Most of the Covenant guys believe that the Covenant of Works would bring about salvation for Adam, or anyone who could keep it. Most of the Covenant teachers, however, were inconsistent in their teaching of this view. Below are quotes from most of the important Covenant men that proves they held to this view. This is poor theology, indeed! Their view has no scriptural support. Dispensationalists have it right; the covenant men do not!
Berkhof: "Regarding the covenant of works, it must be admitted that the term 'covenant' is not found in the first three chapters of Genesis, but this is not tantamount to saying that they do not contain the necessary data for the construction of a doctrine of the covenant of works."
Berkhof: "There may still be some doubt as to the propriety of the name Covenant of Works, but there can be no valid objection to the covenant of works idea." "They who deny the covenant of works generjavascript:void(0)ally base their denial in part on the fact that there is no record of such a promise in the Bible. And it is perfectly true that Scripture contains no explicit promise of eternal life to Adam."
Charles Hodge: "Concerning the covenant of works with Adam. This statement does not rest upon any express declaration of the Scriptures. And although the word covenant [as of works] is not used in Genesis, and does not elsewhere, in any clear passage, occur in reference to the transaction there recorded. … It is plain that the Bible does represent the arrangement made with Adam as a truly federal transaction."
Berkhof: "The covenant of works is an agreement between God and Adam that he would obey the Lord in regard to not eating of the tree of good and evil. This obedience incumbent upon Adam shows that it is a covenant, though sovereignly initiated by God alone. In a sense, this was a salvation by works."
Reymond: "The covenant of works is still normative. It places upon man always to render to God perfect obedience to the moral law, it reflects the obligation of the rational creature to obey his Creator." "Men represented by Adam are still culpable before God and subject to death on the basis of the terms of the original covenant of works." "It shows perpetual obedience that God laid upon Adam as the federal representative of the race by the covenant of works."
A.A. Hodge: "The covenant of works has been called a legal covenant because its 'condition' is perfect conformity to the law of absolute moral perfection. It has been called the Covenant of Works because its demands terminate upon man's own being and doing. It has been called a Covenant of Life, because the promise attached to well-doing was life." "The Covenant of Works offered life."
Enns [Dispensationalist]: "Covenant theology teaches that God initially made a covenant of works with Adam, promised eternal life for obedience and death for disobedience."
Wollebius: "Defined the covenant of works as it was usually been defined. The promise of eternal life for obedience and the threat of death for disobedience."
Ames: "Held that the covenant of works, which was universal in scope, continued after the Fall. Its fulfillment was dependent upon man's obedience to God." "The sign of the covenant of grace is baptism, infants should be baptized."
Witsius: "The covenant of works was an agreement between God and Adam created in God's image. … The covenant of works with the promise of eternal life upon obedience and the threat of death for disobedience."
Westminster Confession: "The first covenant was a covenant of works. In it life was promised to Adam and through him to his descendants, on the condition of perfect, personal obedience."
The covenant of works is variously called the covenant of life because it reflects the reward for obedience; it is also termed the covenant of works because works are the condition connected with the promise. God promised eternal life in it to bless Adam if he would obey, if he disobeyed God, Adam would be judged with death." "With the covenant of works God promised to bless Adam with eternal life if he obeyed. -- Dr. Mal Couch
