Would that you take your own frequently offered advice.
All men are under the
Covenant of Works unless they are saved by the Mediator of the
Covenant of Grace. If a non-believer refuses to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved, he will be judged by what his words, deeds, and thoughts, hence, Covenant of
Works. We know that no one can perfectly keep the moral law. Adam could not even keep one, the First one, preferring to be a god unto himself, thinking he knew more than the God to whom He owed his duty.
[Speaking strictly, Adam was not offered "salvation," but
consummation. There is a difference. He could and would have earned, merited, consummation by his obedience just as the second Adam Jesus earned, merited our justification and glorification.]
The Fall did not abrogate the duty of men to keep the Law—two "tables" [the tablets] of the
Decalogue:
moral laws (not the ceremonial foreshadowings) concerning
duty to God,
duty to fellow man—later summarized by Our Lord (Matthew 22:37-39). Perfect obedience is still required before God. God’s character does not change, and He still speaks to mankind as if men are not fallen (James 1:17; Romans 8:4). The Law is the perfect reflection of the character and will of God which binds all rational creatures in perfect conformity in character and conduct.
Perfect obedience is still necessary to obtain eternal life (Galatians 5:3). Disobedience is still punished by death. The obligation to obey the Law is founded principally upon God, not “a covenant.” Men are unable to keep the Law as sinners, but inability does not negate their responsibility to obey.
Does the coming of Christ and the Gospel abrogate the duty to keep the law?
No.
The existence of the Covenant of Grace confirms the Covenant of Works.
Perfect obedience is required to obtain eternal life because Christ's
life and
death were necessary to redeem His people. The Covenant of Grace demonstrates the need to uphold the righteous character of God.
The fruit of Christ's work does not change the law, but changes the sinner. Jesus comes to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17; Colossians 1:13). In His role as our substitute, of course, Christ is made under the law. Just as, with reference to human nature,
what is not assumed is not redeemed, we can also say with regard to how we are circumstanced, that what
was not shared was not defeated: and so Christ was subjected to the attacks of the devil, temptation, cruelty, the curse of the law, death itself - that He might triumph over them all as our head.
The Law cannot change because God does not change. This is critical to understanding the Covenant of Works. Instead, there remains a renewed statement of man’s miserable condition all through Scripture (Deuteronomy 30:9-10; John 7:19).
James 2:10, “
For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all."
Jesus is "
made of woman, made under the law, to redeem them who were under the law." He voluntarily subjects Himself under the law—not because He must fulfill it in order to qualify Himself (as some have argued) for His role; His obedience is not for himself—but in order to grant us credit for obedience, our empty balance sheets. Such is the "
active obedience" of Christ.
We identify His
passive obedience as that suffering He underwent, the penalty for all of our transgressions. This is the debt-ledger, the
red ink of what we owed as tribute. Whence cometh the work of positive requirement? Nothing we offer comes up worthy, everything is substandard, mixed with sin so that we should repent of our
obedience (so-called).
Jesus' being under the law, therefore, is not to fulfill the Covenant of Works for His own Person, or because He owes this obedience as a mere creation. His obedience was perfect from all eternity, His humanity was perfectly qualified for a sacrifice at His moment of conception. Nor was there any probation in His living a life of humiliation for some 33 and 1/2 years. Jesus is in all important ways exactly "
like us," He became one of us in both body and soul. His humanity is not unique.
But in certain ways, Jesus is not exactly like us; He is
better that our first representative, Adam. 1 Cor. 15:47, "
The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven." Not simply that He is now glorified in his human nature, for in due time
"we shall be like him" as He is now. But that Jesus possesses particular qualities that suit one of His supreme dignity and office. Humans mimic this kind of exaltation when they put certain men on pedestals; but our ranks and orders-of-being are unworthy of notice, compared to Christ.
It is because of
who Jesus is, not simply what He accomplished, that He is so suitable a Mediator, and was constituted the Head of a new human-race, under the auspices of the
Covenant of Grace.
Our Lord's
active and passive obedience is the propitiation of the wrath of God for sin. His
righteousness is what is therefore imputed to us. An infelicitous use of phrases like "
His law-keeping is imputed" needs great qualification before anyone could even begin to understand what was being intended. Unfortunately, Robert tends to
blog and then move along. The cross-examination he is receiving for these sweeping ill-formed statements is not uncommon. Rather, it is just being done by others than his usual interlocutor...me.
AMR
