Fides 18 N2 - Revista do Centro Presbiteriano Andrew Jumper

FIDES REFORMATA XVIIi, Nº 2 (2013): 99-115
the specific purpose of testing (Matt 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13). God
permitted Satan to tempt both the first and second Adams. Clearly the testing
was not a peripheral matter.
We have come to use the term probation for God’s test of man in Eden.
Since probation is another term for testing, there is no objection to it. However,
we must not allow this word to bring to mind the idea that the Lord was, in
some sense, temporarily withholding his moral approval, contingent on Adam’s
passing the probation. 9 It was not Adam’s obedience to God’s law that would
establish his righteousness or right-standing. The Lord embraced Adam with
full approval from the beginning.
It is true that at first Adam’s righteousness was untested, but it must not
be thought that tested righteousness is any more righteous than that which is
untested. Perfect purity cannot become more pure. Righteous is righteous. There
are no degrees of righteousness. Greater righteousness can only be applied to
sinners and, then, to mean that the sinner, although still sinful, is more obedient
(cf. e.g., Jer 3:11; Hab 1:13). Of course, one can produce more righteousness in
the sense of performing more works that are righteous, but such righteousness
does not change the forensic judgment in view in being reckoned as righteous.
The probation was not a test of whether Adam could achieve right-standing
before God. It was a test of whether he would remain true to the position God
had already granted him. As far as right-standing is concerned, the probation
was not an achievement that merited a reward. Adam could not produce a
righteousness that would earn compensation. Righteousness received as a gift
cannot also be a status yet to be received or a work to be performed. This is
evident in the form of the command concerning the tree of knowledge, which
was symbolic of the character of the life he lived under the probation.
The command concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did
not present Adam with a job to perform. It was strictly a prohibition. If he
did not disobey Adam would continue to live as the righteous one he was. This
highlights an important characteristic of righteousness: it is always a gift from
God and requires that man not turn away from it. This may also be one reason
why the Ten Commandments are predominantly expressed in the negative. In
the first, for example, the act of covenant-making establishes that the Lord is
Israel’s God. To remain obedient to him, his people may have no other gods
beside him. Righteousness requires that man remain faithful to the gift he has
9 This is often implied in Reformed descriptions of the probation. Cf., e.g., FESKO, J. V. What is
Justification by Faith Alone? Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing Co., 2008, p. 9, “Upon the conclusion
of his test and labors, God would have declared him righteous. Adam’s righteousness would no longer
be untested, unproven. Rather, it would be conclusively confirmed that Adam was faithful and obedient
to the commands of his heavenly Father.” This description can be understood in a way that is unobjectionable,
but there is a problem if Adam is somehow thought to be counted as more righteous after the
probation is passed than before or if his works are thought to acquire right-standing with God. (RFB)
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