Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

with men, it is always God who lays down the terms, and they are very gracious terms,
so that He has, also from that point of view, a perfect right to expect that man will
assent to them. In the case under consideration God had but to announce the covenant,
and the perfect state in which Adam lived was a sufficient guarantee for his acceptance.
2. THERE WAS A PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE. Some deny that there is any Scripture
evidence for such a promise. Now it is perfectly true that no such promise is explicitly
recorded, but it is clearly implied in the alternative of death as the result of
disobedience. The clear implication of the threatened punishment is that in the case of
obedience death would not enter, and this can only mean that life would continue. It
has been objected that this would only mean a continuation of Adam’s natural life, and
not what Scripture calls life eternal. But the Scriptural idea of life is life in communion
with God; and this is the life which Adam possessed, though in his case it was still
amissible. If Adam stood the test, this life would be retained not only, but would cease
to be amissible, and would therefore be lifted to a higher plane. Paul tells us explicitly in
Rom. 7:10 that the commandment, that is the law, was unto life. In commenting on this
verse Hodge says: “The law was designed and adapted to secure life, but became in fact
the cause of death.” This is also clearly indicated in such passages as Rom. 10:5; Gal.
3:13. Now it is generally admitted that this glorious promise of unending life was in no
way implied in the natural relation in which Adam stood to God, but had a different
basis. But to admit that there is something positive here, a special condescension of
God, is an acceptance of the covenant principle. There may still be some doubt as to the
propriety of the name “Covenant of Works,” but there can be no valid objection to the
covenant idea.
3. BASICALLY, THE COVENANT OF GRACE IS SIMPLY THE EXECUTION OF THE ORIGINAL
AGREEMENT BY CHRIST AS OUR SURETY. He undertook freely to carry out the will of God.
He placed Himself under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law,
and were no more in a position to obtain life by their own fulfilment of the law. He
came to do what Adam failed to do, and did it in virtue of a covenant agreement. And if
this is so, and the covenant of grace is, as far as Christ is concerned, simply the carrying
out of the original agreement, it follows that the latter must also have been of the nature
of a covenant. And since Christ met the condition of the covenant of works, man can
now reap the fruit of the original agreement by faith in Jesus Christ. There are now two
ways of life, which are in themselves ways of life, the one is the way of the law: “the
man that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby,” but it is a way
by which man can no more find life; and the other is the way of faith in Jesus Christ,
who met the demands of the law, and is now able to dispense the blessing of eternal life.
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