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.

Gods OT Strategy (5)

The common view is that when Adam and Eve were sent out into the world, he expected them to do what they had failed to do in the Garden of Eden. That was not possible. They were still on the path leading away from God. Adam lived for nearly a thousand years, but there is no indication in the scriptures that he ever did anything to help God get a foothold back on earth. God continued to be shut out of the earth. He needed a strategy that would restore his influence on earth. That would take time to achieve.

God could not act on earth, unless a human person called out and asked for help. Eve had called on God when her Cain was born.

She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man (Gen 4:1).

We do not know how long she lived after Seth was born, but this was the last record of her praying to God. It seems that prayer stopped once Cain was born.

Gods OT Strategy (3)

God had given Adam and Eve dominion over the earth. That was a big call, because once dominion and authority is given, it cannot be taken back. God understood the risk. He said that if they rebelled, “they would be as gods” (Gen 2:5). They would not just have the power to decide good and evil. They would control a world that had previously been controlled by God.

When they Adam and Eve sinned, they handed authority over the earth to the spiritual forces of evil. God lost control of the world. The fall was a huge disaster, because it left God powerless on earth. He still had authority in the spiritual dimension, but his authority on earth was gone. This was painful. God had to continue sustaining the earth daily, but he could not get involved on the earth that he loved. It took all the wisdom and power of God to turn things around.

Most Christians have quite a small fall in their theology. I suppose it makes us feel better.

The impact of the fall was far greater than we often assume. The reality is that God was squeezed out of his universe and evil was let in. The powers of evil stuffed up everything in the entire universe.

A big fall needs a big salvation, which is exactly what God achieved through Jesus. However, he had a lot of patient work to do, before he could bring that to pass.