Introduction

Generally speaking, God providentially preserves and governs all that He has made. In a particular way, however, God has providentially condescended and entered into covenantal relationships with human beings to establish and regulate kingdoms. The first covenantal arrangement between God and man is the subject we will consider in this installment.

Question

Q. 15. What special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created?

A. 15. When God had created man, He entered into a covenant of life with him upon condition of perfect obedience: forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death (Galatians 3:12; Genesis 2:17).

Exposition

Preface (Nehemiah Coxe and Samuel Renihan)

1. What is a Covenant?

In general, a covenant is a guaranteed commitment. It is a formal relationship between two or more people or groups. In a covenant, each person or group makes a commitment to do certain things with respect to one another. The covenant itself guarantees certain rewards for obedience, and punishments for disobedience within the agreed-upon terms.

A covenant between God and men is defined well by the 17th-century Baptist Nehemiah Coxe, whose co-pastor likely produced the catechism we are studying. He writes that a covenant between God and man is “a declaration of [God’s] sovereign pleasure concerning the benefits he will bestow upon [man], the communion they will have with him, and the way and means by which this will be enjoyed by them.”

Thus, a divine covenant 1) is sovereignly established by God, 2) lays out the benefits of the covenantal relationship, and 3) states the means by which these benefits are enjoyed by those within the covenant.

2. What are the Covenants of Scripture?

Covenants are either of works or grace. This means the blessings of the covenant are either earned by obedience or received by faith. Covenants create and regulate kingdoms, and in Scripture, we see these functions directed to three such kingdoms.  

The Kingdom of Creation

1. The Covenant of Works: This is the covenant under consideration in question 15.
2. The Noahic Covenant: This covenant is a covenant that regulates the created order after the fall, and is the means by which God will usher in the promised Messiah (Genesis 3:15).

The Kingdom of Israel

1. The Abrahamic Covenant: This covenant is the first covenant made in establishing the kingdom of Israel. It further defined the lineage of the Messiah.
2. The Mosaic Covenant: This covenant further built upon the covenant with Abraham, and provided the parameters of enjoying the Abrahamic promises in Canaan. Moreover, the worship system typologically pointed to Christ.
3. The Davidic Covenant: This covenant provided the covenant head for the Mosaic Covenant, meaning the behavior of the king himself determined whether Israel would enjoy the covenant blessings or curses. Also, it established with greater clarity from where the promised Messiah would come.

The Kingdom of Christ

1. The Covenant of Redemption: This covenant is a covenant between the persons of the Godhead to save a people out of sinful humanity. The Father promises to give a people to the Son. The Son fulfills a covenant of works to become man, obey the Law, and give Himself as a substitute on the cross for the people promised to Him. The Spirit works in and through the Son in His incarnation, life, ministry, death, and resurrection. He also is sent by the Father and the Son to apply the redemption promised by the Father and executed by the Son in calling, regenerating, gifting faith to, and preserving the elect.
2. The New Covenant/Covenant of Grace: This covenant is a covenant between God and the elect. In this covenant, the elect receive the promised blessings of salvation by faith in Christ’s active and passive obedience to the covenant of redemption, and not by their own perfect obedience. This covenant was promised in the Old Testament, and was progressively revealed in types and shadows. It was formally established with the coming of Christ. 

Exposition Proper

Remember we are focusing in on the Covenant of Works as taught in the catechism.

Q. 15. What special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created?

A. 15. When God had created man, He entered into a covenant of life with him upon condition of perfect obedience: forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death (Galatians 3:12; Genesis 2:17).

1. God entered into a covenant of life with man after He created him (Richard Barcellos).

Though it is true that the word covenant is found nowhere in Genesis 1-3, it is evident that the relationship between God and man in the garden was indeed a covenant.

• Consider the language of Genesis. More particularly, consider the distinct ways of speaking about God in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. In Genesis 1:1-2:3, God is given the generic title we translate God (Genesis 1:1-12, 14, 16-18, 20-22, 24-29, 31; 2:2-3). In Genesis 2:4-25, God is ascribed both the generic title “God” and also attributed the divine and covenantal name given unto Moses at the burning bush (Genesis 2:4, 5, 7-9, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22; Cf. Exodus 3:14).
• Consider the words of Isaiah 24:5-6: “The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.” The earth is cursed as a result of the breaking of a covenant, the covenant of works.
• Consider the words of Hosea 6:7: “But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.” As Adam broke the covenant God made with him, so Israel broke the covenant God made with them.
• Consider the words of Paul in Romans 5:19: “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” From this verse it is clear that the condition of Adam’s enjoyment of the blessings of the covenant was his perfect obedience, or works.
• Consider the words of Paul in Romans 5:14: “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.” “A type is an historical person, place, institution, or event designed by God to point to a future historical person, place, institution, or event” (Barcellos 67). It is different than what it points to, and what it points to is greater than the type itself. In this case, Adam points to Christ who is different and better than him. Like Adam, Christ was under a covenant of works in which He represented His people. Unlike Adam, Christ succeeded in perfectly obeying His covenant—and instead of bringing His posterity condemnation, enmity with God, and death—He merits for His people justification, communion with God, and eternal life. In a word, Christ entered glory through obedience and brings His people with Him, while Adam fell short of glory and led his offspring to fall short of it.
• Consider the tree of life. The reward of life for obedience is implied by the punishment of death for disobedience. Moreover, the tree of life’s presence in the garden also pointed to life eternal as the end for which the covenant with Adam was designed.

From these separate but related strands of argumentation, we are on good ground to agree with the catechism that God entered into a covenant of life with Adam.

2. God entered into a covenant of life with man on the condition of perfect obedience.

The basis of enjoying the blessings of life and communion with God was perfect obedience. For if man had kept the law written on his heart, and the positive law to not eat of the forbidden tree, he would have lived. In Genesis 2:16-17, God commands Adam to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He strengthens the command with a threat of death for disobedience. This threat for disobedience implies blessing for obedience. Moreover, the presence of the tree of life also implies that life might have been enjoyed by Adam and his seed had he obeyed God.

3. God entered into a covenant of life with man forbidding Him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It is clear that Adam was prohibited from eating from this tree when God says in Genesis 2:16-17: “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.’”

4. God entered into a covenant of life with man with death as a consequence for disobedience.

Death as the consequence of disobedience to the demands of this covenant is made clear when God says, “In the day that you eat of [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Moreover, as Paul says, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). He also says earlier in Romans that through Adam’s disobedience, condemnation and death came upon all men (Romans 5:12, 18-19).

Uses (John Flavel/Thomas Watson)

1. It is a miserable spot to be under the curses of the broken covenant of works.

2. It is wonderful spot to be under the blessings of the covenant of grace procured for us by Christ.

3. We should have pity upon those in Adam and labor that they would be planted instead in Christ.

4. Remember that obedience is due to God, while reward is graciously promised to you by way of covenant.

Conclusion

Q. 15. What special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created?

A. 15. When God had created man, He entered into a covenant of life with him upon condition of perfect obedience: forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death (Galatians 3:12; Genesis 2:17).

Are you in Adam? If so, you are condemned, alienated from God, and aimed toward death. You cannot earn your way to Him by works, for you and your federal head have fallen short of glory. You need a new representative. You need Christ as your federal head because He alone has reached glory through perfect obedience, and He brings all who come to Him by faith into glory. Thus, let us be grateful to Christ the second and better Adam. Let us warn those who are still in Adam. Let us remember that true life comes through union with Christ, who secured the blessings of communion with God—and eternal life in the covenant of redemption—and shares them with us in the covenant of grace: the New Covenant.