Question 12: Covenant of Works

Question 12: What special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created?

Answer: 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.

A covenant is a bond between God and man in which God initiates a relationship with man by speaking to him, setting laws, and promising rewards and punishments in accordance with these laws. Without God's sovereign initiative to enter into covenant with man, we could never experience the joy and privilege of communion with him. In this first covenant, the covenant of life with Adam, the law was simple: do not eat of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 2:16-17). The punishment for disobedience was death (Genesis 2:17). The reward for obedience was eternal life (symbolised in the tree of life, Genesis 2:9).

This covenant of life is more popularly known today as the Covenant of Works. It lays the groundwork for how we interpret both scripture and human experience, because this covenant has remained in effect for all of world history. Sadly, the testimony of both scripture and history is that all people are lawbreakers, because all people experience the punishment of death rather than the reward of life. However, one man was different. Jesus Christ never broke God's law, and so by his perfect obedience he earned from God the reward of the covenant of works, eternal life. More than that, because of his love for his people, he died on a cross to pay the penalty that they deserved under the covenant of works, so that all who are his will not suffer their penalty but instead will share in his inheritance of eternal life. As Romans 5:17 explains it, "If, because of one man's [Adam'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."

You, like your father Adam, have broken the Covenant of Works, but that is not the end of hope. Have you trusted in Jesus Christ, who kept this covenant, to receive salvation through him?

Reference: Explanation of the Shorter Catechism by Thomas Vincent