The Covenant of Works in Eden

The Exegetical Basis of the Covenant of Works*

From Genesis 1:1 running to Genesis 2:3, it is clear that the focus is to put man in context in God’s original created order.

1. Man is distinct from the animal creation. Five times it is said that the animals are made after their kind, in verses 24 and 25. But in verse 26 it is explicitly said that man is “in Our image according to Our likeness” and this is the Lord speaking. This is the triune God speaking, saying, “I am creating humankind in My image, in My likeness.” Man is unique. It is not that he is simply smarter than the animals. It is not because he is simply more highly evolved than the animals. He is of an altogether different genus.
   
2. Man is endowed with a capacity for, and a responsibility for, dominion or rule. So there is an activity of government and ordering that implies that the man has both rationality and righteousness because, in God’s world, the function of ordering is for someone who has rational capacities which bear and reflect the image of God and is righteous. Ordering the earth is a moral issue. You can’t order the earth from an immoral base. And so the very fact that man is being called to rule reminds one of the rational and the righteous aspects in which he bears God’s image.
   
3. Man is the bearer of certain of God’s attributes. See below:

The Attributes of God in Man

1. As God is rational, so also is man. Now this is implicit of God in Genesis 1:1-25. God is revealed as having intelligence and will, having the ability to formulate plans and execute them. And man, too, is endowed with this kind of rationality and knowledge and understanding and this is seen, for instance, in Adam’s naming of the animals in Genesis 2:19-20.
   
2. As God is personal, so also is man. God is personal as seen in the Trinity. And in Genesis 1:26 God says, “Let us make man in Our image according to Our likeness and let them rule.” So the male and the female aspect of man is stressed from the very beginning and is seen as part and parcel of His ability to convey the personal-ness of God. Thus the very differentiation of the sexes, male and female, is part of the image of God which we bear and reflect.
   
3. We can also say that man is moral. Genesis 1:31 says that God made all things good. That is because, of course, He is good Himself.
   
4. Life is sacred. This is stressed further in Genesis 9:5-6.
   
5. Man is endowed with an immortal, spiritual aspect to his being. This is seen not only in the giving of the Tree of Life in the Garden, but it is even seen in the phrase of Genesis 2:7.
   But one of the most important issues found in the Creation account is the issue of Blessings and Obligations.

Four Obligations (ordinances) and Corresponding Blessings in their relationship.

The blessings come in the obligation, the obligation comes in the blessing. It is interesting how God tied that together. It reminds us, doesn’t it, that the way of blessedness, or the way of happiness, is in the way of duty, because in the very created order, God made duty and the doing of duty to be blessed. Now that is such an alien concept to our culture and even in many religious circles.

“Isn’t that against grace or something like that?” But the idea that duty is opposed to grace is utterly alien to biblical thought. It is alien to Moses. It is alien to Paul. It is alien to Jesus. Some of you may know of Robert E. Lee’s famous quote, “Duty is the sublimest word in the English language.” It is up on a plaque in The Citadel. And that idea is totally alien to our culture, because duty is confused with “I have to do it.” But here we see in the very duties of the created order, the blessings are intertwined, so that as man does what God created him to do, interestingly enough, he finds his fulfillment and his satisfaction and his happiness and his blessedness.

1. The first creation ordinance that we see there is the ordinance of procreation. Genesis 1:28. The ordinance of procreation. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” Adam and Eve as two isolated individuals, no matter how powerful in their capacities as unfallen human beings, can’t subdue the whole of this globe. There has got to be procreation in order to harness and order the world as God has established it. And this ordinance, it is made clear in Genesis 1 and 2, was to be expressed only within the bonds of mutual commitment, that is, marriage. So this is an obligation and a blessing.
2. The second ordinance that we see, we also see in verse 1:28, and that is the ordinance of labor. The mandate is to work. The blessing is that God has given man rule. This labor ordinance was implicit even in the Sabbath ordinance of Genesis 2:1-3, because what does the Sabbath ordinance do? It puts a limit on labor. It says to man, you can’t work all the time.
3. Then, the ordinance of the Sabbath. We see this in Genesis 2:3: “God blessed the Sabbath and sanctified it.” This seventh day is marked by the completion of God’s special created work; His labor was finished in the first six days. The work of creation as such is done. That doesn’t mean that He is inactive. He continues to work in providence in preserving and governing His creation, but the same word, finished, is used here as it is used of Moses finishing the tabernacle in Exodus 40:23, and of Solomon finishing the temple in II Chronicles 7:11, and of Jesus finishing the redemption in John 19:33. The same concept used here—same term. We see in Hebrews 3:7 – 4:11 that God’s Sabbath was a gift to man. God’s Sabbath was a gift to man. God didn’t need that rest. That is Jesus’ whole point in Mark 2. God didn’t need the rest. He rested because you needed the rest. So His very resting was not a necessity for Him. It was something that you needed that He did out of His love for you. So He rested for your sakes, and we learn in Hebrews 3:7-4:11 that, for believers, the Sabbath is not only a blessing, but it is a promise of a rest to come. So the Sabbath is a day for nurturing, for spiritual life, for worship and service.
4. The fourth ordinance that we will look at is the ordinance of marriage. God announces that “it is not good for man to be alone.” This is the first and only thing that has been described in God’s creation as not good. So, solitary fellowship with God even in paradise is not God’s plan for us. By the way, you see in that verse the seed for the doctrine of the church as well.
   

So Clearly The Covenant of Works is Established in Eden.

So we see the establishment of this covenant relationship in Genesis 2:4-25. It was the Covenant of Works. It is not a Covenant based on Grace because sin has not entered the equation yet. Sin always precedes grace. God gave Adam and Eve a beautiful home called Eden. God gives Man water and food. And God gives Adam the Tree of Life as a sacrament of worship to bless him and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to test him.

What God is doing has not been merited by Adam. We use the phrase Covenant of Works, not to say that man earned these blessings, but to express the fact that this original relationship had no provision for the continuation of God’s blessings if disobedience occurred. So it was a covenant contingent upon Adam continuing in his obligations. And here in Genesis 2:15-17, the specific aspect of his obligation, that is, of not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, is brought into sharp focus.

Now that is not the only thing that Adam has to do in this relationship. We have already seen four things that he is responsible to do. He is responsible for procreation, labor, Sabbath, and marriage. There are also a prohibition in the relationship. There is a penalty given: In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. So what do we have here? Well, we have a relationship divinely established between God and Adam. So we have a bond. We have life and death consequences in the penalty. So we have a bond in blood. And let me also say that we have blessings implied in this relationship, not only in the ordinances, but also in the presence of the tree of life, because that tree of life reappears where? Not only in Ezekiel, but in Revelation. And where is it? It is in the presence of God and the company of the redeemed. And so it is a hint of what is in store for Adam, if he is faithful in the keeping of the obligations.

And finally, we have these stipulations, these ordinances and prohibitions sovereignly administered by God. And so we have all the elements of a covenant, whether you want to define it as a bond in blood sovereignly administered, or whether you want to define it as a binding relationship with attendant blessings and responsibilities.

All the elements of a covenant are there.

Concerning the controversy of the Hebrew word for “covenant” not being mentioned in the Creation account go here.
*H.T. Ligon Duncan