The Everlasting Covenant - 4.0 Covenant Given to Adam

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4.0 Covenant Given to Adam!
by Hubert F. Sturges, www.everlastingcovenant.com, April 6, 2010
Topics:
In Pristine Eden
Sin In Eden
The Covenant - God’s Answer
The Sinful Nature
Consequences of Sin
Reconciliation
Cain and Abel

The Covenant is a formal commitment God makes to support and to redeem His creation. God promises to be with us always (Matthew 28:20), and to restore all that was lost in Eden.


In Pristine Eden

Before the fall, Adam and Eve did not even think of sin. They were friends with God and loved to visit with Him. God gave them pleasure, purpose and meaning in life. Being intelligent and free to make choices that made life interesting and creative for them. In the deep wisdom of God and His unsurpassed love for them there was always more to learn. They patterned their lives after what they saw of God. They were perfect in love, obedience, health, and strength. Their relationship with God was close, enthusiastic, and personal.

As a matter of interest, some will ask, was there a covenant before sin? My answer is that the covenant of God was made to restore all that was lost by sin. Sinless beings did not need that, and were fully able to keep the law in their unimpaired God-given strength. It would be better to point out that all God’s creation is under law -- a law that is holy, just, and good; showing the character of God Himself.


Sin in Eden

It is not known how long Adam and Eve lived before they sinned. Cain and Abel were born after sin, and were maybe 20 years old when Cain slew Abel. When Adam was 130 years old, his third son, Seth, was born. There is no evidence for this, but it seems that events moved slowly in that age, and that maybe fifty years passed before they were tempted and sinned.

Long before that, they had been told of the war in heaven, and that Satan was cast out into the earth. However, he was allowed to tempt them in only one way --
. . . “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
. . . “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17, KJV).

The Covenant -- God’s Answer

Before sin, Adam and Eve had perfect trust, fellowship and approval with God. After sin, they stood under the condemnation of the law and deserved death (Romans 5:18).

They had been warned that “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” This cryptic phrase is the cause of speculation. Obviously Adam and Eve did not die that day, and the human race continued to live. It has been explained that “surely die” can also be translated as “dying, thou shalt die.” We don’t have a clear answer on this, but before the sun set that day, the Lord came and gave them the covenant. It was Christ who would die for them. They were given a probation in which they would choose who they would serve -- Christ or Satan.

The covenant was given as a conversation between God and the serpent, representing Satan.

 . . . “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15)
“I will put .. is a statement of what God will do. It is the New Covenant promise that “I will put my law in their inward parts” (Jeremiah 31:33). Men would be given a conscience, a resistance to sin and evil. Further, the seed of the woman, Christ, would “bruise thy head” or destroy sin and sinners. This would occur only through suffering, “thou shalt bruise his heel.”

God graciously brought the guilty pair back under the everlasting covenant, with the new provision of forgiveness of sin. The everlasting covenant was decreed in the council of the Father and the Son before this world was made. Jesus became “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8; see also Matthew 13:35; 25:34; John 17:24; 1 Peter 1:20). Only in the promise of Jesus, the coming Redeemer, were Adam and Eve saved from death, and given hope for restoration and reconciliation (Romans 6:23; 5:18).

He would Himself meet the demands of the law. He would Himself take the sin of mankind, and offer His life a sacrifice. Through His promised sacrifice He bought back the human race. They were placed in a position where the grace of God could work on their lives.

God immediately clothed Adam and Eve in skins (Genesis 3:29). The inadequate and uncomfortable fig leaves were removed. This showed in symbols that the “covering” for man’s sin could come only through shed blood (Heb 9:22). In this act of mercy is seen the prototype of the sacrificial system, pointing forward to the Messiah who would make the true sacrifice for sins.


The Sinful Nature

Adam was given dominion over the earth under God. Through Adam’s sin, Satan usurped that dominion, but in rebellion against God he could not hold it naturally. Beyond that, Satan challenged even the ownership of God over creation. When sin came into the world, the nature of man was changed. He had mistrusted God and broken the bond. Self became the center and focus of his personality instead of God.

 . . . “When man transgressed the divine law, his nature became evil, and he was in harmony, not at variance, with Satan. There exists naturally no enmity between sinful man and the originator of sin. Both became evil through apostasy. . . . Had not God specially interposed, Satan and man would have entered into an alliance against Heaven; and instead of cherishing enmity against Satan, the whole human family would have been united in opposition to God.” White EG: The Great Controversy, p. 505

What is the sinful nature?

1. They were now at the mercy of Satan, having chosen another master (Romans 6:16, NIV). Without help they would unite with Satan in rebellion against God. However, man did not have full knowledge of the character of God, nor of His grace. God would give them probation to learn and to repent.
2. They had turned away from God and His love.
3. To sin is to gain the knowledge of sin, and to make sin an option. By contrast, sinless beings know nothing about sin. When they make a decision, sin is not an option.
4. The natural man with a sinful nature enjoys sin. He glories in violence, infidelity, lust, etc.
5. The cardinal sins of the sinful nature are pride, selfishness, and unbelief. These are so deeply embedded in the sinful nature that only by grace can a person be changed.


The Consequences of Sin

Satan does not directly pose as God. Instead he deceives the sinner into serving himself. And the sinful self is described as “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it” (Jeremiah 17:9)? In choosing against God, man had chosen “another god” and in so doing had surrendered dominion of the earth to Satan (Romans 6:16).

 . . . “Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness” (Romans 6:16 NIV)?
What did it mean when Satan, through the serpent said, “and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4)? Several concepts are shown in this statement: Adam and Eve in Eden knew only good. Now their choices would be broadened. Evil had now become an option, and having experienced evil, it would be easier to sin again. Man would now choose his own way. But what a tragedy this was, for “it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23).

In following their own way, they were now to seek their own pleasure, to work for their own support, to gather to themselves “things,” to seek for their own power, and in these to seek for their own meaning in life. Ultimately, in all this self-seeking they were doomed to fail, and, separate from God, would die. In doubting God, believing falsehood against God, and directly disobeying God in eating the fruit, Adam and Eve had exercised the option to sin. And once this was done, sin was always an option.

 . . . “And the Lord God said, behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil” (Genesis 3:22):
God came to change all this. He gave a covenant binding Himself to die in man’s place. Men were put on probation and life continued so that men could learn of the mercy of God. They would learn about the self-sacrificing love of Christ and His joy, gentleness, patience, purity and peace. In knowing Him, men could again become like Him and respond to Him in kind. God would again become Creator, Saviour and Friend. Sin would cease to be an option.

The “wisdom” they gained from eating the fruit quickly became a curse. It caused Adam to blame Eve, Eve to blame the serpent, and both to blame God. The fruit of disobedience was immediately apparent: condemnation, guilt, blame, loss of fellowship, and fear to meet God. Their love and their joy were gone.

 . . . “The test given our first parents was the lightest conceivable. It was so light that there could be no possible excuse for transgression.
  . . . “After Adam’s fall God could have let Adam and Eve die and start again with a new pair. But that would be to confess failure. Would it not be better to give Adam and Eve another opportunity? Perhaps they had learned their lesson and would not disobey again. God could simply forgive them and give them another trial. But that involved other considerations. If given another probation, and if they again should fall, would not still another trial have to be given them, and another, and another, without end? And if that were done would they ever learn the lesson that death lurks in the least deviation from God’s will?
  . . . “Unless they learned this, safety could never be attained in this world or in the universe. God could indeed forgive, but the matter was not so simple as that. Man had sinned and it was necessary that he learn what the wages of sin are, and that God does not arbitrarily decree death because of transgression, but that death is wrapped up in the sin itself.” M. L. Andreasen: The Book of Hebrews, Washington, D.C., Review and Herald, 1948, 285

Reconciliation

God’s plan is to have a close association between the human and the divine. This beautiful relationship began in Eden. The Bible gives the story of the relationship of God with men. The mystery of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16) is Jesus, second person of the Godhead, living on earth as a man. The efficacy of the grace of God is to restore the image of God in men, to show “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

This is the goal of the Christian today. We are sinners. We need the objective law to show us what is right and to show us what God is like. More than this, we need to know Jesus Christ. Our relationship with Him must be close and personal. Our thoughts, words, and actions must be patterned on what He says and does. Jesus must be everything to us. Is there a law? Of course. However, with Jesus, we do not focus on a “law.” Instead we see Jesus who is “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28), “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).


Cain and Abel

While not specified in the written record, Adam and Eve had begun to offer lambs as sacrifices. Following events show that God had instructed them to offer lambs as sacrifices, as only through shed blood would the sacrifice of the Redeemer be shown. When Cain and Abel reached maturity, they were themselves to offer lambs for sacrifices. With unlimited range land to feed on, lambs were cheap. Abel offered a lamb. Cain offered choice fruit as a sacrifice, thinking his was the better offering. But God recognized Abel’s offering and not his! He was crushed.

Cain, the older brother, was expected to be the leader in all things. His offering of fruit was an attempt to offer something of value. Cain showed a misunderstanding of the reason for the sacrifice. He showed rebellion against God by going his own way and disobeying a direct command. And finally, he tried by his works, to gain the favor of God by his “valuable” sacrifice,

He expected God would be pleased with his generosity. The problem was that a blood offering was required. In giving fruit, Cain refused to recognize that he was a sinner, and that only by the death of the Redeemer could his sin be forgiven (Hebrews 9:22).

The heart of the gospel is shown in this event. Sins are forgiven only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Only through His sacrifice on Calvary is grace mediated to the human race, and only through grace is there enmity against sin and the law written on the heart. This is the focus of the New Covenant.

The bloodless offering of Cain is the attempt to do God’s will through human effort. It was a valuable offering, but lacking shed blood could not point to the coming Redeemer. There was no forgiving grace, and no grace to put enmity against sin and to write the law on the heart. It was the essence of the Old Covenant.

The contrast between the New and the Old Covenant is present in every presentation of the Everlasting Covenant. This is an issue that must be clearly understood by every Christian. It is only through grace that the life is changed and the image of God restored.

While the sacrificial system was instituted at this time, there is only occasional mention of sacrifices until Sinai. But this occasional reference to sacrifices probably indicated a pattern where sacrifices were offered on a regular basis.