by Bryan D. Estelle, Ph.D.
First published in Evangelium, Vol.3, Issue 1.
“And I will put enmity between you and between the woman,
between your offspring and between hers; he will crush your head
and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15 (NIV)
“Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was
condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of
righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.”
Romans 5:18 (NIV) The gospel is in Genesis. In fact, the
gospel is throughout the Pentateuch, the first five books of the
Old Testament. Since the willful and high-handed first sin of
Adam, the mission of Christ became necessary. In Genesis 3:14-15
and following, many Christians have seen the first shadowy
intimations of the Gospel. Indeed, John Calvin himself clearly
recognized the gospel glowing there “like a feeble spark.”
(1) Therefore, what the Reformed
church calls the covenant of grace
(2) followed immediately after the fall of mankind, which
occurred in the context of the covenant of works.
Specifically, what lay behind the covenant of grace is the
covenant of works, a doctrine that teaches that man was
obligated to obey God by not eating of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. (3) The covenant of
works is a doctrine that is somewhat controversial today. Even
so, in order to see Christ in the Pentateuch and in the rest of
Scripture, we need to apply the biblical categories of the
covenant of grace and the covenant of works.
The Covenant of Works
A very simple and yet comprehensive definition of covenant is a
“commitment with divine sanctions.” (4)
It has been repeatedly asked, “Was there really a pre-fall
covenant of works?” In reply, I most emphatically declare an
unequivocal yes! (5) The story of
the covenant of works, as the late Westminster Theological
Seminary professor Oswald T. Allis stated many years ago, is
briefly and simply told in Genesis 2 and 3. “God commanded; Adam
and Eve disobeyed; the penalty or sanction attached to the
command was invoked; and the guilty pair, under sentence of
death, were driven from the presence of God.”
(6) The choice of the words,
“covenant of works,” by the Westminster divines and the
classical Reformed theologians is appropriate for at least two
reasons. First, the designation of the pre-fall covenant as one
of “works” highlights what is particularly important in the
covenant. Certain probationary conditions were placed upon Adam
if he was to remain in good favor and covenantal communion with
his Lord.
Secondly, such language (i.e., “works”) helps maintain the
vital and necessary distinctions between the pre-fall covenant
and the subsequent post-fall covenant of grace. A whole host of
recent writers have made it their custom to flatten out the
essential differences between the pre-fall and post-fall
covenants. However, such leveling tendencies make opaque what
the Bible intended to make very clear. God works in different
ways in different periods of history. Sensitivity to this fact
helps us understand the relationship between the first Adam and
the last Adam (Christ). In short, recognizing how God was
relating to his creatures in the first covenant with Adam helps
us understand how he was relating to his creatures through
Christ in the latter covenant, the covenant of grace. The
Relationship between the Covenants
The classic Reformed view of the covenant of works and its
relationship to the covenant of grace can be summarized as
follows. (7) In the covenant of works
Adam represented the human race and was created in upright
sinless integrity. However, by means of Adam’s fall into sin and
disobedience, mankind is now alienated from God. Hence, the
human race is left in a condition of desperate and helpless need
for reintroduction into restored covenant communion with God.
If Adam, as the federal representative head of the human
race, had passed his temporary probation, he would have justly
merited God’s approval and moved on to another higher state.
Although man was created in a state of righteousness and
holiness, he had not yet reached the highest state of
excellence. As one theologian says, “He was destined to reach a
higher degree of perfection in the way of obedience. He was,
something like a child, perfect in parts, but not yet in
degree.” (8) In other words, something
potentially greater was waiting for him if he passed this
probation, namely the state of permanent, confirmed
righteousness.
The exact and precise role of faith and works in the covenant
of works functions differently than it does after the fall, when
the covenant of grace is in effect. For Adam, works before the
fall were the condition and grounds for his approval before God.
For Adam before the fall, works precede justification. For Adam
after the fall, and Adam’s descendants as well, works follow
justification. That is to say, after the fall, works following
justification are evidence of true faith, not the grounds of
approval before God. The righteous work that becomes the grounds
of a person’s justification after the fall must come from a
sinless man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
As is well known, Adam failed the test. After the fall, he
owed a debt to God for his sin. Consequently, Adam existed in a
state of demerit and was deserving of God’s just wrath for his
wanton and willful sin. Adam’s sin and failure imputed to all
his posterity rendered the promises of God inaccessible except
for the provision of the achievement of another Adam – Christ
himself, the last Adam. (9) This is
what we see prophesied in Genesis 3:15. It is what we read about
in Paul’s letter to the Romans. The necessary work was done,
according to Romans 5:18, by the last Adam, “Now, therefore [so
then], just as through the trespass of one man, condemnation
came to all mankind, so also through the righteous deed of one
man did justification and life come to all mankind.” On at
least two occasions, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 and Romans 5:15-21,
the Apostle Paul clearly states that the work of the last Adam,
i.e., Christ, reverses the damage, death and destruction brought
about by the first Adam. In Romans 5:18, the obedience of the
last Adam undoes the disobedience of the first Adam for those
elect in Christ. Christ is the federal head of the covenant of
grace as Adam was the federal head of the covenant of works.
Christ, our Savior, has rendered an obedience that is full of
perfect merit. The sins of the people of God have been imputed
to their Redeemer. He has paid the penalty for their sins.
Furthermore, he has earned the reward. He has done all that our
Heavenly Father required of him (cf., John 17).
The righteousness of Christ alone is the ground of our
justification and our kingdom inheritance. Moreover, such “alien
righteousness (that is, belonging to another)” actually
necessitates the extraspective (looking outward) character of
faith, the alone instrument of our justification (WCF XI.2).
True faith looks outward and upward to Christ, to his penalty
paying substitution and his probation keeping. Covenant of
Works Controversy
In the past, various theologians, some Reformed, have criticized
the covenant of works. Some very influential theologians have
spread the rumor that placing wedges between works and grace
introduces a kind of impersonal legalism into the Eden
narrative. They suggest that financial, legal, or forensic
language often used to describe the covenant of works must be
replaced by relational and familial terms.
In addition, in the present day, some assert that the
doctrine of the covenant of works is a Johnny-come-lately
abstraction in the history of the Reformed church. On top of all
this, the current trend today for some is to make a division
between story and doctrine. They claim that doctrinal teaching,
in striving for precise communication, often loses the drama of
the biblical narrative and the story. (10)
Yet, the life of the story, the interest of the narrative, and
the development of the characters themselves are not lost on the
reader when doctrine is carefully and simply derived from the
story. Instead, the story obtains interest and substance like
flesh put on bones. However, these criticisms cannot shake the
certainty of the reality of the covenant of works simply and
clearly present in the Bible. Conclusion
The Westminster Divines were on to something BIG. Indeed, a
proper understanding of the covenant of works and the covenant
of grace is important for seeing the gospel in the Pentateuch
and elsewhere in the Bible. The covenant of works and the
covenant of grace are not weak doctrines; rather, they are
robust because they showcase the glorious work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is not impersonal, abstract legalism. No. This is
true biblical theology teaching historical realities found in
Holy Scripture itself, and crystallized in the doctrines of
forensic (i.e., legal) imputation and the representative federal
headship of both the first and the last Adam.
Let me explain further, for it bears repeating. Christ has
rendered a passive and active obedience that is full of perfect
meritoriousness. The satisfaction of Christ has met the demands
of justice. Christ has paid the penalty for the sins of the
people and has also earned the approval of God. Those who are in
Christ have been reintroduced into fellowship and communion with
God. God has graciously supplied the Mediator. All demands and
obligations have been met and fulfilled in the Savior and now
the righteousness of Christ is imputed to his people. In light
of this gospel reality, no wonder the apostle Paul consoles the
faithful in the book of Romans with the words, “The God of peace
will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20).
For further reading:
Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 211-18, 272-301; Charles
Hodge, Systematic Theology: Volume II (Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Eerdmans, 1982) 117-22, 354-77; Francis Turretin, Institutes of
Elenctic Theology: Volume I (trans. George Musgrave Giger, and
edited by James T. Dennison, Jr.; Phillipsburg, New Jersey:
Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1992) 574-90. Very
instructive as well is Turretin, Volume II (trans. George
Musgrave Giger, and edited by James T. Dennison, Jr.;
Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing,
1994) 189-92, where Turretin discusses the distinctions between
the covenant of works and grace, where they agree and differ.
Footnotes
1 See his Institutes, II.X.20. [back to text]
2 The Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF), a
confessional document written between 1643 and 1648 by a large
group of ministers (often referred to as the Westminster
divines) says in VII: 3, “Man, by his fall, having made himself
incapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make
a second, commonly called the covenant of grace; wherein he
freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ;
requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved, and
promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal
life his Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to
believe. [back to text]
3 WCF VII: 2, “The first
covenant made with man was a covenant of works, wherein life was
promised to Adam; and in him to his posterity, upon condition of
perfect and personal obedience.” [back to text]
4 Meredith G. Kline, Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a
Covenantal Worldview (Two Age Press, 2000) 1-7. [back to text]
5 Cf., Genesis
2:16-17, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may
eat freely from every tree of the garden; but as for the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat; for on the day of
your eating, you will deserve to die” [author’s translation]. [back to text]
6 Allis, “The Covenant of Works,” in Basic Christian Doctrines
(ed. by Carl F.H. Henry; New York, Chicago and San Francisco:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962), 96-102, especially 97. [back to text]
7 See, for example, J. Gresham Machen, The Christian View of
Man (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965), 149-60 and E. J.
Young, In the Beginning: Genesis Chapters 1 to 3 and the
Authority of Scripture (Edinburgh, The Banner of Truth Trust,
1976), 111-17. [back to text]
8 Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Eerdmans, 1984), 209 and many others along similar
lines. [back to text]
9 By imputed, we mean “was given, or was attributed
to.” [back to text]
10 By using the terminology “story” the author is not
calling into question any of the historicity of the biblical
account. [back to text]
© 2007
Westminster Seminary California All rights reserved
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