on 26 May 2021
Q. 12. What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created?
A. When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.
God always relates to his creatures by covenant. In the Garden of Eden the creator entered into covenant with the creature (Hosea 6:7).
What is a covenant? It is a bond. It’s an agreement but much, much more. There are different parties, promise, conditions and penalties in a covenant. We speak of the covenant of marriage but here it is a covenant between the Creator and his creatures.
Q12 calls it the Covenant of Life, the Confession of Faith calls it the Covenant of Works. There is a condition. It is that as long as Adam and Eve obey the gracious command of God not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they will know life. They are allowed to eat from all the other trees in the garden, but there is one tree which if they eat from it they will surely die. The command of God was ‘do this and live’ but there was no mercy should they fail.