The Divine Covenants

The Adamic Covenant (Part 5)

It is now time for us to consider the seal which God used in this covenant that He made with the federal head of all humanity. This can be somewhat difficult, but it will help to think about what we already know about “seals” in our worship experience. For many, to speak of “the seal” of a covenant is to use a term that has no meaning. But if we fail to look at the seal of the Adamic covenant we would miss an essential element in this Genesis passage.

Let’s look again at Genesis 2:9.

· Gen. 2:9, And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground---trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now first, we have every reason to believe that these were literal trees. The fact that they were “pleasing to the eye”, and the fact that Eve picked a piece of fruit from one of the trees requires that we see them as literal trees. We must also assume that these two trees had some extraordinary significance because they were in the “middle” of the garden. Finally they must have had some symbolic significance since the Spirit singles them out by name. They were designed to give instruction to Adam.

In all of God’s covenants He has included seals, “sacred symbols”, as signs of the certainty of His promises and at the same time to remind man of his covenant duty. More familiar seals that we would be familiar with are the rainbow in the Noahic covenant that was the sign and seal of God’s promise never to again destroy the world by flooding, and circumcision which was the outward sign and seal of the confirmation of the covenant God made with Abraham that through him he would be a blessing to all the world.

A.A. Hodge gave the following definition of a seal: “A seal of a covenant is an outward visible sign, appointed by God as a pledge of His faithfulness, and as an earnest of the blessings promised in the covenant.”

The language of Genesis 2:17 not only pronounced a curse on the disobedience of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but by implication, it announced a blessing on the obedience for not eating of that same tree. The curse was death, and the blessing was a continuation of the existence in the perfect environment of Eden.

The seal of this covenant was the “tree of life” in the middle of the garden. If, as we have said, the seal is to signify the blessing promised in the covenant, and in this case the seal promises, not immortality, but eternal life. It was a pledge of that spiritual life which is inseparably connected to obedience to God. Like all other signs and seals, this one was not designed to confer the promised blessing, but was a divine pledge given to Adam’s faith to encourage his expectation of the promised blessings.

We are convinced that it is a serious error of the Roman Church to believe that the signs and seals actually convey grace in and of themselves.

· Romans 4:7-11, “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of righteousness that he had by faith, while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. The rite, instead of conferring anything, simply confirmed what Abraham already had. Circumcision was the guarantee that the righteousness of faith which he had (before he was circumcised) should come to unbelieving Gentiles.

So now we see that as the rainbow was the sign and seal of the covenant promises God made with Noah, as circumcision was the sign and seal of the covenant promises God made with Abraham, so the tree of life was the sign and seal of the covenant promises made to Adam. It was God’s pledge of His faithfulness, and as an earnest of the blessings which would come based on continued obedience.

Now based on what we have just been saying, I have this question for you. God has made a New Covenant. What is the seal of the New Covenant?

· Eph. 1:13-14, And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked by Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession---to the praise of His glory.

· Rev. 2:7, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” These words express the promise of eternal life and happiness and the words used here in Revelation remind us of those used in Genesis. Each victorious saint will eat of the “tree of life”, and be unchangeably established in heaven.

The answer is: The Holy Spirit.

Let’s now deal with an area of some controversy which arises from a faulty interpretation of Genesis 3:21-24.

· Gen. 3:21-24, The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”  So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After He drove the man out, He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

There are those who, with some good reason, place a literal interpretation on the part of the passage which refers to eating from the tree of life and living forever. It was not the mere eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which was able of itself to impart any knowledge; rather it was by taking of its fruit contrary to God’s command that they gained a knowledge of evil in themselves.

Earlier they had experienced the knowledge of the good of God through their obedient abstinence. Both of the trees were symbolic and by seeing them Adam was reminded of the contents of the covenant of which they were the sign and seal. But now a bit of logic would lead us to conclude that God was not fearful that Adam and Eve would now go to the tree of life and eat of it so that they could live forever, because His sentence of death had already fallen on them. Adam lost more than spiritual immortality. He was banished from the perfect environment of the garden lest he accidentally eat of the tree of life; he had irrevocably lost that.