Article 3“The Everlasting Covenant: God’s Faithfulness Through Every Generation”

The Covenant of Works: Adam, Law, and the Need for a Second Adam

“But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with Me.” —Hosea 6:7

To understand grace, you must understand law.

To grasp the glory of the cross, you must stand at the gates of Eden.

Before the gospel is good news, it must meet us in bad news. And that bad news begins with Adam—not simply as a man who sinned, but as a man who broke covenant. A man who stood as our federal head, our representative, our legal proxy. A man who stood on behalf of humanity—and fell.

This is the Covenant of Works. And if you ignore it, you won’t just lose Eden. You’ll lose the foundation for the obedience of Christ, the justice of God, and the very logic of salvation.

🏛 What Is the Covenant of Works?

The Covenant of Works was God’s first formal covenant with man.

• It was given to Adam in the Garden of Eden.

• It was based on law, not grace.

• It promised life for obedience and death for disobedience.

“You may surely eat of every tree… but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” —Genesis 2:16–17

This was not a vague moral test. It was a covenantal structure—confirmed later in Scripture (see Hosea 6:7)—where Adam was placed under a works-based probation. Eternal life was held out to him on the condition of perfect obedience.

He was not yet glorified. He was upright, but mutable. And as the representative head of humanity, what he did would affect us all.

🧍‍♂️ Adam the Federal Head

We modern Westerners struggle with the idea of federal headship—that someone could represent us legally before God.

But it’s woven into creation. Adam was not just a man—he was humanity distilled into one man. When he obeyed, blessing would follow for all. When he sinned, curse fell on all.

“By the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners…” —Romans 5:19

This is why babies die. It is why the world groans. It is why all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Adam didn’t just pass down bad habits—he passed down covenantal guilt.

⚖️ Law, Not Legalism

Some Christians bristle at the idea that law was part of God’s original plan. But Scripture never presents law as the problem—sin is the problem.

The law is good (Rom. 7:12). God gave Adam law not as a burden, but as a pathway to life. Obedience was not punishment—it was purpose.

Adam’s failure wasn’t because law is evil, but because man—even in his best natural state—could not secure glory by works alone.

And so the need for a Second Adam was already written into the story.

🩸 From Law to Grace: Why This Covenant Still Matters

If you lose the Covenant of Works, you lose the foundation for the Covenant of Grace.

Why?

Because salvation in Christ is not God ignoring the law, but God fulfilling it.

“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” —Romans 5:19

Christ didn’t just die for you—He obeyed for you.

Where Adam failed to keep the covenant of works, Christ succeeded perfectly. His active obedience (His righteous life) and His passive obedience (His atoning death) together fulfill the righteous requirement of the law.

He is not just your substitute in death—He is your covenant head in life.

📜 Covenant Continuity: Law and the Christian

It’s tempting to think that because Christ fulfilled the Covenant of Works, the law is now irrelevant. But that’s not what Covenant Theology teaches.

• The Covenant of Works was fulfilled, not erased.

• The moral law remains binding—not for justification, but for sanctification.

• The gospel doesn’t remove God’s law—it restores our ability to love and obey it through grace.

This is where Reconstruction Theonomy stands tall: Christ did not save us into lawlessness. He saved us into a Spirit-empowered obedience.

As Calvin said, “The law is not abolished; it is sweetened.”

👑 From Garden to Glory

Adam was supposed to expand the garden—to take dominion and spread God’s reign across the earth. He failed.

But Christ, the Second Adam, does not fail.

• He secures His people.

• He keeps His covenant.

• He builds His Kingdom.

The postmillennial hope is not built on vague optimism. It is built on the legal obedience of Christ to the Covenant of Works—and His continuing rule through the Covenant of Grace.

What Adam failed to do in Eden, Christ now does through His Church.

🧱 Final Word: The Glory We Could Not Earn, Christ Secured

We were never going to climb our way back into Eden.

But thanks be to God—Christ climbed down.

He fulfilled the law. He took the curse. He stood in Adam’s place, so that sinners like us could stand righteous in His.

And now, as those brought into the covenant by grace, we don’t fear the law—we delight in it.

Because in Christ, the law no longer condemns. It guides. It no longer accuses. It instructs. It no longer curses. It blesses.

All because one Man obeyed. For us.