Psalm 10

Order of Service

• Prayer of Invocation
• Sermon
• Prayer

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Sermon Title: The Covenant of Life and the Promise of Obedience

Scripture: Genesis 2–3

I. God's Gracious Covenant Promises Life

A. Background from the Westminster Shorter Catechism

1. Question 7: God's decrees are his eternal purpose according to the counsel of his will
2. Question 8: God executes his decrees in creation and Providence
3. Question 10: God created man male and female after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness
4. Questions 12–13 address a special Act of Providence toward man in the estate wherein he was created

B. Providence defined: God not only creates but continues to care for what he has made

1. Illustration: a painter who preserves and protects his masterpiece after completing it
2. God's Providence gives his people peace and assurance that he is in control even when circumstances are difficult

C. The audacity of God entering into covenant with his creation

1. Psalm 8 — "What is man that you are mindful of him?"
2. The natural human tendency is to flip the question and assume God's attention is owed; the Psalm corrects this
3. A covenant is more than a contract — it creates a bond and a relationship, not merely an exchange

D. Genesis 2:9 — God provides abundantly upon creation: trees pleasant to the sight and good for food, including the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

E. Genesis 2:16–17 — The covenantal command: eat freely of every tree except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; the penalty is death

F. The Tree of Life signifies perpetual, sustaining life

1. After the fall, God removes access to the Tree of Life lest Adam and Eve live forever in their sinful estate (Genesis 3)
2. The promise embedded in the command: obey and live; disobey and die

G. The life promised is eternal, abundant life — best described in negative terms from this side of glory

1. Life without shame, fear, anxiety, exhaustion, comparison, or partial knowledge
2. C.S. Lewis: every person encountered is an immortal — God made mankind to be immortal
3. Death entered as the consequence of disobedience; it is at work from the moment of the fall

II. God's Gracious Covenant Is Conditional

A. The Westminster Standards use varying language for the same covenant

1. Shorter Catechism: "covenant of life" — emphasizing the promise and blessing
2. Westminster Confession 7.2: "covenant of works" — emphasizing the condition of obedience
3. Larger Catechism: "covenant of life upon condition of personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience"

B. Calling it "gracious" refers to God's condescension in entering into relationship with his creature at all — not yet the redemptive grace of the Covenant of Grace

C. The Covenant of Works is conditional: obey and receive life; disobey and receive death

1. Theologians have understood this as an indefinite probationary period
2. Had Adam obeyed, the life he had in part would have been secured and confirmed — a state in which he would be unable to sin
3. All of God's moral law was written on Adam's heart; the one specific command was the probationary test

III. God's Gracious Covenant Reveals What God Is Like

A. The covenant reveals that God is holy

1. Isaiah 6:1–5 — Isaiah's vision: the Lord on a high and lofty throne, the seraphim covering their faces and crying "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts"
2. Even the angels cannot look upon God's glory; they tremble in his presence
3. Isaiah's response: "Woe is me! For I am lost" — the proper human response to God's holiness
4. God gives the covenant with a condition because he is holy and good; mankind made in his image was created to reflect that holiness

B. The covenant ultimately points to Christ

1. The Covenant of Works was not annulled by the fall — it remained to be fulfilled
2. Every son and daughter of Adam fails by nature to fulfill the covenant's requirements
3. Christ comes as the second Adam to do what Adam could not do
4. His perfect, sinless life is essential: he fulfills the Covenant of Works on behalf of his people
5. John 10:10 — "I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly"
6. All that abundant life — describable now only in negative terms — belongs to believers in Christ, partly now and fully in glory
7. The Tree of Life, barred after the fall, is restored to God's people in the consummation (Revelation 22)