 At the time of our sermon this morning is the Covenant of Works, the Covenant of Works. Welcome back to our study of the essentials, one sermon, one hour, one subject essential to a solid doctrinal foundation in the faith. Now having begun an introduction to Covenant theology last week in our study of the Covenant of Redemption, our subject this morning is the Covenant of Works now. And by way of summary, refreshing our memory with that sermon a couple of weeks ago, our theology is concerned primarily with a study of the Divine Covenants, the Divine Covenants. Although the distance or the distinction between, the gap between, the chasm between you could say, the Creator and His creature is vast, immeasurable. God has determined to span to the chasm, to reach out across that distance, that distinction, and to be gracious to those that He has made in His image by relating to them, relating to them. God voluntarily, God graciously condescends in His interaction with men. It's gracious in the sense that it's undeserved. We're not talking about saving grace, salvific grace, redemptive grace, we're talking about God's gracious actions, God's gracious favor, His condescension toward those that don't deserve it, which is you and I, right? There's nothing in Adam, nothing that Adam could have done to earn or require this gracious condescension on the part of God. It is a voluntary condescension on God's part. In that sense, it is very gracious. He stoopes to relate to mankind in the terms of that relationship that He establishes with man, the terms of that relationship are expressed by means of covenant. They're expressed by means of covenant. In that sense, the divine covenants are binding relational agreements, you could say, established, initiated, imposed by God, and where there is covenant language being used in Scripture, the application of a covenant being described, or the presence of the concept of a covenant, you'll see contracted parties, you'll see contracted commitments, and you'll see contracted rewards. In the words of Nehemiah Cox, one of the editors of our Confession of Faith, he writes, the divine covenants are concerned with the benefits of God that He will bestow on man the communion that man will have with God, and the ways and means by which those benefits in that communion will be enjoyed by man. You get those three points, right? Concerned with the benefits God will bestow on man, the communion man will have with God, and the ways and means by which those benefits in that communion will be enjoyed by man. Once again, our Confession of Faith, in chapter 7, article 1, is very helpful in this respect. Listen to our confession. The distance between God and the creature is so great that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to Him as their Creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which voluntary condescension He hath been pleased to express by way of covenant. We know, don't we? Inherently, we know that when we have done all that we can do, we are still at best unprofitable servants. When we've done all our duty, we've done only that which was required of us to do. Everything that we were supposed to do, we're still at best simply unprofitable servants. It is, we would never have attained the reward of life as our confession states. It takes voluntary condescension on God's part, and that voluntary condescension, his relationship to man, is expressed by way of covenant. The covenant that will be the subject of our consideration this morning is the covenant of works. The covenant of works. As we think about these subjects, covenant theology in particular, and others like them as we're working through this study on Sunday mornings, there are many professing Christians who would object to spending time on subjects like this. Many would object. Most of vast majority of churches don't cover issues like this from the pulpit in their Sunday morning worship. Most churches don't ever get to theology like this, and if they try to, there would be people up in arms over it, right? Theology is the empty pursuit of academic eggheads. Every tower nerds have got nothing better to do. That's what theology is for. We don't need theology. Give me something practical, right? This stuff has no bearing on real life. It's not important to salvation. I know I'm saved. All I gotta do is walk down that aisle and say that prayer. That's all I need to know, right? Not interested in theology. Give me something practical. I have real world issues I'm trying to deal with here. I submit to you that this subject, this morning, is fundamental, foundational. You could say essential to our understanding of the faith that we profess. Theology in particular, this theology is not a waste of your time. Not a waste of your energy. Not a waste of your study. This is something we should be thinking about, meditating on, studying and working at. Theology, the study of doctrine, isn't a waste of time. It is good for our soul. Good for our maturity. Theology leads to doxology. Theology leads to worship. Theology leads to praise. Theology leads to conformity, to Christ's image, right? Theology leads to our sanctification, to our growth. An understanding of the covenant of works, whether you call it that or not, is basic to our understanding of salvation. It's basic to the contrast we see between law and gospel. It's basic to the contrast we see between faith and works. Basic to our understanding of federal headship. And because it's basic to representation or federal headship, it's basic to the imputation of Adam's sin. More importantly, it's basic to the imputation of Christ's righteousness. The active and passive obedience of Christ, right? Basic to the redemptive history, the redemptive flow of the Bible. To understand salvation, to understand the work of Christ, what the Lord secures for us in the covenant of grace and how and why, to what end He secures it, you have to understand the covenant of works. The covenant of works lays a foundation for the promises of God in the gospel that we find under the covenant of grace and that we find such a precious treasure. Where the first Adam fails, the last Adam victoriously and triumphantly succeeds, and all of that to the eternal and everlasting blessedness of His covenant people. Let me add to this. Your relationship to God is entirely dependent upon your relationship to one of these two men. The first Adam or the last Adam, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. Where you stand this morning in relationship to Adam or Christ has eternal implications. It is a matter of eternal significance. If you remain an Adam under a covenant of works, then you will die and perish eternally in hell as just punishment for your sin. You are a covenant breaker. But if you are found in Jesus Christ through faith, then you are no longer under law as the covenant of works, but you are under grace and an heir of eternal life in Him. As we'll see, an heir of a blessedness, an heir of a bounty that Adam in the garden could not have enjoyed. So what is the covenant of works? Let's begin our discussion with a basic definition. What is the covenant of works? The covenant of works is the sovereign and gracious arrangement of God given to the first man Adam, wherein Adam as the representative of all his posterity, all his descendants might obtain eternal life upon choosing personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience to God's law, or otherwise suffer death as the due penalty for disobedience. I want that to sink in for a minute. I want you to grasp some of that. I want to repeat it one more time. The covenant of works is a sovereign and gracious arrangement of God given to the first man Adam, wherein Adam as the representative of all his posterity might obtain eternal life upon choosing entire, personal, exact, and perpetual obedience to God's law, or otherwise suffer death as the due penalty for disobedience or sin. In other words, it's a pre-fall covenant relationship initiated by God, where God promises eternal life upon the condition of Adam's obedience, or eternal death upon the condition of Adam's disobedience. That's the covenant of works. It's been referred to as the covenant of creation. It's been referred to as a covenant of nature, a covenant of friendship. I like that. It's been called a legal covenant, because it was conditioned upon Adam's obedience to the law of God, so some would call it a legal covenant, or it has been called a works covenant, because Adam's obedience was required for Adam to live under the covenant. In other words, Adam had to work to earn continued life under the covenant. Turn with me to Genesis chapter one, the text just before the one read in your hearing, Genesis chapter one. Let's look at that from the opening chapters here of the Bible. In Genesis chapter one, God creates the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. And as that glorious and powerful creative work of God is taking place, Job 38 says the morning stars are singing together. The sons of God are shouting for joy. The angels in heaven are erupting in praise. And then the Lord says this in Genesis chapter one, verse 26. Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female he created them. Then God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Adam here is created in the image of God. He is God's image bearer. As God's image bearer, Adam was created upright. He's created just. Adam was holy. Adam was righteous. He was created in a state of innocence. Now as a moral creature made in God's image, Adam had the law of God written on his heart. It was woven into the fabric of his DNA, you could say, the law of God. The law was so impressed upon Adam's heart, so impressed upon his mind that it was entirely natural and reasonable for Adam to have acted in accord with God's law. We don't get that today because it is entirely natural and reasonable that we sin all the time. Why? Because our natures are sinful. We are sinners by nature. Adam, not so, had the law of God written on his heart, the law of God written on his mind such that it was natural for Adam to have obeyed God. That's why the law in this sense is called the law of nature, excuse me. Large and conformity to the law were embedded in Adam's nature. Even lost people today have the remains of the work of this law written on their hearts. That's what Romans chapter 2 explains. Even by nature, lost people do the things that are written in the law. We know that it's not right to murder. We know that it's not right to steal. We know that it's not right to tell lies. We know that. Their conscience also bearing witness against them. But likewise, likewise, impressed upon Adam's conscience was the obligation of obeying it. Because Adam was created in God's image and because God's law was woven into the fabric of Adam's very existence, his conscience bearing witness against him or bearing witness to him of the law, Adam knew his obligation to obey it. Adam's conscience testified of his obligation of obeying God. He simply knew that he was to obey him, his Creator in all things. It is the response of the creature to his Creator. Second London Baptist Confession of Faith says, reasonable creatures do owe obedience to him as their Creator. Anyone reasonable knows this. Now notice next with me what the Lord then does. This is chapter two and drop down to verse 15. Notice what the Lord does. Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, 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. This is what is called a positive law. Adam had the law of God written on his heart, the natural law you could say, the moral law written on Adam's heart and pressed upon his mind, upon his conscience. This is then a positive law that God gives to Adam and in the giving of this positive law, this positive requirement, this positive prohibition in verse 17, God initiates a covenant relationship with Adam. In this covenant relationship, Adam is to express his love and devotion, loyalty, fidelity, obedience to God through his obedience to this one arrangement concerning this one tree. Do you see? It's a, again, a gracious act on the part of God to enter into this covenant arrangement with Adam. It's not something that Adam deserves. Remember the gap between Adam and God is great, is vast. This is nothing that Adam earned, there's nothing that Adam deserved. This is a voluntary condescension on God's part to bless Adam and glorify himself in the purposes that he has for Adam. This is a gracious act on the part of God to initiate this covenant with Adam. If you notice from Genesis chapter two, beginning in verse 15, the parties of the covenant that is being made here are God and Adam. We have contractual parties, don't we? God and Adam, the condition of the covenant. We see a contractual condition here. The condition was Adam's obedience, Adam's obedience. And there is a penalty, a penal sanction for disobedience. In the day that you eat of that fruit, you shall surely die. And listen, implied in the covenant is a reward for obedience. Do you see it there? It's based on the corollary truth. If Adam obeyed God, what would happen? Adam would continue to live, okay? So if Adam, again, Adam doesn't deserve any of this, doesn't deserve any of this. There's a voluntary condescension on God's part. If Adam eats of the fruit, Adam's going to die. If Adam obeys God, Adam will continue to live under the conditions of the covenant. Now listen, there's something in here that I want you to see even more interesting or more profound than Adam simply continuing to live. Listen to this. In this state, in the state that Adam is in the garden, Adam has the ability not to sin. Think with me, he's created upright, created just, created holy. Adam has the ability not to sin. But Adam, being mutable, God is immutable, the creation is changeable, it's mutable. Adam has the ability to sin, doesn't he? He has the ability not to sin, but he also has the ability to sin. Adam can exercise free choice here to do one or the other, okay? He has the ability not to sin, Adam being mutable also has the ability to sin. Adam was created therefore able to sin and able not to sin. Therefore, put two and two together, Adam was able to die or Adam was able not to die. Able to sin, able not to sin, able to die, able not to die. Theologians have called this passe non picare and passe non more. Passe non picare, able not to sin, right? Passe non more, able not to die. Notice with me something very important about Adam in the garden. Able not to sin and able not to die is far different from, a far cry from unable to sin and unable to die, right? There's a massive difference between those two things. Adam was able not to sin and able not to die, but Christians in the Lord Jesus Christ in glory are unable to sin and unable to die. What a blessedness, right? What a great gift of God in Christ to His people. Unable to sin, unable to die. That is non passe non picare and non passe non more. Not able to sin, unable to sin and unable to die. Now that is a quality, a quality of eternal life. That is a quality of eternal life and that eternal life given to believers in Jesus Christ in their glorification. We know that from the New Testament, okay? From the Bible. Believers in glory are unable to sin. Believers in glory are unable to die. Why? Because they have been in Christ given eternal life, eternal. It doesn't go away. You can't lose it. It is eternal. Adam in the garden didn't have eternal life, did he? Adam didn't have, the obvious fact of that is that Adam died. He didn't have eternal life in the garden. Adam could sin and Adam could die. Now think about that and add this to your thought. In the garden there's a tree of life. In the garden there's a tree of life. Genesis 3, verse 22, the concern of casting Adam and Eve out of the garden and guarding the garden entrance from Adam is that Adam in his sinful condition might take of the tree of life and live what? Forever. And he would be doomed to live forever in his sinful condition. That would have been awful for Adam, right? So in addition to the tree of life in the garden, at the completion of Adam's work, multiplying, subduing, ruling, filling the earth with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea, Hebrews 4 also explains that there was a Sabbath rest to be had. God works for six days. He rests on the seventh, doesn't he? Adam is given work to do in the garden. There's an expectation that Adam will work and there will be a Sabbath rest awaiting Adam at the end of his work. Hebrews 4 explains that also modeled after God's pattern in creation where God worked for 60 days and rested on the seventh. Not only that but the last Adam, the last Adam, the second Adam was to accomplish that which the first Adam failed to accomplish. Romans chapter 5 verse 21 describes that as righteousness unto eternal life, eternal life. In other words, the consummation of Adam's creation was to be eternal life, eternal life. And we tend to think about it, don't we? When we think about salvation, we think that the consummation of salvation is eternal life. That's the way that we think with our new covenant ears often. The consummation of our salvation, the consummation of gospel work is eternal life. Well listen, what we see here in the garden is that the consummation or the end, the purpose of creation is eternal life. And that was the purpose here for Adam in the garden. Not just the consummation of salvation but the consummation of creation. John Owen says this, the reward was something Adam did not enjoy by creation, namely uninterrupted and undisturbed enjoyment of God forever. Adam's obedience to the covenant of works would have brought him into that state of being which will be the lot of all those in Christ in the final eschatological or end times state. In other words, without the possibility of sin, without the possibility of sin, the reward offered to Adam in the covenant of works including the enjoyment of God forever is the very same reward obtained by Christ in the new covenant. We're also already, aren't we, setting up a contrast between the first Adam and the last Adam, right? You see the contrast. John Owen goes on to say the fountainhead of our race if he had remained in his first state of sinlessness would have at length obtained a reward for his faithfulness and that reward would have been undisturbed enjoyment of God as was revealed in the terms of the covenant. Oftentimes this period of Adam's obedience, this period of time between the establishment of the covenant of works and the completion of Adam's obedience is called Adam's probationary period. It's called probation and what we receive as a result of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, Adam would have received through his obedience to the covenant of works that wouldn't wouldn't have come through God the Son, second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, it wouldn't come through redemption, it wouldn't come through resurrection. We'll see why that's important here soon. In other words, that's why the covenant of works is often called an eschatological or an end times covenant. It has as its end the glory you could say of man as God's creation. Now some look to the garden when they look at the Garden of Eden and the covenant made there with Adam and they see creation or Adam in the garden as static unchanging. Like if Adam had just kept obeying, Adam would have just kept living and things would have always gone on as they had always gone on, nothing would really change. They see the garden as static. We know that the garden wasn't static because we see a purpose or an end to Adam's work in Genesis 1, don't we? He was to be fruitful and multiply for the purpose of filling the earth with God's image-bearers. He was to take dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, over every living thing. He was to rule and reign over God's creation as God's vice regents in the garden until that work was complete, you could say, and the world was filled with the glory of God. It wasn't static, it was heading somewhere, it was moving somewhere, it was going somewhere, it was accomplishing something. And if Adam hadn't sinned, many think that that pastoral picture painted in Eden would have simply just continued on forever without going anywhere. But the very existence in the garden, the very existence of the tree of life holds out the reality of something different for Adam. Garden life and God's prescriptive will contained in the covenant of works wasn't static at all, it was dynamic. It was heading somewhere and it was heading to glorification. God has a prescriptive purpose in mind. The garden wasn't an end in and of itself. Adam wasn't an end in and of himself. The covenant of works wasn't an end in and of itself. Creation wasn't an end in and of itself. Why are we created? Why were we created? For the glory of God, for the glory of God, right? It has an end, it has a purpose, it has an intention. God creates and purposes with a goal or an end in mind. The covenant of works pointed to a goal pointed to a purpose. And that goal or purpose is said to be eschatological pointing to an end. That's something to consider about the covenant of works. Now whatever life that Adam enjoyed in the garden, the tree of life points to a higher attainment of life, doesn't it? Whatever life Adam enjoyed, the tree of life held out something better, something greater, a higher existence than what Adam enjoyed at creation. Otherwise, the tree of life is meaningless. The tree of life doesn't mean anything, but it holds out something more to Adam. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil points to this same reality. It represents an attainment to some good that we know that Adam and Eve were not ready for because they had been prohibited from eating of that tree, such that Herman Whitzias says this, The man was not yet arrived at the utmost pitch of happiness, but was to expect a still greater good after his course of obedience was over. This was hinted by the prohibition of the most delightful tree whose fruit was, of any other, greatly to be desired. And this argued some degree of imperfection in that state in which man was forbid the enjoyment of some good. A higher existence that involved communion with God. A higher existence flowing out of God's goodness, flowing out of God's kindness, his voluntary condescension and flowing toward God's glory. Adam would have enjoyed eventually a Sabbath rest, Hebrews chapter four. In other words, the covenant of works teaches us that man was created for glory and man was created for God's glory. And that glory which Adam failed to attain through his obedience, Christ attains through his obedience. We'll see that more as we go. Glory is the reward of his work. And thinking about that then, Adam had an eschatology before he had a soteriology. You know those terms, right? Adam had a blessed end before Adam needed a blessed redemption. He had an end. Future glory, future bliss, the highest possible communion with God was offered before a salvation became necessary in time. It shows you, all of this shows you just what was lost in the fall. Adam lost all of this in the fall. It shows you the tragedy of the broken covenant, shows you the amazing grace, the amazing condescension of God, that God would bless his creature with such riches, how gracious and compassionate and kind and good God is in that, right? Shows you what our sin has done, what our sin has lost from glory to eternal death, right? Both sides of extreme and extremes on either side of a spectrum, from glory to eternal death on such a simple condition. Don't eat the fruit of that tree. Obey me, Adam, obey me. Love me more than you love yourself. Obey me, Adam, do as I've commanded you to do. I'm your creator. I made you. You're my image bearer. Look at the riches with which I have clothed you, endowed you. Look at what is waiting for you, Adam. Obey me, obey me. It's amazing. And listen, remember, Adam didn't have a sin nature like we do now. Adam was created upright. He had the ability not to sin. Something to themselves, you know. Why Adam? Couldn't there have been somebody better, someone stronger, right? Why Adam failed? Listen, we wouldn't want anyone else but Adam in that position. Adam was created upright, created just. He was righteous, had the ability not to sin. And what does Adam do? It's a tragic fall, isn't it? Absolute tragedy. Well, we know the tragic rest of the story. We see the result of Adam's probationary period in the temptation account of Genesis chapter 3. Adam takes of the fruit, she gives to her husband, and he also eats. Adam fails this probation. Adam does in fact sin. Adam does in fact break the covenant. Adam does take the fruit. Adam does eat. Hosea chapter 6 verse 7. God, speaking of the nation of Israel says that like Adam, they transgressed the covenant. Speaking of Israel, they're transgressing the covenant. It's interesting that God reverts back to or references Adam and the covenant of works which he broke in the garden. And now Israel breaking the covenant. Adam and Eve are cast out of the Garden of Eden. Israel is cast out of the Promised Land. Your new King James says men. But the word there in Hebrew is Adam, Adam. Adam who broke the covenant. Look at Genesis chapter 2. Look again at verse 16. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. 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. Literally in verse 17, dying you shall die. Dying you shall die. There's a penalty with the covenant of works. A penal sanction associated with a violation of the terms of the covenant. And that penalty is death. Penalty is death. Dying you shall die carries with it a sense of emphatic certainty. You will, that's the surely there in the English. You will surely die. Dying you shall die. There is an emphatic certainty to the end of disobeying God in the covenant. Certain physical death will come and exposes Adam to certain spiritual or eternal death. What the Bible calls the second death. It exposes Adam to hell. Exposes Adam to the second death. In Romans chapter 5 verse 12, Paul says, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, Thus death spread to all men because all sinned. And what do we see in the record as a result of this tragedy? Genesis 4, Cain murders his brother Abel. Genesis 5, the constant ominous refrain in Genesis 5, and he died. Look at verse 5. The end of verse 5, and he died. The end of verse 8, and he died. The end of verse 11, and he died. The end of verse 14, and he died. The end of verse 17, and he died. The end of verse 20, and he died. The end of verse 27, and he died. The end of verse 31, and he died. Tragic, tragedy, right? The penalty is death. Genesis chapter 6, beginning in verse 5. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. Genesis chapter 7, the flood. Now, someone might object, they often do, don't they? But all Adam did was one sin. One sin. He just took of that fruit. One transgression, that's the theme of Romans chapter 5, through one transgression, through one transgression, one sin. Isn't the punishment greater than the crime? Someone might object. What a horrendous punishment. People think about that today. Hell, how could that be the punishment upon sin? We're trying the best that we can, we're doing the best that we can. You're telling me that one sin will send me to hell? Yes, that's exactly what the Bible says. One sin plunged this earth into the chaos and disorder and godlessness that we see today. And if you don't see it as godless, you need a new worldview. Isn't the punishment greater than the crime? Look at everything that was lost, everything that was intended for Adam. Intended for God's creation. Look at all that Adam lost. Look at the eternal agony of the sinner, really burning in torment forever and ever, fitted with a new body in the eternal state, specifically manufactured, you could say, to suffer the torments of an eternal fire. If we think that way, it's because you do not understand the glory and majesty and holiness and condescension, grace of the one who was offended. You don't understand God. You don't understand the chasm between God and man. You don't understand the glory, the holiness, the righteousness, the justice of God. Eternal punishment is just. The punishment for the crime is proportionate. It's a just penalty. A just penalty to the covenant of works was death. Death for disobedience to God in that one prohibition. And death immediately. Adam begins to decay. Adam would physically die. Adam is exposed to the second death, the eternal death. The eternal punishment is just. The offense of sin isn't measured by the one who commits the sin or measured against the one who commits the sin. I sin, we're going to judge the magnitude of that sin. And so we look to all the sins in my life and determine on a sliding scale which one's greater, which one's lesser. And because I've committed so many greater sins and this one's a lesser sin, we're going to give this one a, is that the way that sin is measured? No, it's not the way the sin is measured. The offense of sin isn't measured against the one who commits it. The offense of sin isn't measured by the nature of the sin itself. As if God were to say, this sin deserves this punishment, this sin deserves this punishment, or people, we get together. Society says this one is not as bad as this one. Society's on a moving scale. Things that were sin yesterday or not sin yesterday are sin today. Things that were not sin yesterday are sin today. Not sin today. You know what I'm talking about. Things are changing. If you were growing up in my day, you remember it would have been unheard of to see Lucy and Desi in the same bed together. They had separate beds on a nightstand between them. There was a comportment, a decorum, a morality that existed now. That is entirely gone, entirely gone, isn't it? The offense of sin is measured against the holiness and majesty and just rights or just due of the one offended. And if we measure sin or rebellion against the majesty and holiness and righteousness and just due of the one offended, who is God Almighty, then any sin is an eternal death sentence offense. Do you see? The penalty and punishment due for breaking God's law is just and it is proportionate. When someone sins, they deserve death. Even one sin in the garden, like Adam committed. Someone might object, right? The summary so far. We've got a basic definition of the covenant of works. We see that God instituted that covenant with Adam. Adam has been given a covenant condition. It's perfect and perpetual exacting obedience. We've established that Adam could have attained to eternal life under the covenant. Under the covenant. And we've established that Adam, however, broke the covenant of works and failed to attain to the blessing. But now we must take note of something else revealed in the covenant of works, something else that is profound about this covenant. But the covenant that God instituted with Adam, something incredibly profound here. Adam was a representative for all those who would be born after him. Adam represented his posterity, represented his descendants in the covenant. He was the federal or covenant head of all humanity. That word federal is another word for covenant. It's related to a Latin term that means covenant. He's the federal head or the covenant head over all the human race, over all humanity. Adam represents the whole human race in the garden. We are, you could say, in him as Adam represents us there. Our confession says it this way in chapter 19 verse one of the law of God. Listen, God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart and a particular precept, a positive law, of not eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by which he bound Adam and all his posterity to personal, entire, exact and perpetual obedience. Promised life upon the fulfilling and threatened death upon the breach of it and endued him with power and ability to keep it. That's the covenant of works. That means that the legal implications of the covenant of works extend beyond Adam. There are legal implications here that extend beyond Adam and they extend to all those represented by Adam. All those who are in Adam, which by the way is everyone born. Except one. All those born in Adam have those legal implications extending to them. Perfect, personal, entire, exact, perpetual obedience is required. Not simply the best that you can do. We hear that, don't we? We're just doing the best that I can do. If I do the best that I can do, listen, God's going to accept that. God accepts partial obedience because he sees it. I love the Lord and I want to obey. God's going to accept my partial obedience. No, personal, entire, exact, perpetual obedience is required under the covenant of works. You must obey God. Obey him perfectly. Obey him perpetually in everything the law requires. And the covenant curse of death extends to Adam's posterity. You, by one sin, are sentenced to death. You, by one violation of God's law, sentenced to an eternity in hell. Death follows upon sin. And every one of us is born in sin. Every one of us born in sin. The concept of Adam's headship is explained most clearly in Romans chapter 5. Turn with me to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. We see in Romans chapter 5 beginning at verse 12, Adam's covenant headship and the Lord Jesus Christ in his covenant headship. Romans chapter 5, the apostle Paul, is contrasting here two great federal heads. They're described here as two atoms. In the first atom, the historical atom, we all sinned. And because we all sinned, in Adam, we die. We all die. And we're exposed to eternal death. We deserve eternal death, the second death. Look at verse 12. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, thus death spread to all men because all sinned. Verse 13, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, despite this, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come. That's a mouthful, listen. In other words, even though people lived in this world after Adam, and even though those people who lived in the world after Adam did not sin by breaking the covenant in the same way that Adam did, they still died. Why? Because death reigned from Adam to the giving of the law under Moses. Death reigned during that time. It didn't take the law under Moses to extend that punishment of death. And it wasn't only to Adam that that death reigned and was extended to. All of those from Adam to Moses were born in Adam. And that penal sanction, that punishment extended to all because all sinned, and so all were exposed to death. Death then becomes the proof. It becomes the irrefutable evidence that sin entered into the world through one man. And that it entered into the world to every one of his posterity. That is the first Adam. Notice in verse 14, Adam is a type of him who was to come. Who is the one who is to come? Who is that? That's right. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, the last Adam. The last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's drawing a parallel here between Adam and the Lord Jesus Christ. Not a parallel between their sin. What's the parallel that Paul is drawing here? Paul's drawing a parallel between their headship, their representation, their representation of a group of people. Adam and Christ are federal heads, federal representatives of a group of people. Jesus Christ is also a covenant representative for his people, just as Adam is a covenant representative for those born in him. Adam is a type of the one who is to come. Do you see? Look at verse 15. But speaking now of federal headship in Jesus Christ, the free gift God's grace through Christ is not like the offense of Adam. For if by the one man's offense many died and many have, many will, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded to many. Much more that grace abounded. Verse 16. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation. But the free gift which came from many offenses. In other words, that gift of grace in Jesus Christ to redeem a fallen humanity to himself is a result of many offenses. The Lord Jesus Christ had to go to the cross and hang there and suffer and die on the cross for all the sins of all his people. The Lord Jesus Christ took the penalty of all that sin upon himself on the tree. Do you see? Wasn't like that. The free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. Verse 17. For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Much more will we reign. Do you see? 18. Therefore as through one man's offense judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation. Even so through one man's righteous act, his perfect obedience, his perfect obedience. Through his righteousness, his righteous act. Even to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Through that one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men without distinction. It doesn't come to all men without exception. If that were the case, all men would go to heaven. On the righteousness of Jesus Christ, right? But we know that not all men go to heaven. There are many, many, many, many, many who perish eternally in hell. This is all men without distinction. People from every tribe, tongue, nation will be saved. The free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life. For verse 19. As by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. Federal representation. Adam was a covenant head. A covenant head. So also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. Jesus Christ, the covenant federal head, a representative for his people. Two federal heads. Through Adam's sin, in violating the covenant of works, the many born in Adam were constituted sinners and condemned to death. So also through the obedience, the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, those born again in him are constituted to be declared to be righteous. Verse 20. More over the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So Adam is the covenant representative for all humanity in the covenant of works. Who is your representative this morning? Who are you in? Who is covenant head for you? Who stands for you? Paul refers to this very reality again in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Listen to this beginning in verse 20. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. All this is based, folks, on the covenant of works. It's all based in, grounded in, founded in, the covenant that God made with Adam in the garden that day. We are all born into this world in sin, all born into this world under the curse of a broken covenant. Remember several years ago, I'm not even sure if it still is in place. Remember the three strikes law in Florida, three strikes you're out, right? Three strikes meant life in prison. We're all born with three strikes in Adam. Out of the womb, three strikes you're out. Dead on arrival, you could say. We're all born covenant breakers. Listen to Paul from Galatians chapter 3 verse 10. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. As many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. If you're born in Adam, your only hope, you could say, would be to keep the covenant that Adam broke. But you cannot keep that covenant has been broken. You have no power, no ability to keep that covenant. You are under the penal sanction of the covenant. You are absolutely, entirely, crushingly hopeless. There is no hope for you outside of the righteousness of another. You have no hope in Adam. No hope. You are under the works of the law, under the works of the law. And the only hope that you would think to yourself that you might have, and many put their hope in this, is that if you can do enough good to merit favor with God, to earn your way to heaven, simply an absurd, ridiculous notion. It's been lost, that opportunity lost. As many as are under of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things, which are written in the book of the law to do them. All things, everything, perfect, perpetual, exacting, meticulous obedience. But that no one is justified by the law on the side of God is evident. For it's the just who will live by faith. Yet the law is not a faith. The man who does them shall live by them. When the rich young ruler comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, Luke chapter 18, says, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit internal life? What does the Lord tell him? Keep the commandments. Keep the commandments. What the rich young ruler should have done was immediately put his head in his hands and weep over the fact that he never could. Then cry out to God for mercy. Like the public in the temple, right? Cry out to God for mercy. Be merciful to me, God, the sinner. People think that we just need to do the best that we can. And God will accept imperfect obedience. It's not the way it works. The obligation of the covenant of works is never reduced. The penal sanction of the covenant of works lasts to this day. What we're talking about here is the doctrine of original sin. We're talking about the imputation, the crediting, the giving of, you could say, or the passing down, you could say, of Adam's sin to those born in Adam. We're all born in Adam. We inherit a sin nature from our first father. We're all born in sin. What we need, what we desperately need, if we're to be saved, is we need righteousness. And it's the exact thing we don't have. Can you see how there is zero hope in anything else? There's no other way, absolutely no other way that you can be saved. You will perish in hell forever as the just and righteous desserts of your rebellion against God. The only hope that you have is righteousness. And where's that going to come from? God has made one provision for sin. One, one. There's only one. Only one. And praise God, there's one. Praise God, there's one. But there's only one who could be righteous. That's the God man. The God man. Lord Jesus Christ, God who took on flesh, lived a perfect sinless life, right? His active obedience to the law, fulfilling all righteousness, doing everything perfectly that God, the law required, obeying perfectly in every way. And then that one who is perfectly righteous, having all righteousness, going to the cross, willing voluntarily to lay down his life to die for the sins of that people that God has gifted to the Son. Lay his life down for their sins. We need that. How's that done? The covenant. Covenant, we'll talk about next Lord's Day, we're willing. The covenant, the covenant of grace, the covenant of mercy, the new covenant, won by the Lord Jesus Christ as federal head, as covenant head of his people. That's why this is so important. And all this instituted in the garden, in the covenant of works, we need the imputation of another's righteousness. Your salvation is based on works. Your salvation is based on works, based on another's works. Not your own. Not your own. Your salvation is based on the work of another, and that work is done, accomplished perfectly in the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are put in an infinitely better position than Adam would have enjoyed in the garden. Infinitely better. Listen to Owen again. Listen, man especially was utterly lost and came short of the glory of God for which he was created. Notice how he says that. That's Romans 3.23. Man was created for the glory of God. We all fall short of the glory of God. Adam fell short of the glory for which he was created. Romans 3.23. Here, now, Owen says, Does the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God open itself? A design in Christ shines out from his bosom that was lodged there from eternity to recover things to such an estate as shall be exceedingly to the advantage of his glory infinitely above what at first appeared and for the putting of sinners into an inconceivably better condition than they were in before the entrance of sin. Far better positions. We've been redeemed. We've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And where the Lord Jesus Christ has resurrected, His people resurrected in Him. He's the first fruits we are raised in Him. Resurrection. Galatians 3.13. That passage in Galatians continues. Listen to what Paul says. He says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Having become a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree so that the blessing of Abraham, those promises of the Abrahamic covenant, might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Free grace. Amen. Free grace. Our confession chapter 20 says it this way in article 1. The covenant of works being broken by sin and made unprofitable unto life. God was pleased to give forth the promise of Christ, the seed of the woman, as the means of calling the elect and beginning in them faith and repentance. In this promise, the gospel as to the substance of it was revealed and is therein effectual for the conversion and salvation of sinners. The infinitely better position. Let me show you how it's better. Listen to this from Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 47. One way among many. Listen. The first man was made of the earth. Was of the earth made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven. Now listen, he's going to set up a contrast between Adam and the great Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. First man was of the earth made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust. We're made of dust. As is the heavenly man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. Amen. In Christ, you'll bear the image of the heavenly man, no longer the man of dust. Now this I say brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. This corruptible must put on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality, so when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your sting? Oh Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore my beloved brethren, light of these things, right? Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Amazing thought, isn't it? The blessings that we'll enjoy under our federal head. The Lord Jesus Christ in all eternity. Blessings that Adam couldn't have conceived of in the garden. Blessings that God intends for those who are His, to the praise of the glory of His grace, the riches of His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus, for all eternity that will be the blessed estate of those who are in Christ by turning from their sin and putting their faith and trust in Him alone. In addition to that, just as it is impossible for those represented by the first Adam to keep the covenant of works, it is impossible for those represented by the second Adam to break the covenant of grace. Impossible. We have eternal life. From the beginning, God determined to create man, lowly creature, and to raise man to the exalted position, the exalted authority, the exalted state of eternal fellowship with Himself, unfettered fellowship in communion with God, for all eternity. He takes this lowly creature so much weaker than the angels, so much more lowly by creation, and yet it's God's purpose to exalt Him, to bring Him to glory. As the Bible says, the Lord Jesus Christ will bring many sons to glory, the captain of our salvation. And to do all of that originally with, you could say, an entry point into that redemptive history, to do that through the covenant of works. This is a glorious redemptive plan, a glorious testimony of God's grace and goodness. Put your faith in Him, trust Him. If you're here, isn't that worth everything you are? Isn't it worth it? Don't you sit here this morning and think to yourself, Adam, what a fool, what a fool. And as you sit here thinking that, think to yourself, much more me, infant, thousand times over. How foolish I've been, how foolish I've been. Sitting here this morning in your rebellion against God, you are more the fool than Adam ever was. Sitting here in your rebellion and in your sin, so foolish, so foolish. When God holds out this promise, this promise of life in Jesus Christ, turn from your sin, trust Him. All praise, honor, and glory be to Him who has saved us by His perfect work. And then let's pray. Take a few moments, go before the Lord, and consider His goodness to relate to us by covenant. Pray for His help and understanding and meditating on these things. And when you're done praying silently, we'll pray together and we'll be dismissed. Let's pray. Father, we pray this morning, glorify yourself in the preaching of your word, in the application of your word to our hearts and minds, in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We love you, Lord. Thank you for the blessedness of faith in Him. Thank you for the blessedness of that covenant of grace. Thank you for salvation that you've provided and despite our tragic fall into sin. I pray that sinners would be converted to you. They would trust in you, Lord Jesus Christ, and find themselves represented by one who is righteous. And pray for my brothers and sisters here that we would be raptured with this truth, Lord, that we would meditate on these things and that we would see your glory, your goodness, your grace in them, and we would worship you and serve you faithfully until the time that we take on in corruption, conformed to the image of that glorious second Adam. We love you, Lord. We thank you for this time together. In Jesus' name, amen.