Covenant of works
A view held among orthodox Christians
The arrangement Reformed theology sees God making with Adam before the fall, promising life on condition of perfect obedience.
Also called: covenant of life, Adamic covenant
What it means
The covenant of works is the name Reformed confessions give to God's relationship with Adam in the garden. God commanded Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and attached death to disobedience. Reformed theology reads this as more than a single rule: Adam stood as the representative head of the whole human race, and life was promised on condition of perfect and personal obedience.
Adam broke that covenant, and his guilt and corruption passed to all who descend from him. This is why Paul can say that through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners. The covenant of works also explains why Christ is called the last Adam: he came as a new head and rendered the perfect obedience that Adam failed to give, so that his righteousness could be counted to all who are united to him by faith.
The phrase does not appear in Scripture, and some evangelical teachers do not use it. Both the Westminster and 1689 Baptist confessions affirm it, and it is held across confessional Presbyterian and Reformed Baptist churches.
In Scripture
God gives Adam a command with the threat of death attached to disobedience.
Israel is said to have transgressed the covenant like Adam.
Sin and death entered the world through one man and spread to all.
One man's disobedience made many sinners, and one man's obedience will make many righteous.
In Adam all die, and in Christ all will be made alive.
The law's principle is that the one who does these things will live by them.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 7.2; WCF 19.1; LBCF 1689 7.1; LBCF 1689 19.1
Related terms
Covenant theologyA view held among orthodox Christians
A way of reading the whole Bible as the story of God's covenants, centred on one covenant of grace administered across both testaments.
Covenant of graceA view held among orthodox Christians
God's gracious promise, first announced after the fall, to save sinners through Christ by faith.
Historical AdamHistoric orthodoxy
Adam and Eve were real people, created directly by God, from whom the whole human race descends and through whom sin entered the world.
Original sinHistoric orthodoxy
Because of Adam's first sin, every person is born both guilty before God and corrupt in nature.
ImputationHistoric orthodoxy
God counts, or credits, one person's standing to another, so that our sin was counted to Christ and His righteousness is counted to those who believe.