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explicitly in Rom. 7:10 that the commandment, that is the law, was unto life. In commenting on
this verse Hodge says: “The law was designed and adapted to secure life, but became in fact the
cause of death.” This is also clearly indicated in such passages as Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:13. Now it is
generally admitted that this glorious promise of unending life was in no way implied in the
natural relation in which Adam stood to God, but had a different basis. But to admit that there
is something positive here, a special condescension of God, is an acceptance of the covenant
principle. There may still be some doubt as to the propriety of the name “Covenant of Works,”
but there can be no valid objection to the covenant idea.
3. BASICALLY, THE COVENANT OF GRACE IS SIMPLY THE EXECUTION OF THE ORIGINAL
AGREEMENT BY CHRIST AS OUR SURETY.
He undertook freely to carry out the will of God. He
placed Himself under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law, and were
no more in a position to obtain life by their own fulfilment of the law. He came to do what
Adam failed to do, and did it in virtue of a covenant agreement. And if this is so, and the
covenant of grace is, as far as Christ is concerned, simply the carrying out of the original
agreement, it follows that the latter must also have been of the nature of a covenant. And since
Christ met the condition of the covenant of works, man can now reap the fruit of the original
agreement by faith in Jesus Christ. There are now two ways of life, which are in themselves
ways of life, the one is the way of the law: “the man that doeth the righteousness which is of
the law shall live thereby,” but it is a way by which man can no more find life; and the other is
the way of faith in Jesus Christ, who met the demands of the law, and is now able to dispense
the blessing of eternal life.
4. THE PARALLEL BETWEEN ADAM AND CHRIST.
The parallel which Paul draws between Adam
and Christ in Rom. 5:12-21, in connection with the doctrine of justification, can only be
explained on the assumption that Adam, like Christ, was the head of a covenant. According to
Paul the essential element in justification consists in this, that the righteousness of Christ is
imputed to us, without any personal work on our part to merit it. And he regards this as a
perfect parallel to the manner in which the guilt of Adam is imputed to us. This naturally leads
to the conclusion that Adam also stood in covenant relationship to his descendants.
5. THE PASSAGE IN HOS. 6:7.
In Hos. 6:7 we read: “But they like Adam have transgressed the
covenant.” Attempts have been made to discredit this reading. Some have suggested the
reading “at Adam,” which would imply that some well-known transgression occurred at a place
called Adam. But the preposition forbids this rendering. Moreover, the Bible makes no mention
whatever of such a well-known historical transgression at Adam. The Authorized Version
renders “like men,” which would then mean, in human fashion. To this it may be objected that
there is no plural in the original, and that such a statement would be rather inane, since man