A Critique of the Covenant of Works in Contemporary Controversy

Protestant Reformed Theological Journal
The erroneous definition of the covenant of works as pact and
viewing it as a temporary arrangement to achieve heaven led many to
find the biblical basis for the establishment of the covenant of works in
Genesis 2:16–17: “And the Lo r d God commanded the man, saying,
Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
It must be admitted that connecting God’s establishment of the covenant
with Adam to the probationary command was a shift in the view
of the covenant with Adam from earlier theologians such as Olevianus
and Ursinus, who saw that covenant as inherent in Adam’s creation.
Olevianus defined the covenant of God with Adam this way:
It was a relationship…of perfect conformity: a conformity of holiness
and righteousness between Creator and creature (the imago Dei) and
a conformity of human mind, will, and affections, of faculties and all
actions to that image…. It was a relationship in which Adam and Eve
were “naturally,” i.e., by nature as bearers of God’s image, conformed
to their Creator. 68
Both men tightly tied the covenant of God to the creation of Adam
in the image of God:
The authors of the great Heidelberg Catechism (1562), Zacharias Ursinus
(1534–83) and Caspar Olevianus (1536–87), were important in the
development of covenant thinking. Olevianus speaks of a “covenant of
creation” [foedus creationis], being the obligation of obedience inherent
in the human’s status as God’s image-bearer, hence the synonyms
he uses—covenant of nature and covenant of law. 69
Adam was, therefore, in covenant by virtue of his creation in the
image of God, according to the early Reformed theologians such as
Olevianus and Ursinus.
68 Lyle D. Bierma, German Calvinism in the Confessional Age: The
Covenant Theology of Caspar Olevianus (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books,
1996), 112.
69 Ward, God and Adam, 54.
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Vol. 44, No. 2