The Covenant with Creation + The Covenant of Grace
“If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.”
~Romans 5:17
Following the covenant of redemption, we enter into time itself once God creates everything. Where the first covenant was instituted amongst the Godhead, all of the remaining covenants are made with humans. This brings us to the covenant with creation.
The covenant with creation goes by many names: covenant of works, covenant of life, covenant of nature, Edenic covenant. The first mentions of this covenant come from Jewish writings in the intertestamental period (the time between the end of the Jewish exile to Babylon and the coming of Christ). As the term “covenant” does not appear in Genesis 1-3, it raises the issue for some that this is not actually a covenant; this is still an ongoing issue today. I am of the position that the covenant of works does exist as it lays the foundation for the upcoming covenant of grace.
In any case, the covenant is made with Adam as the head of all humanity. As a covenant head, Adam is the representative for humankind; thus, any blessings or curses associated with the covenant will also be administered to us via Adam.
The covenants we will be looking at all have blessings associated with obedience and curses as consequences of disobedience. In the case of the covenant with creation, obedience leads to eternal life whereas disobedience leads to death. Obedience is crucial “because God is perfectly holy” (Kimbrel). Adam was required to fulfill God’s mandates and purposes on earth, but he and Eve failed when they ate the prohibited fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen. 1:27). Their sin was of course much more than just eating something they weren’t supposed to; their sin was rebellion against God and a lack of trust for God’s provision and goodness. As a result, sin marred their images as God’s priest-kings representing Him to the world.
We owe God our obedience because He is our Creator. We are God’s image-bearers, and God is holy. Therefore, when we sin, “it mars the image of the all-holy God” in us (Kimbrel). Thus disobedience separates us from God, and as it also breaks the covenant with God, necessitates the application of the covenant curse to the rest of humanity. Paul writes in Romans: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned” (5:12). Sin all have sinned (Rom 3:23), then all are also condemned to die (Rom 6:23).
Thankfully, though, God provided another way. Once Adam and Eve failed to live perfectly obedient lives before God, God then revealed the consequences of their actions in Genesis 3:14-19. Yet, nestled in the midst of the curse, there is a promise:
“I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.” (Gen 3:15)
This promise heralds the beginning of the covenant of grace. The verse is often referred to as the protoevangelium, or “first gospel.” The outworking of this verse is subsequently witnessed in the covenants throughout the rest of biblical history: Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and ultimately, the new. Only when the woman's " offspring " comes in the person of Christ is the covenant of grace fulfilled.
The description that R.C. Sproul provides does an excellent job of connecting the covenant of works to the covenant of grace:
“The covenant of works refers to the covenant that God made with Adam and Eve in their pristine purity before the fall, in which God promised them blessedness contingent upon their obedience to His command. After the fall, the fact that God continued to promise redemption to creatures who had violated the covenant of works, that ongoing promise of redemption is defined as the covenant of grace.”
The covenant of grace provides the foundation of our salvation by faith through Jesus Christ. Like in the covenant with creation, the covenant of grace also requires perfect obedience. However, the burden of obedience lies on Christ rather than on us—sinful humanity.
Similarly to the covenant with creation, the covenant of grace also has a covenant head, but this time it is God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Under Adam, sin and death passed on to all of humanity, but those who put their trust in Jesus for salvation are now under Christ. This means that we no longer remain under the covenant of works, but we are now under the covenant of grace.
Just as the curse of the covenant of works passed to all those under Adam, the blessings of the covenant of grace pass to all those under Christ. Joanna Kimbrel writes, “…those under the covenant of grace are not judged by their works, but by the works of Christ.” Romans 8 explains why this matters:
“Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.” (8:8-10)
The blessing that comes with obedience to God under the covenant of grace is the same as the blessing originally promised in the covenant of works—the gift of eternal life with God. We are given the gift of life because we are in Christ, and Christ’s righteousness has been transmitted to us (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ “was able to do this because He is God in human flesh and has not inherited a sin nature from Adam” (GotQuestions.org). Therefore, Jesus could perfectly fulfill the covenant of grace and enable us to pass from death to life in Him.
Next, we will see how God continues to progressively reveal His plan of salvation through a number of administrations of the covenant of grace. These are the covenants that He makes with Noah, Abraham, Israel/Moses, David, until the ultimate fulfillment of the covenant of grace when Christ comes and institutes the new covenant. The story of redemption is far from over as God continues to reveal who He is and His plan for the redemption of imperfect humans.
Further Reading:
R.C. Sproul – Sproul’s explanation for the necessity of the covenant of works is quite compelling.
Bible Verses for the Covenant with Creation
Bible Verses for the Covenant of Grace
Author’s Note:
Please realize that the resource list is a work in progress, and not all the sources listed are ones that I necessarily used or heavily considered in the development of this series. I also realize that a variety of schools of thought may be represented. I am not intentionally promoting one theological system over another. I also recognize that there are multiple approaches to the study of covenants, and I am not here to promote one over another. My goal is to present a basic understanding of the various covenants and how they progressively reveal God’s overarching plan of salvation for humanity.
