils and finalizes every last detail of each covenant.

Covenant of Creation

So before we get into the meat of our conversation today, God’s covenant with Adam, let’s do a case study with the first ever covenant with man-kind.

Turn with me to Genesis 1:26-28 and 2:15-17.

Will someone please read Genesis 1:26-28 for us?

The Command

Genesis 1:26–28 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Great! Let’s break it apart...

Where do we find the preamble (introduction of the great king)?

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

Where do we find the historical prologue (what the great king has done)?

“He created mankind in His image.”

Where do we find the stipulations (what is expected/commanded)?

Be fruitful and multiply.

Fill the earth and subdue it.

Have dominion.

Now to find the blessings and curses, we have to flip over to Genesis 2:15-17.

Will someone please read this for us?

The Conditions

Genesis 2:15–17 ESV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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.”

So is this a covenant of grace or of works?

It’s a covenant of works (blessings are dependent on Adam’s obedience).

What are the blessings for obedience?

Eat, work, live, be. (prosperous and fulfilling life)

What are the curses for disobedience?

Death (physical and spiritual)

The Implications of the Creation Covenant

This covenant sounds exactly like a greater king talking to a lesser king.

Dominion is given.

Authority is granted.

We are made in God’s image and we exercise our granted authority by...

Having babies

Working the earth

Using the resources of creation to satisfy our physical needs.

God made us to exercise this dominion.

Mankind are His emissaries to this world.

Adamic Covenant

This Creation Covenant dovetails directly into the part 1 of the Covenant of Redemption because, as we get into Genesis 3, we see that Adam does not uphold his part of the covenant.

The serpent (Satan) tempts Eve.

Eve gives into temptation, eating the fruit of the forbidden tree.

And gives some of that fruit to Adam, who was with her (Genesis 3:6).

The effects were instant.

Gone was the innocence.

The image-bears wanted to become the very image Himself.

They realized they were naked and hid.

But God knows where they are.

He knows what happened.

And He comes looking for Adam and Eve.

Turn to Genesis 3:14-19 with me.

Mixed in with the curses for breaking the covenant, God mercifully and graciously sprinkles in the makings of a new covenant.

Promises He is making within Himself (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) to purchase redemption for His fallen creation.

We call this the Adamic Covenant because Adam represents mankind as a whole.

He represents each and every one of us.

Will someone please read Genesis 3:14-19 for us?

Genesis 3:14–19 ESV

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The covenant is broken up and addressed to 3 distinct parties.

The Serpent (v 14-15)

The Woman (v 16)

The Man (17-19)

Let’s work through them in reverse.

Covenant with the man (v 17-19)

What curses are meted out?

Pain and difficulty in working the ground

Thorns and thistles

Sweat

We have to remember that work itself is not the curse here (2:15).

Work was Adam’s purpose.

Death

Physical (dust to dust, v 19)

Spiritual (driven out of Eden, God’s presence)

Cut off from the tree of life

Covenant with the woman (v 16)

What curses are given?

Pain in childbearing

Again, not childbearing. That’s part of the continued command. (Be fruitful and multiply)

Desire shall be contrary to your husband

She shall desire to subvert the God-given order of headship

But he shall be the head of her (sometimes to the sinful extreme)

Covenant with the serpent/Satan (v14-15)

What curses are given?

The snake will crawl on its belly in the dirt.

Bruised head.

What promises are given?

Enmity between seed

Sinful man vs redeemed man

The snake/Satan will strike the offspring on the heel

But his head will be crushed and he will be killed.

This covenant was sealed with blood (Genesis 3:21).

While Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with leaves, God spilled blood to cover them.

He fashioned them coverings from animal skin.

To obtain skin, an animal has to die.

From the very beginning, God was the one doing the covering.

Christ’s Fulfillment

Each of these covenants have fulfilments that point to our Savior.

There are little shadows of future events, little breadcrumbs we are given, leading all the way to Christ.

How does Jesus fulfill this covenant?

We don’t have to figure this out for ourselves!

The Holy Spirit worked through the apostles’ pens to capture for us exactly how Christ fits into Genesis 3.

Let’s look at Romans 5:12-17.

Romans 5:12–17 ESV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Death reigned in Adam.

We feel the effects today.

Every time a loved one dies.

Every time we give into temptation and sin against our King.

Every time we are sinned against.

It is a reminder of Adam’s failure.

There is no hope in Adam.

There is no hope in ourselves.

Every single one of us would have failed in the way that Adam did.

There is no hope in any man!

And God decided to show His glory, and receive the worship He is due, by redeeming a people for Himself instead of a forced submission.

In His sovereignty, He planned for Christ to be the answer all along!

He wasn’t wringing His hands hoping that Satan hadn’t done too much irreconcilable damage in the Garden.

He stood, poised with authority, issuing commands and covenants that would make His glory known for eternity.

How do we see the Adamic Covenant fulfilled in Christ?

Jesus is the seed

Galatians 4:4–5 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

He was born of a woman.

This was necessary for Him to redeem us.

Jesus’ birth reflects Genesis 3, the Adamic Covenant.

Christ crushed Satan’s head on the cross

We benefit from this defeat!

Sin and Satan are no longer our master!

We will stand with Christ on his head.

This is our benediction every week. What does it say?

Romans 16:20 ESV

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Christ is our new head

1 Corinthians 15:21–23 ESV

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

Adam was our representative in sin. Now Christ is our representative in salvation!

Conclusion

John MacArthur once pointed out that snakes are like rainbows.

While the rainbow is a physical picture of God’s common grace on all of creation, the promise to never again destroy the entire earth through a flood in what we call the Noahic Covenant, a snake is also a physical reminder.

The serpent was a tool of Satan, but God cursed it to remind us.

Every time we see a snake slithering around in the dirt, we are reminded that Satan is a defeated enemy.

His head has been crushed by Christ defeating sin on the cross and death at the empty tomb.

He has no power beyond the damage his convulsing death-throws can do as this world comes to an end.

His wanna-be kingdom will be replaced by a kingdom greater and more beautiful than Eden.

The Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ. And He will reign forever and ever.

[Pray]