Life in the Garden of Eden

Chapter 9 of Authentic Christianity covers the twentieth question of the Westminster Larger Catechism: "What was the providence of God toward man in the estate in which he was created? The providence of God toward man in the estate in which he was created, was the placing him in paradise, appointing him to dress it, giving him liberty to eat of the fruit of the earth; putting the creatures under his dominion, and ordaining
marriage for his help; affording him communion with himself; instituting the Sabbath; entering into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience, of which the tree of life was a pledge; and forbidding to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death." 

The first topic addressed is "the original home of the first human beings".

The original home of the first human beings was the Garden of Eden: “And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed” (Gen. 2:8). (609)

It was not, in the first place, simply the original home for the first man and woman, it was the place where the man and the woman would be received into fellowship
with the Creator in His own “home.” Eden was God’s home on earth. (610)

Eden would become the home-base from which Adam and Eve would fill the earth and subdue it and exercise dominion over it. All its resources and pleasures could be used toward that end. And, make no mistake about it, Eden was a place of abundant natural resources (2:11), of challenge, work and delight. (610)

That leads directly into Dr. Morecraft's second point: the original task(s) of humanity. Adam was to be an obedient gardener, the manager of creation, the steward of creation, and God's representative-servant (p. 611-612).

Adam was created to work (Gen. 2:5, 15). Work is not a curse, but a calling and a blessing. Adam was given work to do before the Fall, and manual labor at that....Work is God-like, because God works in creation, providence and redemption. (612)

The work mandate does not simply call for work, it calls for work with a certain constancy and regularity—six days of work with one day of rest. “The cycle of labor is as irreversible as the cycle of rest. The law of God cannot be violated
with impunity. We can be quite certain that a great many of our physical and economic ills proceed from failure to observe the weekly day of rest. But we can also be quite sure that a great many of our economic ills arise from our failure to recognize the sanctity of six days of labor.” 7. Murray, Principles of Conduct, 83. (612)

The Work Mandate underlies the whole issue of human vocation....Man is to work in his calling....“Every individual’s line of life, therefore, is, as it were, a post
assigned him by the Lord, that he may not wander about in uncertainty all his days.”9. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols. Trans. by John Allen (Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian Board of Christian Education, 1936), 1:790. (613)

The ultimate goal of man’s work in the development of the earth’s resources is not the cultivation of man’s abilities, nor the beautification and utilization of the earth’s resources for man’s enjoyment, it is the MAGNIFYING OF GOD’S GLORY. (613)

God, from the very beginning, has exercised a divine provision for the need of humans.

God verbally revealed to man how human life was to be maintained, at least in the Garden of Eden, before the invasion of death. Man’s food was to consist of herbs bearing seed and trees bearing fruit (1:11–12). Later on, after the Fall and the Flood, God revealed to man that he could also eat meat (Gen.9:3). In fact, there is reason to believe that God gave permission to man to eat meat after the Fall and even before the Flood....Jabal, the descendant of Cain, who lived long before Noah, was “the father ofthose who dwell in tents AND HAVE LIVESTOCK” (Gen. 4:20), i.e., he raised cattle or sheep, indicating a demand for meat. (614-615)

Furthermore, if Adam and his family were to continue to eat plenteously of the fruit and vegetables provided by God, they would have to continue to work hard in cultivating them. By doing so Adam and his family would develop personally and economically. (615)

God's creation ordinances were/are as follows:

To man in the beginning of his existence, God gave several creation mandates, or creation ordinances—marriage, procreation, dominion, sabbath and work—which were to guide and direct the entire life of man and woman down through their generations. (617)

All of these mandates were given to man, so that as man obeyed them he would reflect (“image”) his God-likeness, on his human level. He would live as God lives, although on a creaturely level, as he obeyed these ordinances. God is creative and productive; therefore man is to be procreative. God enjoys intimate unity with himself, as the Trinity, so man is to enjoy the “one fleshness” of marriage. God has unlimited Dominion, therefore man is to exercise limited dominion under God. God works, so man is to work. God rests in Himself, so man is to rest in God. (617)

"Their obligation and sanctity remain inviolate. It is not saying too much if we maintain that these creation ordinances furnish us with what is central in the Biblical ethic. These ordinances govern the life of man in that which is central in
man’s interest, life and occupation; they touch upon every area of life and behaviour. The fall did bring revolutionary changes into man’s life; yet these ordinances are still in effect and they indicate that the interests and occupations which lay closest to man’s heart in original integrity must still lie close to his heart in his fallen [and converted] state. Conditions and circumstances have been revolutionized by sin, but the basic structure of this earth, and of man’s life in it, has not been destroyed." 13. Murray, Principles of Conduct, 44. (617-618)

To look at some of these a separately, turn first with me to look at the Dominion Mandate:

The two basic facts about all human beings which are essential to understanding the meaning of our humanity, our “humanness,” are: (1) Man and woman are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27); (2) Man and woman are called to have dominion over all the earth... (618)

Human beings were created in the image of God to exercise godly dominion over all the earth....He is called to build a God-honoring culture out of the resources of Eden and to fill it with generations of godly descendants. (618)

This mandate has reference to the harnessing and utilizing of the earth’s resources for the construction of a godly culture and civilization on the earth through the generations of mankind, which would be based on the Word of God and done to the glory of God....Christian mankind’s additional responsibilities include evangelism and world missions. (619)

Secondly, the Marriage Mandate:

Marriage originated with God (Gen. 1:28; 2:18–25), and therefore has a sanctity, that must be respected by everyone... (619)

Dr. Morecraft draws out four main points under this heading. First, the structure and intimate unity of marriage.

“The skeleton is the structure of the body, that which supports the body; the body
would be like that of a jellyfish without the skeleton. Adam says, ‘She is bone of my bones’ (‘The structure of my being is the structure of her being’). ‘Flesh of my flesh’ (‘The very life of me is the life of her; I find myself, I realize myself in terms of her’).” 16. Rousas J. Rushdoony, Toward A Christian Marriage, ed. Elizabeth Fellerson (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1975), 15. (620)

Second, the authority in marriage:

Marriage involves a LEAVING AND CLEAVING (Gen. 2:24). 1 Corinthians 11:3 makes clear that the head of a married woman is her husband, not her father. When a marriage takes place, a new authority structure is created and a transfer of allegiance takes place. (620)

Third, the roles of husband and wife.

Ephesians 5:22–33 clarifies these roles of the husband as the loving head and the wife as the loving and submissive helpmeet; but the creation mandates, such as
Genesis 1:28, make clear that “the woman shares with the man the responsibility to subdue the earth to the glory of God. She joins with him in his task of forming a culture glorifying to God the Creator.”17 O. Palmer Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1980), 77. (620)

Four, the purpose of marriage, of which there are four...

First, marriage is a means to the end of global dominion under God (Gen. 1:28). God blesses man to multiply and replenish the earth, so as to subdue it....In other words, marriage is not an end unto itself, but a God-appointed means to a God-appointed end. (621)

Second, marriage was instituted by God for intimate companionship (Gen. 2:18; Ps. 68:6, 7). (621)

Third, in marriage is the completion of the Divine image. Man and woman in marriage, TWO PERSONS SHARING ONE LIFE IN GOD’S IMAGE, complete the picture intended by the image of God. (621)

Fourth, marriage was instituted by God for procreation and replenishing the earth with godly generations (Gen. 1:28). Marriage is the institution established by God for the fulfillment of the procreative mandate to “be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 2:23, 24)....The Bible teaches us to have as many children as wisdom dictates, so as to subdue the earth. The assumption is that Christians will try to have large families, knowing that it is the Lord who opens and shuts the womb,
and that all children are gifts of God to His people (Ps. 127:3). (621)

He adds:

Marriage is also the God-given provision for the sex impulses with which God has endowed us. These impulses are not sinful, for they have been implanted in us by God. (621)

However, the expression of these sexual desires must not be governed by impulse, but by rational choice based on the Word of God. “In a word, entrance upon the marital status is to be for the believer not an act of blind, impetuous impulse or fancy, but an act dictated by rational, deliberate decision in the light of the criterion by which God enables us to judge, the gift given us by God or the gift withheld from us.” 20 Murray, Principles of Conduct, 81. (622)

From there Dr. Morecraft moves right into the Sabbath Mandate (which I happened to notice was the seventh bolded heading; reckon he did that on purpose or by accident? :]):

Adam rested on his weekly Sabbath, because he “saw” God rest from His creative labors on His Sabbath, at the close of the week of creation... (622)

Just as Adam kept the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, because of DIVINE
EXAMPLE, so Christians keep the Sabbath on the first day of the week because of DIVINE EXAMPLE—on the first day of the week Christ rested from His redemptive labors (Heb. 4:9–10). (623)

God’s rest on the seventh day of the creation week was not one of inactivity. God ceased from the work of creation and began the works of providence and redemption. God’s rest was the rest of delight in His finished work of creation. Our Sabbath rest is the rest of delight in the accomplishment of God’s works of creation, providence and redemption. (623)

The communion between God and mankind is the next topic.

In this communion, or fellowship, between God and man, God “blessed” them and
communicated to them in words and sentences meaningful to both God and man (1:28). (624)

In Eden, God and man were close friends. God took delight in revealing Himself in all His glory to man, not merely intellectually, but in such a way as to bring intense delight to Adam. In this communion Adam had free and constant access to God, without fear of rejection, and with great pleasure in God’s presence. (625)

The last section in this chapter covers the Covenant of Life. (26. This covenant between God and Adam in Eden has been given several names in the history of theology, all of which are appropriate: (1) The Covenant of Works, emphasizing its conditions; (2) The Covenant of Life, emphasizing its promises; (3) The Covenant of Creation, emphasizing its universality; and (4) The Edenic Covenant, emphasizing its geographical and historical location.)

To  begin then--the reality of the covenant:

Although the word “covenant” (berith in Hebrew), is not used in the first chapters of Genesis, all the elements of a true covenant between God and man are definitely present: parties, promises, demands, sanctions, a bond of life-and-death significance....The phrase in Hosea [6:7], “like Adam,”cannot mean “like men,” for two reasons: (1) No plural is used here, and (2) It would be rather inane since man can hardly sin any other way than like men. Nor can it be translated, “at Adam,” for two reasons: (1) It clearly reads “as or like Adam,” and (2) Bible scholars know of no such location as “Adam.” (626)

The foundation of the covenant and principles of grace:

When God entered into this Covenant of Life with unfallen Adam, as the root and head of the human race (Rom. 5:12–20), He acted in pure grace and condescension....This relationship between God and Adam was not only a natural one between Creator and creature, or Sovereign and subject. It had the added quality of a covenant bond, wherein a loving Father graciously seeks the welfare
and happiness of His dependent children. (628)


The undeserved, unearned, and unmerited grace of God pervades the Covenant of Life. It can be seen in the following principles:

First, the principle of probation: God could have defined the relation between Himself as Creator, and man as creature, merely in terms of Sovereign and servant, in which relation, man would be duty-bound to obey the will of his Sovereign, with the expectation of no reward. Instead, when God created man, He created him as His servant, and in his unfallen condition, as His son, in fellowship with Him, as His Image (Gen. 1:27; Luke 3:38; Acts 17:28, 29). (628)

This Covenant of Life, this probation with its conditions, promises, and penalties, was all of grace, for in it God promised to do more for Adam and his posterity than they would ever deserve or merit. (629)

Second, the principle of revelation: Adam could not have dreamed of such a gracious covenant without a special communication from God....Man’s life in this world has always been defined and conditioned by the gracious self-revelation of the character and will of God. (629)

Third, the principle of justification, i.e., probation limited by time: God’s grace is clearly seen in the Covenant of Life in the limitation of Adam’s probationary, testing period, with reference to time. Without the Covenant of Life with its conditions and promises, Adam’s perpetual innocence was his only guarantee of perpetual favor with God. The smallest infraction of God’s revelation would unravel the entire relationship. (630)

Fourth, the principle of representation, i.e., probation limited as to persons: God acted in grace, not only by limiting the time frame of Adam’s probation, but also by limiting the persons being tested to Adam, as the root, head and representative of the entire human race (Rom. 5:12–20). Without the Covenant of Life, wherein Adam stood for all men, representing all who would descend from him in ordinary generation, each individual would have to stand or fall according to his own individual obedience. But in this covenant, the risks of probation were limited to one man, acting for all men, instead of being indefinitely repeated forever in the conduct of each individual. (631)

Fifth, the principle of adoption, i.e., gracious rewards for obedience: God’s grace is especially manifested in the promise of the Covenant of Life, which was to crown the successful probation of Adam. (632)

Sixth, the principle of eternal life: The life promised Adam in the Covenant of Life, upon his successful probation was not mere extended existence. Eternal life in the Bible includes the blessing of knowing God, and all that implies (John 17:2–3). (633)

Eternal life implies: (1) A change of inward condition; and (2) A change of outward condition. (634)

God has always dealt with mankind on the basis of Divine grace, and never on the basis of human merit. Even the Covenant of Life, commonly called the Covenant of Works, is a covenant of Divine grace. (634)

The covenant's participants: 

This covenant established a life and death bond between the Creator of the universe and the first human being, Adam (Gen. 1:2, 26, 28)....God constituted Adam the covenantal head of all mankind so he could act in behalf of all his posterity. (636)

The conditions of the covenant:

God gave Adam the promise of life in the path of obedience, which, if he walked in that path, would secure life for himself and for all his descendants. If he chose to disobey, he would secure death for himself and his posterity (Rom. 5:12–20)....His deliberate choice of disobedience corrupted himself; but, in addition, because he was the natural, covenantal and representative head of mankind, his disobedience affected, corrupted and condemned all his descendants. In righteous judgment, God imputes the guilt of Adam’s sin to all those represented by and covenantally related to him. (637)

The covenant's promises and threats:

God justly threatened Adam and his posterity with death—spiritually, physically, and eternally, if he disobeyed God’s commands. (637)

The covenant's two trees:

THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL (2:9; 3:3) symbolized the principle of probation. It is called the tree of knowledge of good and evil because it was God’s “instrument to lead man through probation to that state of religious and moral maturity wherewith his highest blessedness is connected.”39 It was the sign of God’s supremacy over man and of man’s submission to God. 39. Vos, Biblical Theology, 31. (637-638)

THE TREE OF LIFE was the symbol of the principle of life in its highest potency. It was God’s “pledge” to Adam of life and communion with Him in covenant faithfulness to each other. (638)

The present status of the Covenant of Life:

First, the human race is no longer on probation. (639)

Second, human beings cannot attain to eternal life and communion with God in terms of the Covenant of Life, i.e., by their obedience to God’s Law. This possibility was forever forfeited for the human race by the fall of Adam. (639)

Third, God continues to require of man perfect obedience as a requirement of fellowship with Him....But man, the sinner, is unable to produce that perfection; therefore he is under a curse and God’s righteous condemnation....In the gospel, Jesus Christ offers both His perfect life and His sacrifice on the cross in the place of
those He came to earth to save; so that now, by faith, believers are “accepted in the Beloved.” (639-640)

Once the Covenant of Life had been violated, “no way of relief from the death-curse may be found other than a bloody substitution. Only as Jesus, the Lamb of God, bears in Himself the ultimate curse of the creation covenant may restoration be accomplished.”42...The Covenant of Grace for us is a Covenant of Works for Christ. 42. Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants, 87. (640)

The Last Adam, Jesus Christ, our new representative, instead of the first Adam, has by His life, death and resurrection, restored the image of God in His people, the New Humanity in Christ. He has placed them in a position to reign with Him, to share dominion with Him, and to apply successfully the creation mandates to all of
life, motivated by love for Him, so that God’s original goal of worldwide, godly dominion will be reached. (640)

Fourth, the mandates and promises of the Covenant of Life give us a whole and unified world-and-life-view....The Christian man and woman, as the restored images of God, are to be concerned with all of life on earth, now and forever....Faith in and obedience to the Word of God must pervade and dominate everything. .... The creation mandates—dominion, marriage, procreation, Sabbath
and work—which directed and enriched the life of man and woman in Eden before the Fall were not abrogated by the Fall. (641)

Fifth, John Murray explains the following three positive observations concerning the continuing relevance of the Covenant of Life:
(1) We all stood the probation in Adam as our representative head and failed in Adam. His sin was our sin, his fall our fall, by reason of solidarity with him. ...
(2) Christ’s vicarious sin-bearing on behalf of the new humanity included the Adamic sin as well as all other sins.
(3) The obedience Christ rendered fulfilled the obedience in which Adam failed. (641-642)

The Covenant of Life and the Law of God:

God revealed His Law to Adam. He spoke the creation mandates to him, and He inscribed His Law on his conscience...If men after the fall have the work of God’s law written on their consciences, how much more clearly and perfectly would unfallen Adam have that Law written on his heart. (643)

What Law did Adam have?...the Law God gave Adam was the Law of the Ten Commandments...God doubtlessly gave Adam a perfect law, which is the law of love, i.e., the law of the ten commandments (Matt. 22:37–39). (643)

In summary then:

(1) The law of God was the standard of right and wrong for Adam before the Fall.
(2) The demands of God’s law are absolute, requiring personal, entire, exact and perpetual obedience (WCF, XIX, ii).
(3) This very law, in its moral demands, has never been abrogated, and stands for all people everywhere, as summarized in the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1–17). (645)

And that is all for today! I had some trouble concentrating, so I'm doubly pleased that I got through a whole chapter. :)

     Racheal