Sep 18
23
Old Testament Reading: Genesis 2:4-17
“These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 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. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 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.’” (Genesis 2:4–17, ESV)
New Testament Reading: Romans 5:12-21
“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. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 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. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:12–21, ESV)
Introduction
In the previous sermon I made five general, big picture observations concerning Genesis 2:4-25. The five observations were these:
- Genesis 2:4 marks the beginning of a new section of the book of Genesis. The phrase, “these are the generations of…” marks the transition from one section to another in the book of Genesis.
- The creation account of Genesis 2 does not compete with the creation account of Genesis 1, but complements it, providing a different perspective and emphasis. In Genesis 1 God is the transcendent and all powerful Creator of heaven and earth. In Genesis 2 God is near to his people and hands on.
- The focus of Genesis 2:4-25 is God entering into covenant with the man that he had made.
- In Genesis 2 we have a record of God creating the holy of holies of the cosmic temple.
- Adam’s task, with Eve as his helpmate, was to function as a priest in this temple, to guard and to keep it, working towards its universal expansion.
Points three through five of last weeks sermon are very important concepts and they deserve greater attention, and so in this sermon and in the next two we will return to those three points to flesh them out more thoroughly. Today we will focus on the covenant of works that was made with Adam in the garden, next Sunday we will focus upon the garden as a temple or sanctuary, and in two Lord’s Days we will return to the idea of Adam as a priest in the garden of God, Lord willing.
What do we mean when we say that God entered into a covenant of works with Adam in the garden? Answering this question will be the focus of the sermon today.
A covenant is simply an agreement.
When speaking of a covenant made between God and man we must say that it is a “divinely-sanctioned commitment or relationship” (Barcellos, Getting the Garden Right, 56). Notice that it is God who initiates and established covenants with man. Man has no right to say to God, “here will be the nature and terms of our relationship”, but God certainly has the right to say this man, for God is the Creator and we the creature. In the pages of holy Scripture we find a number of covenant established between God and man. All of them were initiated and established by God. It is God who condescends to enter into covenant with man.
It should also be noticed that these covenants made between God and man (and there are many) are always for the betterment of mankind. God establishes covenants with his people in order to advance or better their estate. Divinely established covenants, to quote Nehemiah Cox, involve “a declaration of [God’s] sovereign pleasure concerning the benefits he will bestow on [his people], the communion they will have with him, and the way and means by which this will be enjoyed.” God has always related to his people by way of covenant. It is the covenant which establishes and defines God’s relationship with his people.
We do have an analogy available to us. It is the analogy of the marriage covenant. The relationship that exists between a husband and wife is wonderful and rich, but it is established and maintained by a covenant. The husband and wife enter into an agreement with one another. They covenant together when they say, “I take you to be my wedded spouse, and I do promise and covenant before God and these witnesses to be your loving and faithful spouse in sickness and in health in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, as long as we both shall live.” It is a covenant which establishes and maintains the marriage relationship. It should be recognized that God entering into covenant with man, and God instituting the marriage relationship are set side by side in Genesis 2. This, of course, is intentional. For the marriage relationship was created to function as an image of Christ’s relationship to the church. The covenant of marriage made between man and woman is a picture of the divinely sanctioned covenant made between God and his people.
A covenant is an agreement. When speaking of a covenant made between God and man we must say that it is a “divinely-sanctioned commitment or relationship” (Barcellos, Getting the Garden Right, 56).
There are many covenants found in the pages of holy scripture. In due time we will consider the Noahic covenant, the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, and the Davidic. But two covenants are of supreme importance, for they are the root and fruit of the others that have just been mentioned.
These covenants – the Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic – pointed forward to and prepared the way for the covenant of grace ratified in Christ’s blood. We call the covenant of grace “the new covenant”. Remember how Christ said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25, ESV). The new covenant, which is the covent of grace, is the fruit, as it were, of all the covenants which proceeded it. They all pointed forward to and prepared the way for the covenant of grace ratified by Christ.
But there is another very important covenant which might be called the root or foundation of all the others. It is called the covenant or works, or the covenant of obedience, or the covenant of creation, or the covenant of life. Sometimes it is called the Adamic covenant, for it was made with Adam in the garden and required his personal, “entire, exact, and perpetual obedience” and promised life upon the keeping of it (see Second London Baptist Confession, ch 19, para 1).
When I say that the covenant of works is the root of he other covenants I mean that it is the foundation. All of the other biblical covenants flow from it. Indeed, you cannot correctly understand the covenants made with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David if you do not first understand the covenant of works made with Adam in the garden. In fact, the new covenant, which is the covent of grace, of which you and I are partakers if we are in Christ, would not be possible without their first being a covenant of works made with Adam in the garden. The covenant of works is the root of all other bibleof the covenant of grace.
Another way to say this is, if you want to understand the Bible – if you want to understand your sin and your natural guilt before God – if you want to comprehend what it is that Christ actually accomplished for you, then you had better pay attention to the covenant that was made with Adam in the garden.
We have defined a covenant between God and man generally as a “divinely-sanctioned commitment or relationship”. This general definition fits all of the covenants that God has entered into with man. But let us now define the covenant of works specifically. Again, I appreciate the words of my friend, Dr. Rich Barcellos, who defines the covenant of works as, “that divinely sanctioned commitment or relationship God imposed upon Adam, who was a sinless representative of mankind…, an image-bearing son of God, conditioned upon his obedience, with a penalty for disobedience, all for the bettering of man’s estate” (Barcellos, Getting the Garden Right, 57).
Let us think about this definition for a moment and consider in light Genesis.
First, the covenant of works was a divinely sanctioned commitment or relationship [that] God imposed upon Adam.
This relationship was not Adam’s idea, but God’s. Before God Adam had no rights. He had no right to say, here will be the nature and term of our relationship, for Adam was the creature and God Creator. This distinction between Creator and creature was firmly established in Genesis 1. Man did not make God, but God made man. Man, therefore, by virtue of his creation stood obligated before his Maker to worship and serve him always. The fact of creation itself established this relation. No specific covenant was needed. But God did graciously enter into a covenant with the man. The covenant of works was a “divinely sanctioned commitment or relationship [that] God imposed upon Adam”.
This is should not be difficult to see in the narrative of Genesis 1 and 2. God made man. God blessed man. God commanded man, male and female, to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…” (Genesis 1:28, ESV). The same is true in chapter 2. The LORD God made man and then establishes the terms of their relationship.
This might seem like a strange point to emphasize given it’s simplicity. You might be saying to yourself, “Okay, we get it. God is God and man is man. God has the right to initiate and to establish the terms of the relationship. Move on already!” But herein lies the difference between true and biblical religion and that which is man made. Herein lies the difference between the child of God and the rebel still in his sin. The chid of God says, “yes, God has the right and I will submit to him!” The rebel says, “I will decide for myself and go my own way.”
The covenant of works was a divinely sanctioned commitment or relationship [that] God imposed upon Adam.
Secondly, the covenant of works was made with Adam who was a sinless representative of mankind, an image-bearing son of God.
Notice that the covenant was made with Adam. The woman, who name was Eve, had not been created when “the Lord God took the man [Adam] 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’” (Genesis 2:15–17, ESV). The covenant was made with Adam, and not Eve.
Notice that Adam was at first sinless. Everything that God had made was good, indeed very good. Adam was made upright. To quote our confession, “God… endued the will of man with that natural liberty and power of acting upon choice, that it is neither forced, nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil.” Adam was free. “In his state of innocency, [he] had freedom and power to will and to do that which was good and well-pleasing to God, but yet was unstable, so that he might fall from it” (2LBC 9.1, 2). God entered into a covenant of works or obedience with Adam and “endued him with power and ability to keep it” (2LBC 19.1). Adam was sinless. He was good and upright in the beginning.
And notice that Adam was a representative of all mankind. Had Adam succeeded all would have enjoyed life. When Adam fell all fell in him. You and I were born in sin because we were born in Adam. We descended from him by birth. He was our federal head and representative.
No teaching in all of scripture is more clear than this.
The narrative of Genesis confirms that Adam was the federal head and representative of all humanity. Adam and Eve were barred from the garden and all of their descendents were born outside the garden. They were born in sin, they themselves sinned, and they, like Adam died.
This is also the explicit teaching of holy scripture. The Psalmist said, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5, ESV). Paul, in Ephesians 2 says that we all are “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3, ESV). And Paul developes this idea most thoroughly in Romans 5 in the passage that was read earlier, saying, “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—” (Romans 5:12, ESV).
The clear teaching of scripture is that the covenant of works was made with Adam who was a sinless representative of mankind.
Does this bother you, Christian?
This principle is woven into our everyday experience. The decisions of others impact us.
Your salvation in Christ depends upon this principle too! Just as Adam is the federal head of all humanity, Christ is the federal head of the elect, of al who have faith in him. Just as Adam’s is inputed to all who are in him, so too Christ’s righteousness is imputed to all who are in him.
Thirdly, the covenant of works made with Adam was conditioned upon his obedience, with a penalty for disobedience.
What was Adam’s obligation in the covent of works? The answer is that Adam was to obey God.
What was Adam to do? Remember that Adam, having been made in the image of God and having been blessed by God, was to “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” (Genesis 1:27–28, ESV).
Adam was to fill the earth with God’s image. He was to subdue the earth. He was to rule and reign on earth a God’s vicegerent. He was explained the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth.
In Genesis 2 we learned that God planted a garden in Eden and placed the man who had created there. The whole earth, therefore, was not garden, but rather a garden was planted in a place called Eden. Outside the garden there was wild, unformed, uncultivated land. Adam’s task was to expand the garden to the ends of the earth. He was to imitate his Maker in bringing order and form to those places that were without form and void.
Notice the mention of the four rivers in verses 10-14. It is a rather unexpected emphasis in the narrative of Genesis 2. Two of the rivers are known to us, and two are mysterious, but the meaning seems to be that these rivers emanated out to the four corners of the earth so that man might have all that he needed to expand God’s garden to the ends of the earth through cultivation.
This is was Adam was to do while living in “entire, exact, and perpetual obedience” to God.
Clearly, Adam was placed under probation or a time of testing.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a tree of testing. The tree would show if Adam had remained loyal to God. By abstaining Adam would prove himself faithful. By partaking Adam would prove himself a rebel – a breaker of the convent of works, which was a covenant requiring “entire, exact, and perpetual obedience”.
Fourthly, the covenant of works made with Adam was for the bettering of man’s condition.
In Genesis 2:9 we read, “And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9, ESV).
The presence of the tree of life in the garden indicates that Adam had a higher form of life offered t him by God. Adam was already alive. Adam was alive in paradise. But he was prone to fall. Adam, being under a time of testing, had not yet attained the glory of God. He was to pass the test, eat of the tree of life, and enter into glory.
Brothers and sisters, Adam never ate of it. Adam sinned and fell short of the glory of God. And now it might be said that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, ESV).
But do you see that the covenant of works made with Adam for the bettering of man’s condition. Adam, by keeping the covenant, was to advance to a higher form of life, not only for himself, but for all his posterity whom he represented.
Application
Friends, do you see that where Adam failed, Christ succeeded?
Christ kept the covent of works. Christ remained obedient to God to the end. His obedience was “entire, exact, and perpetual”.
Adam was the son of God by virtue of his creation, but Christ, being the eternal son of God entered into glory when he kept the covent of works. And this he did, not only for himself, but for all the elect as he functioned as their federal head or representative.
Listen to the prayer of Jesus for his disciples recoded for us in John 17. Jesus “lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word” (John 17:1–6, ESV).
Jesus kept God’s word. He finished his work.
Jesus was qualified, therefore, to enter into glory – into that higher form of life offered to Adam in the garden.
Jesus entered in, not alone, but as a representative for others. He earned salvation for “all whom [the Father had] given him.”
Are you in Adam or are you in Christ?
Are you under he covenant of works or the covenant of grace?
To be under the covenant of works means death, for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, ESV).
To be under the covent of grace means life – eternal life, “for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, ESV).
