A covenant of works, fulfilled in Christ
by Matthew Winter
In the beginning God created! We all know the story: the land, sea and air brought forth life and vegetation, but then God said, hold up, watch this, and He created man. Not only did he form man from the clay and breath spirit and life into this creation. The neshama in Hebrew, he called them his image bearers. What the imago dei is exactly no one is sure; we've been discussing it since Moses wrote the Pentateuch 3500 years ago. Some believe its consciousness, others that we are a trinity of sorts, body, mind and soul, like God who is Father, Son and Spirit. The view I hold is that it is a title. God gave us the title of image bearer, and with the title came a job: a list of things to do to bear that image in the world on God's behalf.
Gen 1:27-29, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.”
Rule the world, bear my authority over creation, fill the earth full of people that I can walk with as I have walked with you in the cool of the day. This was God's job for us, the responsibility of being his image bearers. Our reward? Our wages so to speak, the freedom to eat of the plants that the earth brought forth. God would provide all that we would ever need. The only rule? Don't eat from the tree in the center of the garden, don't eat from the tree of knowledge.
This is called by covenant theologians the covenant of works. Adam and Eve got to live in God's garden with God, with the access to the tree of life, this would have been their eternal existence and all they had to do, their end of the Covenant, follow the rules. Bear God's authority in the earth, multiply, and don't eat from the tree in the middle.
But we know the story, man fell, we failed our end of the bargain, we broke the covenant of works, and God cast us out of his garden.
We still bear his image; we see nowhere in the scriptures where that image gets stripped away. It is broken though, twisted, not as it ought to be because of the fall, distorted by the effects of sin in our lives and in this world. We as the church, God’s covenant people, still have a job to do. We are still God’s ambassadors, we are still to bear his authority, his judgement, his LOVE in the world on his behalf, but because sin has distorted his image, because the imago dei is twisted by our fallen nature, we tend to not do a very good job at this. Terrible in fact. But the good news for us is we no longer live under this covenant of works, there is one who keeps the covenant on our behalf. The man who died on the tree in the middle, because we ate from the tree in the middle, the man who uttered with his last breath, IT IS FINISHED! The covenant was fulfilled, the law kept, this man is Jesus Christ!
All who call on the name of Christ now bear his image, and as image bearers, just as before we have a job to do. But this time. This time, it has been prepared in advance! Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
IT IS FINISHED, tetelestai, in the Greek, meaning complete. Whatever God is saying to you. Whatever your calling. Whatever it is he would have you do to bear Christ's image in the world, Christ has already completed on your behalf. You just need to walk in it.
Call To Action
Stop trying so hard, more important still, stop wondering if you are doing enough for God. Stop looking for your next big project. Stop inventing more good works to do all the time. Follow after Christ. Rest in what he has done for you, and in so doing you will follow him in the path he has completed on your behalf.
Genesis Chapters 1-3
John 19:28-30
Ephesians 2:10
Reflection
1.How would your life change if your only focus was following after Christ?
2.How does knowing that the mission is accomplished change how you feel about your walk?
3.What does it look like to do the works prepared in advance, what kinds of things are they, and how is it different from the things you try to do for God on your own?
4.What “works” might you need to let go of to rest in Christ?
