In a recent article we learned about covenants that God made with
man to administer and spread His kingdom on earth. These covenants were made in
the Old Testament, while the New Covenant was made through Christ in the New
Testament, if you have not yet read the article, please CLICK HERE TO READ.
We learned that the first covenant God made with man in the
Bible is the covenant He made with Adam (Genesis 1-3, Hosea 6:7). This was a fundamental covenant to man and was the basis for
all the other covenants that followed later. This covenant provided the goals
of God's Kingdom and the role and responsibilities of man in God's kingdom on
earth before and after the fall of man. In the covenant with Adam, man was
created in the image of God to work the garden, administer and spread God’s
kingdom throughout the entire world (Genesis 1:27-28; 5:1-2). God created the world and mankind, showing He is the supreme
ruler of all that He created. He created Adam and Eve as priests, like those
made in His image, to rule the world for God's sake. They had to extend God's
rule over the whole world.
There are those who say that God did not make a covenant with
Adam, and this is because God in the beginning did not use the word 'Covenant'
in anything he said about Adam. But we thank God that through the Prophet Hosea
in Hosea 6:7, Hosea educates us on this and we know that
God did make a covenant with Adam. The absence of the word
"covenant", in biblical records especially in the book of Genesis
does not mean that no covenant exists between God and Adam. Through Hosea we
learn that the first covenant that God with mankind was a covenant He made with
the first man, Adam himself.
Theologians call this covenant 'God's covenant with Adam' as a
'work' covenant because it is based on the principle of Adam's obedience. The
first part of the Adamic Covenant contained many important blessings
accompanied with a warning to Adam and consequences of what would happen if
disobedience was to take place. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God,
and were given authority over God's creation, and to administer and extend God’s
kingdom there are things they had to do.
God blessed Adam and Eve by placing them in a beautiful garden
with food of all kinds, amid four rivers filled with beautiful and spectacular
places ranging from beautiful trees to precious stones. Above all, God gave
them great status, he gave them authority to dominate His creation and the
ability to multiply and fill the earth with their children. God gives them the
gift of a relationship and the ability to bear children and fill the earth. God
gave the authority to extend and administer His kingdom on earth to Adam and
Eve. God was to extend His kingdom on earth through Adam and Eve.
The command given to Adam and Eve was to make sure they did not
eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day they did so
they would surely die (Genesis
2:17). Adam had to obey
God, and God promised eternal life through Adam's obedience. So in receiving
the blessing of eternal life, the work of man was to obey God's commandments in
this Covenant.
It is with great sadness to see that, despite Adam receiving
this command, He still broke this Covenant with God when he took the fruit that
Eve gave him, and ate it, defying God's command and bringing the death penalty
to all humanity in the world (Romans 5:12-14).
Death that was not only to man, but also to animals and plants. After Adam sinned,
instead of repenting and returning to God he placed the blame on his wife, and
his wife blamed the serpent (Genesis 3:12),
insinuating that the Serpent was the cause of the fall. They made God's good creation
the source of their fall. Adam and Eve had declared their freedom by a
single act of rebellion against God. What they did was more than just eating a
piece of forbidden fruit. To a large extent, they had defied God's clear
command. They chose to listen to the persuasive voice of the serpent and allow
their own pride to come in and work. They made a serious mistake of openly
opposing God's righteousness in guiding their lives, exercising authority and
power over their own lives.
The second part of this Covenant sees how God deals with the
broken covenant with man. Even with man falling and God punishing them by removing
them from the Garden of Eden, we see a merciful and loving God who created man in
his own image making another promise that will restore man to his former relationship
with God. Given Adam's sin of disobedience, there will always be hatred between
Satan and Eve, and her descendants. The woman will give birth in pain, and
there will be a misunderstanding between a man and a woman. Soil will be
cursed, thistles and thorns will appear in plants, and man's survival will be
in misery and distress for the entire natural world (Romans 8:22-23), and in the end death will be the fate of every living being (Genesis 3:14-19).
Despite the terrible nature of these curses, and the destruction
that occurred, within it there was a promise. Speaking to Satan, God says,
"I will put an enmity between you and the woman, and between your
offspring and her seed; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel
meaning" (Genesis 3:15). It is absolutely true that man crushes the
serpent on the head, and is hit by a serpent on his heel, but this curse was
not intended for the serpent only. It was spoken to Satan in anticipation of Christ’s
victory in redeeming man and bringing eternal life. The seed of the woman is
Jesus Christ, who although he was bruised by the cross (Isaiah 53:4-5), slapped the serpent (Galatians 4:4; 1 John 3:8).
What is the importance of this Covenant to today's Believer?
It is very difficult for a believer to understand the meaning of
the New Testament if he/she does not have sufficient knowledge and a good foundations
in this Covenant that God made with Adam in the Garden of Eden, for through
this Covenant we begin to see God's plan to bring redemption to man after we
fall into sin. We see God’s plan of Salvation. You cannot understand why Christ
died on the cross if you lacked knowledge of this Covenant.
In this Covenant, God promises to give Adam eternal life if He
obeys him and does not eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. God told Adam that
if he and his wife obeyed this commandment they would live forever. Through
this Covenant, we see that blessings, relationship with God, and eternal life
depended on the obedience or "work" of Adam and Eve in the Garden of
Eden.
This covenant of works between God and Adam still exists, but it
has no power to save the sinners because it does not provide salvation or
forgiveness of sin nor does it give eternal life, in this Covenant we are dead.
After man's fall into sin no one was able to keep the terms of the work
covenant, this is because we are all, without exception, born into the inherited
sin ("natural sin"). But to those who believe in Christ there is good
news, for the covenant of works has been fulfilled! Jesus Christ, the Second
Adam, succeeded where the first Adam could not.
We read about this good news in Romans 5:12–21, these verses say that Jesus, the last Adam, gave us eternal
life through His full obedience to the father. Therefore, if the first Adam had
obeyed, he and his descendants would never have died, but they would live
forever. But by Adam's failure to obey, Christ fulfilled this covenant by his
obedience, and through him you and I have eternal life, and we are in a
relationship with our Heavenly Father. Through Christ we can stand justified
before God. And just as we dead in Adam's sin, we are alive in Christ through
His full obedience to God.
Adam failed to obey in the Old Testament, but Christ triumphed
in the New Testament by obedience to death. And through him, by his obedience,
I and you have eternal life. Adam was the first man, created directly by God,
the symbolic head of mankind. Jesus is the God—the first man, the direct Son of
God, the Head of the Church. Adam and Jesus entered the world without sin.
However, when Adam was defeated, Jesus won. Adam sinned once, thereby
destroying mankind. Jesus died once, thus covering the multitude of sins (Romans 5:18-19).
In the covenant of God and Adam we learn that God is a Loving
and Merciful God. From generation to generation God's love and mercy for us
continued to display itself. We also learn that, even with all our weaknesses
and falls, God continues to seek us and build His relationship with us. All the
time God is good and faithful, God is good and faithful all the times. And this
is His nature.
What steps should we take to stay in the Lord's tent?
Adam was given two choices 'eternal life or death', for his
defiantness he chose death and a life full of misery. Today, after a long time,
God wants us to choose, to choose eternal life in Christ. It is true that
mankind is so corrupted by sin that mankind does not seek God alone (Romans 3:11-12), but we also know that God has continued to overcome the
consequences of sin in many ways. (Acts 10:34-35, Acts 17:26-28, Romans 2:14-15) and that God's image in mankind has not
completely disappeared (Genesis
9:6). By the grace of
God, we can still choose. In line with God's covenant with Adam, the gospel of
Jesus Christ encourages us to make real choices today.
God urged the children of Israel to "choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19). We have the same choice through Christ, and
we are argued to choose life in Christ (John 10:10). Choosing life involves loving God with all
our hearts (Deuteronomy 6:5) and being thankful for the gift of eternal life (Romans
6:23) which He has given
us through His beloved Son, Jesus Chris. The most important life choice we can
make is to choose life.
Because of Calvary I have been set free,
Rumishael Ulomi
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