2. The first covenant made with mankind was a covenant of works, in which life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity, on condition of perfect and personal obedience.
(WCF 7.2)
Inherent to the human condition is a “pull” to do the right thing. Many have argued throughout human history that this internal “pull” is nothing more than the evolutionary process of people learning through their mistakes and thus by “nurture” have seen our right from wrongs. The Christian world view would certainly validate that humans are indeed affected by “nurture”, but would also point out that our “nature” has something to do with this “pull” as well. And we would argue this to be the case because of what we see the confession summing up in our bibles here; humanity was created in the image of God with His law clearly being known in our hearts so that we could walk in accordance with His will within the structure of covenant.
So first things first, the confession states here that “The first covenant made with mankind was a covenant of works” and so we might ask, what is a covenant of works? Simply stated it was type of contract between God and Adam in which Almighty God condescended to a son to enter into a sort of working relationship with him. This is in no way an agreement between equals (as stated in WCF 7.1), but a picture of the creator meeting His creature on His terms. To put it simply, God freely decided to come and make terms and conditions with us so that we could have a fruitful and living relationship with Him within what we call a covenant.
Interestingly enough the word “covenant” isn’t used in Genesis 1-2, but all the hallmarks are there. God comes to man (Gen 2:7, 3:8), God speaks to man (Gen 1:28-30), God gives conditions for blessing (Gen 2:16, 3:22-24) and what will bring a curse (Gen 2:17), something completely in step with how we see God make covenant with His creatures throughout the rest of the old testament (see Gen 12,15 and Ex 19-20 for example). To which we might point out that the prophet Hosea was happy to see the whole thing as covenantal in nature, saying about rebellious Israel, “like Adam they transgressed the covenant” (Hos 6:7, ESV).
God expects perfect obedience from His creatures, and we’re to do this by living perfectly to His law (Rom 10:5, Gal 3:12). The confession goes on to state, “life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity, on condition of perfect and personal obedience.” Believe it or not, in one sense, that wasn’t totally out of the realm of impossibility for our first parents, as when they were in a state of innocence (before the fall), they were able to walk with God in perfect harmony by obeying loving God with all their heart and their neighbour as themselves (see Matt 22:36-40)
Tragically, though this was in their ability to do, Adam and Eve failed in both areas. God told them not to eat of the tree of good and evil, and as Eve was tempted by Satan himself, Adam stood by and watched his wife come under his influence and power of persuasion, and she in return gave Adam the fruit of temptation, thus leading to their posterity’s nature being totally invaded by sin (Gen 3:1-5, 17 c.f. 2 Cor 11:3a, 1 Tim 2:14). In that moment there was no love for God or one another, both the law and the covenant of works was abandoned.
The big picture of the bible is that covenant of works could never be fulfilled by anyone belonging to the heritage of Adam, as all humanity in that moment was sentenced to death (Gen 2:17, 3:19b, Rom 5:12). That was until by God’s grace alone, the second Adam, God’s Son took on flesh and came to dwell among us. He kept the law perfectly never once forgetting His Heavenly Father nor loving His neighbours perfectly. And we see this to be the case not just in moments, but in all that Jesus Christ thought, said and did - to the point that He gave His life for the fallen children of Adam and Eve, redeeming that which was totally and utterly destroyed (Jn 3:16, Gal 3:13)