The Divine Covenants

The Adamic Covenant (Part 2)

There is an interesting verse in Romans 5:19 and we see here the importance of looking closely at the words used in order to properly understand what the Bible means.

· Romans 5:19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

It is important to notice the word “made”. It really needs definition. It does not refer directly or primarily to the fact that we inherit from Adam a corrupt and sinful nature. We learn this from other passages in Scripture. The term “were made sinners” refers to our being constituted guilty, made guilty, in the sight of God. For example:

· 2 Corinthians 5:21, God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Clearly the words “made Him (Jesus) to be sin” cannot refer to any change which Jesus underwent in His nature or character. No, this was a matter of Jesus “taking His people’s place before God” and was treated as if He was guilty. Our sins were not imparted to Him but imputed to Him.

The same treatment is found in Galations3:13:

· Galations3:13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

Judicially speaking He was considered under the law. Our guilt was legally transferred to Him. The sins we committed, He was regarded as responsible for. What we deserved, He endured and paid for.

What we have seen is Adam was in Eden as a responsible being and he was the federal head of the human race and that he legally acted on behalf of all who would come after him. Therefore, what he did, all are considered as having done.

Can you possibly imagine what it was like for Adam in the Garden of Eden? He was free from sin and misery; he had no evil ancestors; there was no evil in him; he had no illnesses; no needs for what we would call worldly things; there was nothing to cause him distress; he was made in the very image of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit; he had complete communion with God; was in the perfect environment; was given authority over all of creation; and was given a mate created just for him. Our minds will not allow us to imagine such a perfect life.

But, he was a creature, and as such subject to the authority of the One who had created him. As one under authority, he was obligated to be obedient to his Creator. If he was required to be obedient, then there must have been some law which he was to obey. God governs all of His rational creation by law, as the rule of their obedience to Him. All are subject to the moral government of God. Even Jesus was “born under the law” (Gal.4:4). Though Adam was pronounced “very good” by God, he was on probation to see if he would obey the commands of his maker.

Now the law which God gave to Adam was three-fold: natural, moral and positive. Being created in the image and likeness of God, it was his very nature to delight in God and reproduce His holiness. By the “moral” law we mean that he was placed under the requirements of the Ten Commandments, though they had not yet been delivered to mankind. By “positive” law we mean that God also placed a certain restriction on Adam which had not occurred to him from either the natural or moral law.

So let’s follow these three-fold laws under which Adam was placed. In Genesis 2:24:

· Gen 2:24, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Any violation of the marital relationship is a violation of the very “law of nature.” Regarding the “moral law”:

· Gen. 2:3, And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.”

This passage would be hard to explain except for the fact that it provides the ground for the same practice for mankind. This is a very interesting concept and one that may be widely misinterpreted.

What do I mean by that? Well, if we take this idea in its context and in view of the fourth commandment, something interesting emerges. First, in Genesis we see that God did His creating in six days and on the seventh day He rested. Did God need to rest? Of course not. But we are to understand that we are to regularly take time off from our labors and honor God by keeping that day holy.

· Deut. 5:12-14, “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, “but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work.”

Please notice that there is no mention of Monday or Sunday or Thursday anywhere in these passages. Nor does the Bible say that God began His creative work on Monday, worked through Saturday and rested on Sunday. Then in the commandment He said, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work. Further, in the Genesis passage we read that God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Well what is the seventh day? Look at you calendar. The seventh day of the week is Saturday. That makes Sunday the first day of the week. How did we get this out of whack?

Well, in the Christian tradition Sunday is typically observed as the Sabbath. There was a time when the work week was almost exclusively Monday through Saturday, then later Monday through Friday, and in some cases today it is Monday through Thursday. The point here is that God has said that we should follow His example of taking a day of rest from our work and devote it to worship. The word “sabbatical” is defined as “a break or change from a normal routine” (as in employment).

Gen. 2:15, The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. This demonstrates the third legal aspect, the positive. Even in his unfallen and perfect condition man was not to be idle and shiftless.

From all of what we have just been saying it should be evident that there was a revelation to Adam of the trifold obligation which lies on man: namely, what he owes to God, what he owes to his neighbors, and what he owes to himself. These essentially cover the whole of life’s experiences. But there was still something more specific to test man’s obedience because, as we have said, he was on trial or probation. So an ordinance, or restriction, was needed so that there was no uncertainty with respect to Adam’s ability to understand it and abide by it, and that there could be no debate as to whether he was obedient or guilty of violating the restriction.

This was the case with God’s instruction regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

· Genesis 2:15-17, The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.

If you and I had been present in the Garden of Eden, along with all the rest of human-kind, and if God had proposed to us that we pick one of us to be our representative so that He could make an agreement with him on our behalf, is there any doubt but that we would all have picked Adam? He was the perfect man. If God had chosen him why would we complain if God chose the same man we would have chosen?

The contracting parties in this covenant were God and Adam. First, God, as goodness itself, promised communion with Himself, but God also as justice itself, threatened death for disobedience. Second, Adam was considered both as man and as representative of all who would come after him.