THE COVENANTS OF WORKS AND GRACE

Genesis 1-3

Introduction

On June 14, 1959 the Disneyland monorail opened. It was the first daily operating monorail in the Western hemisphere. By 1961 it became more than just a ride when a rail was built to travel between the park and the Disneyland Hotel. When plans were initiated to build Disney World in Florida, a monorail was included. The monorail system in Disney World is one of the most heavily used monorail systems in the world with over 150,000 daily riders.

The monorail is so popular because, especially in the eighties when Disney World consisted of only the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, the monorail got you anywhere you want to go. It travelled to both parks and multiple hotels. In the 1980’s at Walt Disney World the monorail was your transportation to your desired destination. My doctoral supervisor Dr. Brian Payne says that the covenants are like the monorail of Scripture. They will take you to your desired destination – as long as your desired destination is Jesus Christ.[1]

This morning we begin a 6-week series on the covenants of the Bible. The Reformed tradition has always taught that Scripture is structured around the covenants. The Holy Spirit inspired structure of God’s Word is covenantal. Not only that, but God always has only ever had relationship with his people through covenant – beginning with Adam and the covenant of works even through today with the New Covenant of Jesus Christ. The story of redemption moves through the covenants; they are the monorail of the Bible.

For the purpose of this series we’re going to define covenant as a “divine promise.” We’re going to hear that every week from each of our Elders as we move through the story of Scripture. This morning we’re going to start at the beginning. As we read from the Westminster Confession of Faith, the first covenant God made with Adam is called the covenant of works. Because Adam broke the covenant of works, God initiated the covenant of grace. But before we jump into the biblical theology we have to do a little systematic theology, because before the covenant of works, the Holy Trinity made the eternal covenant within themselves.

The Eternal Covenant

The eternal covenant, or the covenant of redemption as it is sometimes called, is the covenant made between the Father, Son, and Spirit before the creation of the world. It is a covenant because it is an agreement between two or more parties. The Son and the Spirit agreed to the plan of the Father to create and redeem a people for his glory. Listen to Philippians 2:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men (Phil 2.5-7).

The Son willing submitted to the Father’s plan of redemption. Listen also to Jesus’ high priestly prayer in the garden on Maundy Thursday:

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 (John 17.1-5).

Notice that Jesus has met the obligations and now he will be rewarded. There is blessing for his covenantal faithfulness. In his systematic theology, Charles Hodge lists eight promises the Father gave to the Son in the eternal covenant:

(1) That God would form a purified Church for His Son; (2) that the Son would receive the Spirit without measure; (3) that He would be ever-present to support Him; (4) that He would deliver Him from death and exalt Him to His right hand; (5) that He would have the Holy Spirit to send to whom He willed; (6) that all the Father gave to Him would come to Him and none of these be lost; (7) that multitudes would partake of His redemption and His messianic kingdom; and (8) that He would see the travail of His soul and be satisfied.[2]

The Covenant of Works

Out of the eternal covenant God created the world and humanity in his image. God’s relationship with humanity begins with the covenant of works. When God created Adam he entered into the covenant of works with him. Before we actually look at the covenant of works, I feel compelled to spend a moment defending the reality of the covenant itself. Some people have wrongly argued that there is no covenant of works because the word covenant is not used in Genesis 1-2. Those who argue that sort of thing tend to hold overly literalistic hermeneutic, saying things like, “if you can’t show me the verse where it says the exact word, I don’t believe it.” I suspect some here may be influenced by this mentality.

So I’m going to give you two passages, beside Genesis 1-2, which reveal the covenant of works to us. The first is Genesis 9.9. I’m not going to preach the covenant with Noah because my fellow Elder Bob Owens will do so next week, but let’s look at one point. In Genesis 9.9 YHWH says to Noah, behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you. The word, “establish” is the Hebrew word,מֵקִ֛ים . The word means, “to arise, stand up.”[3]

It means that God is not doing something new, but is continuing something he’s already started. He’s continuing to make stand that which he already started. What did he already start? The answer is the covenant of grace, more on that in a minute. The point right now is that even though the word covenant is first used with Noah, it was not the first covenant in Scripture.

The second text is Hosea 6.7. Hosea writes, but like Adam they transgressed the covenant. The Holy Spirit inspired Hosea to write that Adam transgressed the covenant. Which covenant did Adam transgress? It wasn’t the Old Covenant. That doesn’t come until after the Exodus at Sinai. That will be the fourth sermon in this series that my dad Elder Randy Loginow will preach. So what covenant did Adam transgress? He transgressed the covenant of works.

Now let’s actually look at the text we read in Genesis 1-2. In Genesis 1.28, after YHWH created Adam and Eve he commanded 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.

This is what theologians call the cultural mandate. The covenant of works had a positive command and a negative command. The positive command given to Adam was to, with the help of his wife Eve, fill the earth with people and to rule over the world as God’s image-bearing king.

Two points of application here: (1) humanity is the only image-bearing creature God created. Angels don’t bear the image of God and neither do animals or plants. Humans are not merely mammals on the same footing as animals and plants. We have a special relationship with our creator and to us is given the charge to rule over the creation.

(2) There is no biblical warrant for Christians to hold to the idea of human overpopulation. The Bible has no category of overpopulation. God commands us to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Humans are called to care for God’s creation and there’s no doubt in our sin that we have done that poorly at times, but if anyone tries to convince you that God is pleased with there being less people in the world, they stand in contradiction to the Word of God.

That’s the positive command in the covenant of works, the negative command is found in Genesis 2.15-17:

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.”

Notice that all of the elements of covenantal ceremony are present here even though the word, “covenant” is not. The greater King, God, makes a covenant with the lesser, Adam. The lesser is given the requirements: He must fill and rule the earth, and he must not eat of the fruit of the tree. If he breaks the covenant, there is cursing – he will surely die. The implication is that if he keeps the covenant there will be blessing – he will live forever in fellowship with his creator.

Notice also that YHWH gives Adam the command before he creates Eve in Genesis 2.21-25. God created Adam as the federal head of humanity and set the pattern for male leadership in the home and in the church. Adam, not Eve, heard the command from the voice of God. It was Adam’s responsibility to lead his wife and children in the Law of God. He was to teach the Word of God to his family. It was his job to spiritually lead, provide, and protect.

Husbands and fathers of Christ Community Church, this charge still stands for us. Men are called to lead the home and the church. Christian homes and local churches have suffered as a result of weak men who refuse to follow God’s command to lead the home and the church. Men, do not relinquish your God-given responsibility to lead. Your wife and children will flourish under your God-given, gospel-centered leadership. Elders of Christ Community Church, this is our calling. We must lead and protect this church for God’s glory and our good.

The Covenant of Grace

That is the covenant of works given to our father Adam. But Adam failed. Genesis 3.1-7 tells us of the fall. And it’s important to note Genesis 3.6, which says:

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

The serpent deceived Eve as Adam stood idly by. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Humanity didn’t fall until Adam broke the covenant. Verse 7 says, then the eyes of both were opened. The conjunction, “then” denotes sequence. It was because Adam ate that they fell in sin.

But God’s response to Adam’s guilt was grace. In Genesis 3.14-19 YHWH curses the serpent, the woman, the man, and the creation because Adam broke the covenant of works. But in the midst of his judgment God gives the covenant of grace. Remember covenant means, “divine promise.” In Genesis 3.15 God gives the divine promise that is fleshed out in the rest of the biblical covenants:

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

Theologians call Genesis 3.15 the protoevangelium, the first gospel. This verse is the center of the Bible. If Scripture can be divided into four acts: creation, fall, redemption, new creation then this verse is the center. This is where redemption is promised and the rest of the Bible is an exposition of Genesis 3.15 until we get to the new creation in Revelation 21-22.

This is important for hermeneutics. Hermeneutics means how we interpret the Bible. Some wrongly believe that God saved people by works in the Old Testament and by grace in the New Testament. I’ve even heard people make comments like, “I’m so glad I live in the age of grace.” But that is unbiblical. The covenant of grace begins with Genesis 3.15. And every other covenant falls under this umbrella of the covenant of grace. Since the fall God has only ever saved anyone by grace. Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, and all of the elect of the old covenant were saved by grace and grace alone.

YHWH says to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. The word enmity means war. The story of the Bible chronicles the war between the children of Satan and the children of Eve. Cain is the offspring of the serpent; Able is the offspring of the woman. In Genesis 6 the sons of God are the offspring of the woman and the daughters of man were the offspring of the serpent. Noah and the unbelieving world, Jacob and Esau, Israel and the nations, every narrative in Scripture is revealing that there are, as Augustine wrote, only two cities in which we can find our citizenship: the city of man or the city of God.

Then God says that the offspring of Eve will bruise the serpent’s head and the serpent will bruise his heel. The New Testament makes clear that this divine promise, this covenant of grace is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We read from Romans 5 in our call to worship where Jesus is pictured as the last Adam. Jesus is not the second Adam; he’s the last Adam. That’s because there are many types of Adam throughout the Old Testament: Able, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, the judges, David, and Solomon, prophets, priests, and kings. The Old Testament is filled with men who point us back to Adam.

But they also pointed us forward to the last Adam. Jesus Christ is the last Adam. Just as Adam stood as the federal head of humanity, Jesus stands as the head of the new humanity – the church. Jesus did what Adam was supposed to do but didn’t. Jesus lived without sin. Jesus kept the covenant of works. He was the only law-abiding, covenant keeping man who ever lived.

There is a sense in which we must confess that we are saved by works alone. It’s just not our good works that save us; it’s the good works of Jesus Christ. Jesus earned us righteous standing before God through his active obedience. This is why Jesus could not come to earth and die on the cross on the same day. He had to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus lived the righteous life that was required of every human being.

Adam brought death on all through his sin with the tree. Jesus brought life to all who believe through his death on the tree. On the cross the Father accepted the life of Jesus. But he also poured out his judgment for sin on Jesus. The cross is where we see the great exchange: Jesus took our sin on himself and gives his righteousness to all who repent and believe.

We know for sure that God accepted the righteous life and sacrificial death of Jesus Christ because on the third day he rose again from the dead. We saw this last week: the tomb is empty, he is risen indeed. The resurrection of Christ is God’s declaration that the sin of the elect has been paid in full. Now everyone who will repent and believe is in Christ. That means that if you believe everything that is true of Jesus is true of you.

When God the Father looks at you he sees the sinless life of Jesus. He sees the sacrificial death of Jesus, and he sees the resurrection of Jesus. And when you repent and believe in Jesus, the Father gives you the Holy Spirit so that you can fight sin and grow in grace. If you do not repent and believe then you are still in your father Adam and when Christ returns he will judge your sin and you will spend forever in hell. If you do repent and believe the gospel then you are in Christ and your sin has already been judged on the cross.

Conclusion

The covenants are the monorail of the Bible; they get you to the destination, which is Jesus Christ. Covenant means, “divine promise.” The divine promise given in Genesis 3.15 is what all of the other covenants are about. And this divine promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Look to Jesus Christ today, for all of the promises of God find their yes in him (2nd Cor 1.20)!

[1]Fullerton, Orrick, and Payne, Encountering God through Expository Preaching, .

[2]https://www.ligonier.org/blog/what-covenant-redemption/

[3]Brown, F., Driver, S. R., & Briggs, C. A. (1977). Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (p. 877). Oxford: Clarendon Press.