The Covenant of Works

When we consider the covenant of grace we think of the wondrous promises made to us through Jesus Christ.

Taking these promises and turning to the remainder of scripture we are assured cover to cover our God never changes… He is not a a man that He should lie… Jesus Christ is the same Yesterday, Today, and Forever...

It is for this reason, we must understand that in each covenant the Lord has made with humanity there has been a line made into the everlasting covenant we have in Christ.

Examining the First Covenant

Not Abraham… Not Noah… but Adam.

Dismissed due to the word Covenant not being present in the exchange

All Markers for covenant Present

Focus on the Relationship (Promissory Covenant)

Hosea 6:7 ESV

But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.

Dismisses any doubt of The Covenant of Works (its a covenant)

If the covenant of grace is the execution of the covenant of works we must understand the application of this covenant.

Elements of the Covenant of Works

Covenant Giver

Genesis 1:1–2 ESV

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Who it is

The God creator is speaking (The Triune God)

What He has done

31 verses of what God has done

Tested everything to see if it was good

Revelation of the God to man

The Beneficiary

Genesis 1:27 ESV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Humanity is created.

The covenant can proceed.

Note in a promissory covenant it is the covenant giver that has everything to lose. The beneficiary has nothing to offer

Romans 5:12 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—

Adam is in the place of the intermediary of the covenant… He is the representative for all of humanity.

In this work of covenant making there is a natural relationship developed between God the creator and Adam the creation.

God reveals Himself from the start a loving Father who shows concern for the well being of His creation.

Through this God willingly chooses to make a covenant (a legal binding contract with humanity) One which He is resolved to fulfill in its entirety.

Conditions of the Covenant

Known as the Substance of the covenant.

Six Commands

(to keep the covenant)

Work the Garden (Gen 2:15)

Protect the Garden (Gen 2:15)

Be fruitful and Multiply (Gen 1:27)

Exercise Dominion over all of creation (Gen 1:27)

Hold Fast to your wife (Indirect) (Gen 2:24)

God would be God to them

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV

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.”

It was God’s image that is impressed on them… The cost of the stay in the Garden of Eden was to be bound to God’s moral law… implicit perfect obedience.

The Election

Genesis 2:7 ESV

then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Having created all manner of creatures it was Adam that receives the breath of life

God chooses Adam

Brings him into a spiritual sentience

The Inheritance

Promise of Eternal Life

Walk in the Presence of the Lord Daily (Gen 3:8)

The Witnesses

Genesis 2:1 ESV

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

All of the Host in heaven

Gen 2:4 speaks of the generations

Job 38:4–7 ESV

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Angelic host present during creation

Angelic hosts who are commanded to stand guard for us (Psalm 91:11)

Blessings and Curses

Blessings

No spoken promise is made

Found in the pronouncement of the curse is the opposite which is Eternal Life

Walking with the Lord daily

Genesis 3:8 ESV

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

In the original language it states the Voice of the Lord is the sound they heard

Speaks of the Word of the Lord

The garden of Eden is a place of eternal rest fulfillment in the Lord.

Curses

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV

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.”

The crafty serpent tells them they will not die (later)

Death spoken about

Physical

no longer be eternal (Gen 3:22)

Tree of Life had not previously been off-limits

Spiritual

Separation from the source of Life

Nakedness

Peace and Provision

He would now have to gain those through hard labor

Sealing the Covenant

Genesis 2:7–8 ESV

then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Genesis 2:15 ESV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Formed from red clay (earth)

Breath of Life from God

Taken from the earth and placed into or driven into the garden of Eden

Gen 4:16-17 Cain goes to a town that is already populated from which he takes his wife.

Marked Adam for Himself

The Lord Dwelled with Them (Gen 3:8) Relational Covenant

Remembrance of the Covenant

Genesis 3:21 ESV

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Spilling of Blood

First

Blood Covenant

Places on him clothing

All of this was done to show by which way we are to be redeemed. Nothing short of a blood sacrifice could do...

In the fall of humanity God immediately introduces the Economy of Grace and Restoration...

The command to be fruitful and multiply carries forward

The command to let God be God in our lives carries forward

At the heart of the Edenic Covenant or Covenant of Works is one which beckons us to stand bare before the Lord, to allow God to be our God, to obey Him the promises we are given through this covenant speak of the not just restoration but also speak of a unification to the source of life.

Much in line… disobedience speaks to the curses which is Spiritual Death and an eternal separation from the source of Life.