I had planned to publish my next post about the Mosaic covenant. But before posting anything about the Mosaic covenant, I thought it would be beneficial to go back to study of the creation covenant God made with Adam and Eve.
In R C Sproul’s series on covenants, he started with creation. Recently, I did 4 posts on covenants and mostly addressed the Abrahamic covenant because the posts were related to Christmas, the incarnation of Christ, etc.
I planned to post on the Mosaic covenant next and quit there, because I am interested in showing readers that the Mosaic covenant was not the basis for salvation by works, a different means of salvation than we have in the New Testament, etc.
As I listened through Sproul’s series, I heard some foundational information about covenants that I believe will be of general help to anyone trying to understand God’s plan of redemption that is laid out in the Bible by way of covenants.
So, I am expanding my series to include this information and may also include information about the New Covenant, so that connections to the covenant of Abraham might be more easily seen.
One of my major goals in writing about the covenants is to help readers see that the dogma of dispensationalists is very unbiblical, for at least two major reasons: there is only one people of God, Israel is the root of that people, but Gentiles were grafted in after Pentecost; There is only one way of salvation, since the fall, Genesis 3; that way is by faith in the Redeemer who was then promised. The way of salvation by works ended for ever in the fall of Adam and Eve.
video version of Creation Covenant part 3:
Creation Covenant, part 3 from R C Sproul’s series, The Promise Keeper
[Links and series description are at end of post]
The following points are merely highlights. Sproul’s messages are 22-25minutes in length and provide a much more meaningful and memorable presentation. [All bracketed statements, emboldening and underscoring are mine.]
- R C provided a bit of review for parts 1 and 2 of the creation covenant as he opened this 3rd part
- We were looking at the Adamic covenant, the covenant of creation
- Adam and Eve had been placed on probation in the Garden of Eden
- Some of the critical elements that make up the narrative of the Adamic covenant include the tree of life, the principle of the highest potency of life
- We looked at the principle of probation in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
- A lot of confusion and disagreement surrounds the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
- One such error is the belief that Adam’s shame from sin was necessary for him to ascertain the knowledge of good and evil, that he needed to have experiential knowledge that the guilt of sin might give him
- But Adam was created a moral creature and was called to discern between right and wrong
- That tree was off limits and could have also had a positive benefit associated with it
- The Bible does not explain why the tree is called the knowledge of good and evil
- The serpent came as a ‘tempter;’ he was ‘subtle’
- R C explained that Satan’s subtlety was evident in that via his temptation he made Eve and Adam think that the one restriction God had placed on them amounted to having no freedom Satan began by questioning Eve:
- “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” [ESV]
- Suggesting that God had placed a great restriction on them
- To which Eve replied, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die’”
- The serpent began with a subtle attack but quickly changed to a frontal attack of God’s word
- To which the serpent said, But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die
- The serpent went on to say, For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil”
- Satan’s subtlety was that they could, by eating of the tree, be elevated to the very highest possible level of reality, to the level of God Himself
- Including: to know good and evil as God did; to establish the standards of good and evil; to decree what is good; to do what is right in their own eyes
- For the creature, such is the very essence of sin
- In the fall, humans grasped for autonomy, that destroyed the foundation of their covenantal relationship with God
- The promise that Satan held out to them: deification
- The covenant of works / creation ended in disaster
- [In America, we are raised up believing we have autonomy; New Age teachers like Oprah, believe we are like God and can create our own realities; prosperity preachers; word of faith preachers teach that we can create via our words; Aleister Crowley called his law of Thelema, the law of self, “do what thou wilt.” All of the aforementioned stand in opposition to the Bible.]
- Gen 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”
- RC emphasized that verse 17 indicates physical and spiritual death…
- What shall we think about the fact that God did not follow through with His warning, He did not kill them?
- …God allowed Adam and Eve to continue to live physically, He postponed their execution and provided redemption for them
- That redemption is laid out between Genesis 3 and Revelation 20
- All of the covenants of the Bible, all of God’s activity after Genesis 3, is about redeeming His creatures after they fell into sin
- Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
- After the fall, Adam, Eve and the physical world were under God’s curse
- RC spoke briefly about the significance of the curse in scripture
- God’s curse impacted the earth such that it reluctantly gave forth, making Adam’s work hard; God had always planned that Adam would work, but that became more difficult
- Rom 8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved
- To Satan, God said, Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed [Christ]; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” [NKJV]
- In that metaphorical description of the curse, we have the Proto Evangel, the first gospel promise of the gospel – it came in the midst of a curse
- The first act of redemption also came then, when God clothed Adam and Eve; they had become aware of their nakedness after having sinned
- The only place that God has reserved for people to still be naked and unashamed is in the marriage covenant. Elsewhere, people are afraid to be exposed to the watching world
- In the marriage covenant, they are clothed in commitment and promises
- Adam and Eve failed to be obedient to God’s law. God did not annihilate them, but gave them a promise of future redemption
- He covered their nakedness, foreshadowing the ultimate covering of their our nakedness via the garments of the righteousness of Christ
Video came from the YouTube site: ISI27:17 [Iron sharpens Iron Proverbs 27:17] he posted 12 of the 14 parts of Sproul’s series.
Link to playlist on Covenants by RC Sproul at ISI27:17:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6Px2b63vzIENjEGaPZOAMmTTc_s566Cw
Links to Ligonier Ministries to purchase series:
Link to purchase: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/promise-keeper/the-covenant-of-redemption
Normally $28, presently $5: get download and hard copy with purchase
A related study, The Drama Of Redemption [seems similar but somehow differs? Haven’t listened to it so can’t say how].
First video free: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/drama-of-redemption/the-eternal-drama
Description of series:
How and when did God decide to save sinners from their sin? Was His plan an afterthought of the Fall? Considering all the sin in the world, does God need to constantly re-write the script to ensure that He gets the ending He wants? Considering these questions, Dr. Sproul takes us back to the very beginning to learn about the unfolding drama of redemption, and the director who guarantees all is going according to plan in “The Eternal Drama.”