After God created the first man, Adam, he gave him several commands and one specific prohibition. Adam had laws, or rules, that he was created to follow. He was to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28). This verse is sometimes referred to as the “Creation Mandate,” because it outlines what Adam was expected to do as the overseer of God’s creation.
In addition to these positive commands, God gave Adam another law, or imperative: “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Adam’s relationship with God contained all the elements of a covenant. There are two parties, God and Adam, and each party had expectations placed upon them. In particular, Adam was expected to fulfill the Creation Mandate while obeying God’s law and not eating the forbidden fruit. If he was obedient, then he would have the right to eternal life. If he failed to do what God required of him, however, the penalty was death.
God was expected to keep his word and hold up his end of the deal: sustaining Adam’s life and not causing or letting him die so long as he was obedient. This relationship is sometimes referred to as the “Covenant of Works,” because Adam’s relationship with God is harmonious so long as he “does the work”—that is, as long as he obeys God’s law. Through the law, people can have a relationship with God and eternal life if they are perfectly obedient to him.
While the law is one way for us to have a good relationship with God, we can now see that it is only a hypothetical path to eternal life. We know that Adam did not obey: he ate the forbidden fruit, and as a result, death and sin corrupted the world God created (Rom. 5:12–14). Try as we may, we cannot earn eternal life through our own obedience and goodness. God’s law demands perfect and perpetual obedience. God’s law is completely just, so no act of disobedience, great or small, can be overlooked. As the apostle Paul explains, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20).
When it comes to salvation from the punishment for our sin, the law is a dead end. The law can show us how we have messed up, but it can’t teach us how to be healed of our sin. The law can diagnose our disease, but it can’t offer a viable cure. You see, trying to earn God’s favor and love through obedience to the law in order to make it to heaven is like getting on a treadmill in order to walk to a destination. No matter how fast you run or how long you stay on the treadmill, you will never reach the place you want to go. Under the law, humanity is in a hopeless situation, but thanks be to God that he has provided another way to have a relationship with him! God made a promise to Adam and all humanity. He promised another way to eternal life. This promise is called the gospel.
The word gospel literally means “good news.” In contrast to the law, which is full of commands, the gospel is a statement of fact. The gospel is God’s promise that if we repent of our sins and believe that Jesus Christ suffered the punishment we deserve on the cross, then we are forgiven, reconciled to God, and have eternal life. This salvation cannot come through the law; only through the gospel. Paul explained it this way to the church in Galatia: “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Gal. 2:16).
Christians are not justified—that is, declared righteous—on the basis of our goodness. Christians are justified on the basis of Jesus’ righteousness, which is given to us when we believe in him. Salvation comes through faith, not by works of obedience. Furthermore, the gospel promise of the Bible tells us that redemption is made possible by entering into a new covenant with God. Born into the covenant of works, we cannot save ourselves. But God in his mercy freely offers eternal life through the gift of faith. We don’t need to save ourselves, because Christ has already done the work we are supposed to do and suffered the punishment we deserve. The gospel is sometimes called the “Covenant of Grace,” because in the gospel we see that salvation is an entirely undeserved and unearned gift from God. God offers eternal life. All we must do is trust in Christ, who accomplished our salvation for us.
