One of the things that engagement with Scripture does for the believer is consistently thicken our understanding of Christ’s person and work. It is possible to believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world and yet have only a thin understanding of precisely why He came and what he accomplished.
Few doctrines help us develop a thicker view of Christ more than the covenant of works—the covenant God established with Adam in the Garden of Eden.
Understanding the covenant of works and the judicial consequences of Adam's disobedience helps us understand why the New Testament places Adam and Christ side-by-side as covenant representatives.
But what exactly was the covenant of works, and why does it matter so much for understanding the gospel?
God's Covenant with Adam
Although the precise expression "covenant of works" does not appear in Scripture, the realities it describes certainly do. The question is whether the biblical content warrants the terminology. Covenants often involve four things: 1) parties 2) precepts 3) promises and 4) penalties. When we examine Genesis 2, we find all four.
First, the parties. The parties were Yahweh God and Adam, who stood in the room and stead of all mankind. Adam was not merely a private individual. He was a public person—a covenant head through whom God chose to relate to all human beings descending from him by ordinary generation.
Second, the precepts. Adam was given meaningful work to accomplish in the Garden of Eden. He was to "tend and keep it" (Gen. 2:15). But he was also given a prohibition: "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat" (Gen. 2:17). These realities, along with Adam's duty to keep God's law written on his heart, constituted the precepts of the covenant.
Third, the promises. The tree of life, placed in the middle of the Garden, was a sign pointing to a better life for Adam—better than the one he already enjoyed. It pointed toward the prospect of confirmed life; a movement from a mutable state of innocence into an unchangeable state of glory through obedience to God.
The Sabbath also pointed to this, since Hebrews 4 tells us that from the time God rested in Genesis 2:2 the prospect of a final Sabbath-rest was held out to human beings. The principle of the covenant of works, therefore, was that the law must be kept unto life.
Jesus also affirmed this principle when He directed the rich young ruler to the commandments in response to the ruler's question about inheriting eternal life (Luke 18:18–20). Paul likewise spoke of the commandment that "was to bring life" (Rom. 7:10). This principle had to come from somewhere. Where did it come from? The answer is, it came from the covenant of works.
Fourth, the penalties. God warned Adam, "For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17). This death involved three things: 1) spiritual death 2) physical death and 3) ultimately eternal death. If Adam disobeyed, he would bring himself and all his progeny under the condemnation of God's law.
Thus, when we examine Genesis 2, we find a covenantal arrangement, even though the word covenant is not used.
Later Scriptures confirm this understanding. Isaiah 24:4–6, for example, speaks of the inhabitants of the earth having "broken the everlasting covenant," with the result that the curse devours the earth. Hosea 6:7 compares Israel's covenant infidelity with the original covenant transgression of Adam: "But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt treacherously with Me."
Adam's disobedience, therefore, was not merely the violation of an isolated commandment. It was a breach of the beneficent covenantal relationship God had established with him in the Garden.
Adam and Christ: Two Covenant Representatives
The clearest explanation, however, of Adam's covenantal representation comes from Romans 5:12–19. Here, Paul places Adam and Christ side-by-side as two covenant heads whose actions determine the destinies of their respective peoples.
Adam was the representative head of the old humanity. Through his trespass came sin, condemnation, and death. His disobedience brought a veritable flood of sin, misery, pain, condemnation, and death upon the world.
But Christ is the representative head of the new humanity. The point? Christ is the clear remedy to Adam's failure.
In Romans 5, Paul does not merely teach that Christ suffered the penalty that Adam incurred, although He certainly did that. Paul also emphasizes that Christ rendered the necessary obedience to secure righteousness and life for all His people.
Paul concludes the comparison in Romans 5:19: "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous." Notice the contrast Paul draws here. Adam's disobedience brought condemnation; Christ's obedience brings justification. Adam failed to attain the glory held out to him. But Christ, through His obedience, obtained that glory for His people (cf. Romans 3:23 and Romans 5:2).
And this helps us to understand why Jesus is called the last Adam in Scripture. God designed history so that the first Adam would function as a type of the last Adam, Christ. And this gives us three important ways to think about Jesus.
First, Jesus is our penalty payer.
The covenant of works had a penalty attached to it. That penalty was death. Adam broke the covenant, and we, in Adam, became subject to its condemnation. We needed someone to pay the penalty of that broken covenant. Through His death on the cross, Jesus satisfied God's wrath against our sin once-for-all.
Second, Jesus is our covenant keeper.
Adam was placed under moral probation in the Garden of Eden, and he failed the test, becoming a covenant breaker. Through Adam, our covenant head, we became covenant breakers. We needed a second Adam to come and fulfill the covenant obligations that the first Adam failed to keep. And that's what Jesus did. He lived a perfect life of law-keeping obedience to the Father, an obedience that culminated in His sacrificial death on the cross. Christ fulfilled all righteousness where the first Adam failed.
Third, Jesus is our inheritance procurer.
Through His obedience, Jesus obtained the consummate life that was held out to Adam at the beginning. He obtained it for us and now bestows it as a free gift. He now offers us the tree of life in the new creation (Revelation 2:7). Adam fell short of God's glory. But what Adam failed to attain, Christ our covenant Mediator has secured for us through His obedience, and we can now "rejoice in the hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2). That glory is exactly what Adam failed to attain.
Rejoice in the Last Adam
In light of these truths about Christ, Christians ought to relish in Jesus' supremacy over the first Adam. They should be absolutely delighted that their destiny is in the hands of the second, last, and better Adam. We need to remember that Jesus obeyed the law perfectly for us in order to win an inheritance of glory. When we sin, as we inevitably will, we ought not despair. Our salvation depends upon Christ's work—His obedience and His death. We should certainly ask God to forgive our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness, but then we need to rejoice afresh in Jesus' obedience that avails before the Father's throne. And then, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we need to live for this King who eternally represents us in heaven!
Since Jesus is our penalty payer, our covenant keeper, and our inheritance procurer, we should trust Him. We should trust Him as He takes us all the way home to our resting place—the paradise of God.
Abounding Grace Radio