Fides 18 N2 - Revista do Centro Presbiteriano Andrew Jumper

FIDES REFORMATA XVIIi, Nº 2 (2013): 99-115
described as a purchase. 19 In order to highlight this works principle, man’s
original relationship to God is sometimes conceived of as having been only
that of a servant. It is supposed that through his obedience he was to earn the
right to sonship and be made heir to eternal life. 20 Although children of God
are also his servants, this construction is problematic. Scripture suggests that
Adam had the status of sonship from the beginning (Luke 3:38) and there is
no principle that teaches that a servant’s work entitles him to sonship when
faithfully completed.
Throughout this study difficulties have been raised with regard to conceiving
of original righteousness as a job to be performed and as meritorious
of wages. Genesis 1 and 2 suggest another picture for the original eschatology.
After the fall redemption stands in the forefront because the train must be
restored after the wreck before it can continue on its way. Avoiding train wrecks
is of first importance, but it is not the principal purpose of the train and its
trip. Similarly, remaining righteous was absolutely essential for Adam, but it
was not what he was created for and not the raison d’être of history. Rather,
mankind’s eschatological calling centered on the cultural mandate.
Adam and Eve and their descendants, as God’s image and likeness, were
called to glorify him by filling the earth and subduing it. We may understand
that they were to fill the earth so that it would teem with image-bearers who
would transform all of it into a garden (Gen 2:15) and, perhaps, a great city
(Heb 11:10). When this historical work was completed they would be granted
to enter into God’s eternal rest (Heb 4:10). Would it then be the fulfillment of
the cultural mandate that would earn the eternal reward as wages? It could be.
Maybe the Lord did condescend to give the reward on the basis of the principle
that a laborer deserves his wages. If so, this work would by no means
have excluded grace and faith and the reward would not have been based on
justification. Nevertheless, another picture seems more appropriate.
Jesus speaks of both reward for our work and of inheritance. He says
that those who tell people about Christ and bring them to him receive fruit for
eternal life (John 4:36). He also says we are to labor for the food that endures
to eternal life (John 6:27). More often, however, in the Bible, eternal life is said to
be an inheritance (Matt 5:5; 19:29; 25:34; Titus 3:7). Labor and inheritance
can be brought together by regarding entitlement as based on sonship. Adam
19 Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. III, p. 164, writes, “Heaven is always represented as a
purchased possession.” The Westminster Confession of Faith (8, 4-5) confesses that Christ purchased
an everlasting inheritance.
20 Cf., e.g., Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology, p. 302, “... a reward for the probationary
obedience was promised, which, while a reward for right works, was far more liberal than the works
entitled to; and this was an adoption of life, transferring man from the position of a servant to that of a
son, and surrounding him forever with the safeguards of the divine wisdom and faithfulness, making
his holiness indefectible.”
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