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could hardly transgress in any other way. The rendering “like Adam” is after all the best. It is
favored by the parallel passage in Job 31:33; and is adopted by the American Revised Version.
C. ELEMENTS OF THE COVENANT OF WORKS.
The following elements must be distinguished:
1. THE CONTRACTING PARTIES.
On the one hand there was the triune God, the Creator and
Lord, and on the other hand, Adam as His dependent creature. A twofold relationship between
the two should be distinguished:
a. The natural relationship. When God created man, He by that very fact established a natural
relationship between Himself and man. It was a relationship like that between the potter and
the clay, between an absolute sovereign and a subject devoid of any claim. In fact, the distance
between the two was so great that these figures are not even an adequate expression of it. It
was such that a life in communion with each other seemed to be out of the question. As the
creature of God man was naturally under the law, and was in duty bound to keep it. And while
transgression of the law would render him liable to punishment, the keeping of it would not
constitute an inherent claim to a reward. Even if he did all that was required of him, he would
still have to say, I am but an unprofitable servant, for I have merely done that which it was my
duty to do. Under this purely natural relationship man could not have merited anything. But
though the infinite distance between God and man apparently excluded a life of communion
with each other, man was created for just such communion, and the possibility of it was already
given in his creation in the image of God. In this natural relationship Adam was the father of the
human race.
b. The covenant relationship. From the very beginning, however. God revealed Himself, not
only as an absolute Sovereign and Lawgiver, but also as a loving Father, seeking the welfare and
happiness of His dependent creature. He condescended to come down to the level of man, to
reveal Himself as a Friend, and to enable man to improve his condition in the way of obedience.
In addition to the natural relationship He, by a positive enactment, graciously established a
covenant relationship. He entered into a legal compact with man, which includes all the
requirements and obligations implied in the creaturehood of man, but at the same time added
some new elements. (1) Adam was constituted the representative head of the human race, so
that he could act for all his descendants. (2) He was temporarily put on probation, in order to
determine whether he would willingly subject his will to the will of God. (3) He was given the
promise of eternal life in the way of obedience, and thus by the gracious disposition of God
acquired certain conditional rights. This covenant enabled Adam to obtain eternal life for
himself and for his descendants in the way of obedience.