Covenant (10) Not Holiness Code

Martin Luther treated the old covenant as a holiness code, because he wanted to use it as a slogan for rhetorical purposes, but he did not understand it. It cannot be used as holiness code, because it does not contain a complete list of all sins. Pride, patience, kindness, gentleness are not mentioned; neither is presumption or gluttony. We should not be surprised at these omissions, because this is not the purpose of the law. It focuses on sins that would prevent people from living in harmony. It was not intended to be a list of all sins.

Moses understood this. Although humility is not one of the Ten Commandments, Moses was the most humble man on the earth. He was humble because he loved God, not because it was required by the law. He understood that the law was not given to define sin, but to provide a way for people to live in peace with each other.

The Pharisees had tried to turn the law into a holiness code by adding hundreds of minor regulations. They had to do this, because too much was missing. Jesus slammed them for laying an impossible burden on the people, because he understood the real purpose of the old covenant.

Jesus corrected the Pharisee’s error in the Sermon on the Mount, by giving a true standard of righteousness. He then explained that keeping the law was not sufficient for a holy life. There are plenty of people who have never committed adultery, murdered someone, stolen from their neighbour or perjured themselves before a court, but that does not make them holy. Jesus explained that anger and lust are sins, even though they are not forbidden by the law.

Our righteousness must surpass the standard required by the law (Matt 5:20).

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt 5:48).

Keeping the law makes us peaceful citizens, but it does not make us holy. God's holiness requires a much higher standard than the law.

Some Christians assume that Jesus was changing the law and setting a higher standard. This is not correct, either. Jesus was not changing the law (Matt 5:17-18). He was explaining the difference between the laws needed for a harmonious society and the standard of righteousness required for holiness. The law is sufficient for people to live in harmony, because that is its purpose. It is not a standard for holiness.

Paul, explains that trying to be righteous by human effort is foolish.

Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? (Gal 3:3).

Covenant (4) Symbols

Every covenant has symbols. The covenant with Moses had the ark of the covenant. The new covenant has the cross. The covenant with Adam had two trees in the centre of the garden as permanent reminders of the covenant.

In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:9).

The two trees represented a choice between two options. God had made humans free. Because he is gracious and loving, it makes sense to follow him, but they always have the choice to reject him.

The best option was to stick with God. This option was represented by the tree of life. Adam and Eve were free to eat from the tree of life, but the fruit itself did not make any difference, because God had already given them life. They had received life when God had breathed on them when they were created.

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (Gen 2:7).

Adam and Eve did not have to do anything to earn life. They did not need to eat from the tree of life to get it. God had already them life as a gift. The tree was a reminder of what God had already given them, just as the cross is a reminder of the salvation we have received through Jesus.

Covenant (3) Spiritual Protection

The covenant with Adam contains just one condition. It was needed because humans were given authority over their own lives, which left them free to make choices. Some of the angels had rebelled against God, so powers of evil were at work in the spiritual world, making it a dangerous place. Adam and Eve would have to be careful about their choices, or they could end up in trouble. God have given them the world, but they would have to be loyal to him to remain those blessings.

Every covenant contains a risk. The new covenant promised full salvation. We receive that as a free gift, because we cannot earn it. However, to receive the blessings of his salvation, we have to choose to follow Jesus, because it is only available in him. However, if we choose to reject him, we can lose our salvation.

The covenant with Adam carried a similar risk. God gave the earth to humans as a free gift. They could do nothing to earn it, but the only way they could enjoy this blessing was to follow God. They must avoid all contact with Satan and his powers of evil. This is the reason for the warning to avoid all contact with evil (Gen 2:17). This requirement was there for their protection.

All that the first humans had to do to keep the blessing of the covenant was to remain close to the Holy Spirit. This was essential for their protection. They were living in a dangerous world, where the spiritual powers of evil were at work to deceive and destroy. The only safe place was close to the Spirit of God. If the moved towards Satan or his representatives, the Holy Spirit would have to move away from them, because he is holy and cannot be close to evil. The humans would be left on their own in a contest with a powerful and deceitful enemy, so they would always lose.

Adam and Eve were not expected to be perfectly obedient. They could make many mistakes without any harm. If they picked all the fruit before it was ripe, or pruned a tree to hard, that would not matter, because God had given them abundance. The covenant was not one strike and you are out as many Christians suggest. It was not even three strikes and you are out. It was a warning not to wander out of bounds into danger, because it would be almost impossible to get back in.

Covenant (2) Adam

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. When he had created humans, he established a covenant that gave them authority over everything that lived on the earth. The first part of this covenant was recorded in Genesis 1.

I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food (Gen 1:29-30).

God gave humans authority over everything living on the earth. This gift of the earth was unconditional and without recourse. The covenant was pure grace. No conditions were included. Adam and Eve did not have to earn authority on earth.

The covenant with Adam was a covenant of grace not a covenant of works. Adam and Eve were given the blessing of the earth, before God made the covenant. They had done nothing to earn it, and they could do nothing in the future to earn it. The covenant did not contain any guidelines about the nature of righteousness. God did not give a set of rules that humans must comply with. The only requirement he placed on humans was that they keep close to him. That was essential, because he was the source of the blessing of the covenant, but it did not earn them anything.

The covenant did not specify a standard of righteousness that humans should be tested against. Instead, he gave a relationship with the Holy Spirit. They did not have to keep a set of rules to maintain that relationship. As with any relationship, all they had to do was avoid grieving the other person. This was a covenant of mutual love, not a covenant of works.

No Covenant of Works (1)

The concept of salvation by works was given legs by Marin Luther. His goal was to expose the activities of the Roman Catholic Church, which he claimed was selling salvation. He contrasted salvation by faith with salvation by works.

The other reformers followed his lead and developed the concept of a covenant of works. They claimed that that God established a covenant of works with Adam that promised life and blessings on the condition of perfect personal obedience. This covenant of works applied from Adam to Jesus, when it was replaced by the covenant of grace.

The so-called covenant of works requires human to earn their salvation by living good lives. The law of Moses is presented as a covenant of works, in which the blessing promised depend on obedience to all the requirements of the law.

Despite its popularity, the concept of a covenant of works is contrary to the nature of God. He is a God of grace, from beginning to end. He has far more to give to us than we can give to him. God is gracious, so everything that he does is grace. All his covenants are covenants of grace.

God knows that a covenant of works can never work. Humans are incapable of earning anything from God. He does not make mistakes, so he would not set up something that cannot work. The covenant of works is a human idea. It is a fallacy created by people who want to prove that they deserve something. But we can never deserve something from God, we can on receive grace.

To show that covenant of works does not exist, I will begin in the next few posts to review the original covenant that God made with Adam and Eve.