1. God and His Law
God created man after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness and true holiness. The capacities of man were originally adapted to the law of God. He was absolutely dependent on his Maker, in whom he lived, moved and had his being, and this obliged him to serve and obey his Maker. He both knew the will of God and delighted to do it; as he was made upright, the ways of the Lord were in his heart. He was both holy and happy; he had favour with God, and dominion was given him over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the cattle and every creeping thing on the earth. All the duties required of him were, in his own view, reasonable, pleasant and advantageous for promoting his happiness. He could say from constant experience: “I delight to do Thy will, O my God”; “in keeping of [His commandments] there is great reward”; wisdom’s “ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace”; and “the law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver”.
Adam was created as the natural root of a very numerous posterity, who were, in successive generations, to “replenish the earth”; and it pleased God to constitute him a representative of all this posterity who should descend from him by ordinary generation. To execute His own sovereign purpose for man, God entered into a covenant of life with the first Adam, not only in his own person, but in the name of all his posterity, in virtue of the law of his creation. By it happiness was secured to himself and them, on condition of his perfect personal obedience to the law of God, until the period of his state of probation was ended. And the wrath and curse of God were denounced against both him and all mankind whom he represented, if at any time he swerved in thought, word, or deed, from anything prescribed to him as his duty, in the law of God. Perfect obedience was indeed to be continued ever afterwards.
That God really made such a covenant with man, and that Adam acquiesced in the terms of it, may be clearly gathered from Moses’ narrative: “The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”. In these words, the threatening of death is directly expressed, and a promise of life is strongly implied. Sin procures death, as this passage expressly affirms, and death could not enter into human nature except by sin.
To vindicate the reasonableness, wisdom, equity and goodness of this is not my present purpose. The reader who is able to examine the writings listed in the footnote may expect all reasonable satisfaction on these points from carefully reading any or all of them. That Adam was a representative of all his posterity, descending from him by ordinary generation, is evident from the consequences of his sin. The Apostle Paul reasons thus: “As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”.
It is as if he had said, The first man Adam was the father of us all, and the covenant was made with him in a state of innocence, for himself and his posterity; sin, that worst of evils – even the first sin he committed – was propagated from him to all the inhabitants of this world, and became the source of all the iniquity that has ever since been found among mankind. A sentence was passed on the world by his first sin; it brought about the beginning of death temporal, spiritual and eternal, including all the miseries of this life and that which is to come. And so death, in all its hideous forms came upon the whole human race – through Adam, in whom they all sinned, as their public head and representative, in whose loins they likewise were. Thus they are legally deemed sinners in him, his offence being imputed to them, and punished in them.
“Sin is not imputed where there is no law.” It would be flagrant injustice and tyranny to charge sin on anyone, and punish him for it, if he has not broken any law. But it is an undeniable fact, in the experience of all nations and of all ages, that “death reigned . . . over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression” – they had not committed actual sin; yet they were subjected to this punishment. Therefore, to maintain the equity of God’s administrations, we must include even infants in these general characteristics of the human race: “There is none righteous, no, not one”; “all the world [is] become guilty before God”; and “by the offence of one, judgement came [or sin entered] upon all men to condemnation”. This view of the covenant made with the first man, the root and representative of all mankind, leads us to a just way of thinking about our natural state, as it is affected by Adam’s first sin, and the dreadful consequences of that ruining offence.
God’s law is stamped with strong impressions of the glorious perfections of Jehovah, the Lawgiver. He is infinite, and His “commandment is exceeding broad”. He is “from everlasting to everlasting”, and “the righteousness of [His] testimonies is everlasting”. He does not change, and “till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled”. “God is a Spirit”, and “the law is spiritual”. He is absolutely perfect, and His law is “a perfect way”, the “perfect will of God”. His name is, “I AM THAT I AM”, which expresses not only His unchangeableness and self-existence, but the most perfect simplicity of His nature and perfections; and His law is so simple and so connected that “whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all”. He is “glorious in holiness”, and “the commandment [is] holy”.
He is “a God . . . without iniquity, just and right is He,” and “the statutes of the Lord are right . . . the commandment of the Lord is pure”. He is “abundant in goodness”, and “the commandment is . . . good”. He is “a God of truth”, and “the judgements of the Lord are true”. “Reverend is His name” and “fearful”; and it is our duty to fear the commandment. He will not give His glory to another; and the law of God, not the will of men, will be the rule of His procedure with mankind at last. “Them that honour [the Lord, He] will honour,” and “Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them”. “They that despise [the Lord] shall be lightly esteemed”; and “cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them”.
This harmony of the perfections of God with His law is obvious and striking. It might be illustrated in many more particulars, but these that have been mentioned are sufficient to show that God’s law is stamped with strong impressions of the glorious characteristics of the Lawgiver. It is most reasonable to expect that the law should exhibit the glory of the Lord, because it is a transcript of His nature, a declaration of His will, and the standard of that obedience which reasonable creatures owe to the eternal God.
Hall (1736-78) belonged to one of the Scottish Secession Churches and, for the last 13 years of his life, he ministered to their congregation in Wall Street, London. This is an edited extract from Hall’s Treatise on the Faith and Influence of the Gospel.
William Strong’s Discourse of the Two Covenants, Herman Witsius’ Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, Thomas Boston on The Covenant of Works (in vol 11 of his Works).