God told Adam that he must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and if he did he would die.
This warning to Adam is the foundational thought of God’s eternal covenant relationship with man including both Biblical covenant revelations and theological covenant interpretations. A covenant is a contract or agreement between parties that contain performance terms (requirements), benefits (blessings) and penalties (curses) based on performance (obedience).
Our Understanding and keeping of this eternal covenant relationship is key to our having a correct relationship with God. The first ingredient of this relationship is faith. The Bible says that man cannot please God without faith and faith is believing there is a God and that God rewards those who seek Him.
God’s first revelation of a covenant was a commandment to Adam and Eve that concerned life and death, good and evil, and a blessing or a curse. God gave Adam and Eve total freedom in the Garden of Eden except they were not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and if they did they would die.
After each day of creation God said that every thing was good, but on the day that God created man He said every thing was very good. The creation of Adam took place after God had said let us make man in our image.
What it means to be created in the image of God is never directly explained. However, we can verify a number of ways we are like God from the study of God’s Word. For example man has been given both the capacity to reason (rational) and freedom to make decisions (volitional). As we read about God we see that He is perfect in all His ways including His rational and volitional capabilities. This is not the case with man, we have these capabilities but they are limited or flawed in comparison to God’s.
Yet, God has granted man certain freedom defined by God’s eternal covenant relationship to use these traits. Not only do we see God’s perfection as a rational and volitional being, Scripture also shows us that God is a relational and an emotional being. Man also has these traits. God is perfect in all His ways. The image of God in man is flawed due to Adam’s sin.
God has granted us the ability and authority to think and make decisions. He holds us accountable. God’s eternal covenant relationship defines both the bounds of our freedom and the responsibilities granted by God. God has defined what He expects of man in His eternal covenant. This is not negotiated, but declared by God. All mankind (even those who refuse to acknowledge Him) from Adam to the present are held accountable by the same covenant, God’s eternal covenant that was determined prior to the world being created.
God does not play a "shell game". He does not try to trick us, but shows us open hands that contain His blessings and His curses. God has placed life or death (blessing or curse) before every human, depending on whether they obeyed or disobeyed His commandments.
As we study God’s eternal covenant, we will see that it is progressively revealed through a number of people. This first glimpse was given to Adam. Not only is this a basic building block (first revelation) of God’s Biblical covenant, it is the fundamental principle of the written Law of Moses and is the foundation of the theological Covenant of Works.
All of God’s covenant revelations are closely related and this is demonstrated by the tight coupling between the spoken covenant revelation to Adam (don’t eat) and the written covenant revelation to Moses.
Even though the written law through Moses was not yet revealed the covenant concept of chose life or death had been initiated through Adam! Death has reigned from Adam to Moses. The Bible tells us that by Adam sin came into the world, and the result of sin is death. Because of Adam’s sin, sin and death has passed to all men.
This concept of all mankind’s accountability was further revealed by the revelation through Christ. The Book of Romans restates the covenant concept of disobedience brings death, stated to Adam, when it states that the wages of sin is death, which is equivalent to God telling Adam that to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil would bring death. Elsewhere in Romans God’s word states that "that all have sinned.
The Bible shows us that God is a covenant making God. This arrangement with Adam and Eve was considered a covenant even though God did not use the term at the time that He gave Adam the commandment. Later, in Hosea, God states that Adam broke His covenant and rebelled.
God defines His relationship with man through His eternal covenant. We use the singular form of the word covenant here in the same manner that Scripture does when it states God is a faithful God that keeps His covenant (singular) for a thousand generations.
The Old Testament covenant revelations are shadows or pictures of the New Covenant that is fulfilled in Christ. All of these progressive revelations remove the shadows and shine a spotlight on Jesus. All of God’s covenant revelations culminate in what God defines as the eternal covenant.
These progressive covenant revelations define the eternal covenant showing us who God is and what God expects of mankind. These revelations contain a description of both the freedom and the responsibilities that God has granted to us, both promissory and obligatory.
As we study the revelation of God’s eternal covenant, we will see that He gives us progressive views in His covenant revelations through Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Levites (Priests), and David.
All of these are only shadows of the better covenant through the perfect revelation of Christ. These revelations are needed after Adam and Eve’s disobedience. God had revealed to Adam and Eve all that was needed to maintain their covenant relationship, trust and obey. Their failure to keep God’s covenant required God to reveal His restoration plan for man. God’s restoration plan is the
eternal covenant that God had prepared before the world was created which is based upon Christ’s death, burial and resurrection..
In Genesis chapter three we see that Adam and Eve doubted God and His Word, that they disobeyed, and that God was faithful to His covenant curse of death coming for disobedience.
Doubt is the opposite of Faith
Satan is a crafty creature and caused Eve to doubt both the Word of God and God’s Character. Satan first questioned God’s Word by asking did God really say that you can not eat from any tree in the garden? After Stan questioned God’s Word, he then questions God’s character by implying that God did not want the best for Eve by telling her that she would not die but be as God herself. This deception led Eve to doubt God and this doubt lead to disobedience. She ate and then gave so to Adam who was with her.
Disobedience is the opposite of Obedience
This act of disobedience to God’s covenant is known as the original sin or the fall. Original, because it was the first sin of man and the fall because Adam and Eve fell from a close fellowship with God. Part of the curse was broken fellowship (separation) from God, leading to death.
Death is the opposite of Life
God is always faithful to His Word. He had told Adam and Eve if they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they would die. As part of God’s punishment for their disobedience God tells them it would take work to produce food and that their bodies would die and return to dust, just as God had made them from dust.
Jesus tells us that Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but that He (Jesus) comes we might have life and have it more abundant. This has both a physical and spiritual truth. In a physical sense we can have a more abundant life today, on earth and leading to an eternal life in Christ.
As we look at what happened to Adam and Eve after their sinful act of disobedience we will see ways that Satan kills, steals, and destroys our joy and relationships. Immediately after Adam and Eve’s sin they separated from each other by putting on fig leaves to cover-up. They hid from God. They were guilty and afraid. They blamed the sin on each other. All of these responses are things that were caused by man’s disobedience in giving in to Satan’s deception.
The Bible is full of paradoxes and one of them we see is life comes from death. Because of their disobedience, God’s warning of "eat and die" to Adam and Eve brought death. But this death leads to the offer of life, the bible states the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The promise of this gift becomes visible when God telling Satan that a seed of Eve will crush his head.
The all-knowing Triune God knew that Adam and Eve, as well as all mankind, were going to sin. Therefore, before He created man, God had a plan. He provided a solution through the promised SEED, which provides forgiveness and restoration in Christ Jesus. The book of Revelation states that Jesus’ crucifixion was planned by God prior to the foundation of the world.
Once Adam and Eve broke God’s commandment, God showed us a glimpse of this plan (His mystery). He provided Adam and Eve a coat of skins, which required the shedding of blood to cover their sin. Hebrews tell us that there is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. God is faithful to His Word. Sin requires death.
However, immediately after their disobedience God reminded them of His love by promising the Messiah, the Seed of Eve that would crush the head of Satan. This is our first glimpse of the fulfillment of the eternal covenant and also the foundation of the theological covenant of grace.
God has an ultimate goal for His covenant relationship, which can be defined by the statement that He would be our God, that we would be His people and that He would dwell with us. This covenant relationship will not be completely fulfilled until the New Heaven and New Earth that is described in the book of Revelation.
At the end of the book of Revelation we find all things are complete in Christ Jesus. Not only the consummation of God’s tri-part formula of Him being our God, and us being His people, and Him dwelling with us for eternity. But also all the Biblical prophecies such as everyone being a member of a kingdom of priests.
God’s eternal covenant is revealed in a progressive way, with a culmination of a perfect revelation (fulfilled) in Christ when He returns. This will be the completion of the eternal covenant.
What we believe effects our behavior. Proverbs say as a man thinks so he behaves. For this reason, it is critical that we understand and do what God expects of us.
Covenant Revelation Through Adam
In the beginning God demonstrated His awesome power when He spoke everything into existence. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden and they were naked before God and each other and they were not ashamed. This verse reveals that one aspect of being created in the image of God is our relational nature. As both emotional and relational beings, Adam and Eve felt comfortable with each other (no fear or shame) and with God. They were transparent with nothing to fear or hide.
When God created Adam, He told him that he should not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This implies that Adam had the ability to think (be rational) and the ability to chose (be volitional). It also implies that God had given Adam the freedom to exercise these traits.
Before Adam and Eve’s disobedience they have no fear, guilt, or shame. This covenant between God and mankind was the start of God showing us our responsibility to Him. Satan comes into the garden and encourages Eve to doubt God and God’s desire for her best interests. Satan tells Eve that if she will eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil she will not die but be as god herself.
We get a glimpse of both faith (trust) and lack of faith (doubt) in Adam and Eve’s behavior. As long as they trusted God they obeyed Him, but as soon as they doubted (lack of faith) they disobeyed (sinned). Eve doubted God and believed Satan. She took of the tree and did eat. Then she gave to Adam and he ate also.
This voluntary sin on the part of Adam and Eve led to the emotions of shame, fear, and guilt. These emotions caused Adam and Eve to put on fig leaves to cover themselves, to hide from each other. Immediately after they broke God’s covenant, they put up barriers between each other and hid from God. The Bible says when they heard Him coming they hid. God called asking Adam where are you? In response to God’s question why was he hiding, Adam said I heard you and was afraid.
In chapter three of Genesis we get the first glimpse of doctrines of faith, sin, and the results of sin which are fear and guilt that leads to separation (broken relationships) and cover-up between "man and man" and "God and man." It is critical that we recognize Satan’s pattern of creating doubt about God’s Word and encouraging disobedience to God’s Word. Once we disobey, separation comes. We start to hide from God and others.
After Adam and Eve broke God’s covenant relationship (commandment), God reveals additional information about Himself and His requirements, His eternal covenant for man. God was provoked by their sin. A holy, righteous, and just God must punish sin. Therefore, death did come because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. God tells Adam that from dust he was made and unto dust he will return at death.
Because of Adam’s sin, death came to man. All mankind is under the penalty of the law (death). Adam and Eve’s sin was that sin was imputed to all men. As is stated in Romans all mankind has sinned and falls short of the glory of God. This is depravity of man, all have sinned.
God is all powerful, all knowing, all present and unchanging. In His sovereignty He allows man freedom. God’s covenant relationship defines the extent of man’s freedom. Just as God allowed Adam and Eve to choose. Every human since Adam has been faced with a choice believing either God or Satan. All suffer the consequences of their disobedience. God has allowed each person since Adam to worship Him voluntarily by making the appropriate offering of trusting and obedience or to refuse to give Him thanks and to reject Him.
In Adam all die, but in Christ all are made alive. Like Adam we have broken God’s covenant, the theological covenant of works. We have been offered the theological covenant of grace through Christ. Each person is either under the curse of the covenant of works or under the blessing of the covenant of grace. These are the only two positions of all mankind specified by God’s eternal covenant relationship which is the basis of the theological covenant of redemption.
Each person must realize where he is. That is the reason God asked Adam, where are you? God knew. But, He wanted Adam and Eve to realize that they had disobeyed God and that their relationship was broken.
In Genesis chapter three we not only see the fall, but we also get a glimpse of the restoration process. This process includes God call. Man must confess his disobedience and come to God in faith which includes repentance. God then covers our sin with His forgiveness by the shed blood of Christ (coat of skins).
God has revealed His requirements to us through His eternal covenant. We are held accountable. The terms of this first covenant revelation through Adam are still in effect. Sin still leads to death. Also all the things that God tells Adam, Eve, and Satan after their sin, which is the subject of the next chapter are also still in effect.
The whole earth suffers the consequence of Adam’s sin. This curse will only be erased at the complete fulfillment of the eternal covenant where God says there will be no more curse.
The surprise of God’s next covenant revelation to Adam, Eve, and Satan is the first step in revealing God’s mystery of the cross. God showed a shadow of the cross by allowing a substitute in the payment of their sin debt, a coat of skins. An animal paid the debt of disobedience brings death or as Hebrews states, there is no forgiveness without shedding of blood. This is a demonstration of both God’s love and faithfulness to His Word. The coat of skins is only a shadow of the SEED (Christ) that will crush Satan’s head.
Where are we this day? Are we hiding because we have disobeyed God or have we responded to His call by confessing our disobedience and by receiving His "coat of righteousness" from the Lamb that was slain?
As we study God’s covenant revelation we will see Christ is both the promised SEED and the total of the sacrificial system starting with the coat of skins and ending including with the "Lamb" that takes away the sin of the world.
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!
It is very important that we understand God’s eternal covenant and live within its constraints. This is the forth article in a series that discuss God’s Eternal Covenant Relationship with mankind.
About the Author:
Rev. Charles King is the founder of Four Soils Ministry and has been involved in the sowing the Word of God as well as the teaching and encouragement of God's servants in a number of countries around the world. He has taught the Bible in local Bible Schools while being in involved revivals in Africa, India, Europe, and Central & Latin America.
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