And He Will Be My Son

Link: AND HE WILL BE MY SON: A BIBLICAL PARADIGM FOR THE COVENANT OF WORKS CONCEPTION This article was recently written by Dr. Sam Waldron and Eddie Goodwin from The Midwest Center for Theological Studies. It offers a very helpful conclusion for those who are interested in studying the recent intramural Christian debates over the doctrine of "The Covenant of Works." Many have felt that this doctrine needs some reworking and this article seeks to do just that. I believe this article will be very beneficial for all Christians who are interested in the issue. If you have not heard of "The Covenant of Works" or are simply unfamiliar with the doctrinal history, this article might prove to be helpful if you can accept the fact that more research will have to be done on the part of those who are not as up-to-date on the doctrine and the recent debates. Here are some points that I offer to help clarify some of the issues dealt with in the above article: 1) Adam was created to be a mature judge/king and become higher than the angels. (Hebrews 2:5-8; 1 Cor. 6:2-3; Romans 8:18-25) Hebrews 2 via Psalm 8 is the primary passage for understanding this. We were made for "a little while" lower than the angels. This means that God's intent was always the eschatological glorification of mankind. It is not as though we should think that the subsequent passages, 1 Cor. And Romans 8, etc., are only plans God made for mankind after the fall. To deny that God's purpose for man was a higher state than Adam and Eve in the Garden is to imply that the glorification of humanity and becoming partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-4) was an after-thought of God in response to the fact that man fell into sin while living in the state of Eden prior to the fall. The Scripture clearly tells us that the Edenic setup was a "probationary" period. It was the means to maturity, not maturity itself. 2) The prohibition of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was only temporary. (Genesis 1:29; ref. 2:15-17) God promised that all the fruit of all the trees would be food for Adam and Eve, therefore including the Tree of Knowledge. But we see that a prohibition to the Tree of Knowledge was made in the Garden as a temporary restriction until Adam and Eve had matured enough to attain to the Knowledge of Good and Evil that God had always intended for them to have. Of course we must be clear that this knowledge is not bad knowledge since God's response to Adam and Eve was, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:22) God had this knowledge, therefore it was good and holy. Also, the problem was not that God took issue with us becoming like Him, but that we became like Him in an immature state which God would have to rectify by sending His Son, the "second Adam." (Romans 5) And, as noted in my first point, God's intent has always been to make man a partaker of the divine nature and to fulfill his image bearing - which is to be made completely into the image of the "second Adam", God's eternal Son - Jesus Christ. 3) It must then be concluded that the "Covenant of Works Conception" is a valid and important doctrine for all Christians to affirm for the sake of sound eschatology and anthropological clarity. ================================== Please consider the above referenced article a very timely and needed addition to the debate of this important issue of Covenant Theology. All Christians should study and understand this issue since it is a very important part of our understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This doctrine helps to clarify and expound upon His earthly ministry, in which He accomplished the things that the first Adam failed to do. In Christ and In Defense of the Faith,