The Covenant of Works and its republication as the Mosaic Covenant on Sinai, simply clearing up the confusion

The Covenant of Works and its republication as the Mosaic Covenant on Sinai...

This subject is made much too complicated by people who don't yet grasp the subject matter.

Jesus came to fulfill what Adam in the Garden failed to fulfill.

So there is a correlation between the command God gave to Adam in the Garden and the law Jesus was *born under*, the law given on Sinai. The law given on Sinai was the law God gave to Adam in the Garden, only it was republished on Sinai in obviously elaborated form.

People who write: "People who say the law given on Sinai (the Mosaic Covenant) is the Covenant of Works from the Garden republished are Pharisees who think their own works can save them, and I'll stand to my dying day and confront them by God!!!" are people who don't yet have understanding of the doctrinal matter and are being fervently silly.

Here is how to see it...

National Israel is a *unique player* in God's plan of redemption. (First misunderstanding that has to be cleared up: this doesn't mean individual Israelites were saved in any other way than having faith in the *coming* Messiah, just as we are saved by having faith in the already come Messiah. No, individual Israelites were saved by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone just as we are. For them it was looking forward, for us it is looking back.)

So, national Israel is a unique player in God's plan of redemption. As unique as pre-fall Adam and as unique as Jesus Christ Himself. How is national Israel unique in God's plan of redemption? National Israel was unique in three ways:

1. National Israel was a type for the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.

2. National Israel was the very *substance* of the written word of God. Their very history - actual lived history - is what communicates God's revelation to us in His word.

3. National Israel had responsibilities put on it by God namely to keep the Royal bloodline pure from Adam to Jesus Christ; to keep separate from all the filthy and violent idol worshiping nations they were surrounded by; and to keep together as a national, political, family unity.

These three aspects that make national Israel unique in God's plan of redemption *give them a unique relationship to the law.* A relationship that we as fallen human beings and who are not national Israel do not have. (National Israel becoming defunct after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.)

So, the law given on Sinai to Moses (the Mosaic Covenant) was a republication, in elaborated form, of the Covenant of Works in the Garden, and it's relationship to *us* (fallen man) is different from its relationship to national Israel.

To us the law is still a curse. After the fall there was no salvation by works possible. Original sin alone shuts that door, not that fallen man could live perfectly from birth without original sin because sin - and active sinning - is of the nature of fallen man.

Having said the above, it is *important* to realize that there is *one* way to be saved: *works.* Yes. Works. Either our own (good luck with that), or Jesus Christ's (His fulfilling of all the law), appropriated by faith in Him. The latter route to salvation is the Covenant of Grace. It only requires faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone. Though the internal *revolution* that happens in a fallen human being who comes to faith is much bigger and real than the mere words 'faith alone' suggest, which is why faith alone is 'foolishness' to unregenerate, fallen man.

So, in effect, the law given on Sinai, the republished Covenant of Works, is 'works' for Jesus, and 'grace' for us. Jesus had to fulfill it. And only He *could* fulfill it. Of all born to woman after the Fall only Jesus was born without original sin. And only Jesus - the God-man - could live a perfectly sinless life. I.e. only Jesus could fulfill the law for salvation. He then, of course, also voluntarily died on the cross to pay the penalty of death for all the elect (the penalty Adam incurred by not fulfilling the law was death for himself and all under his federal headship, which is all humanity after the Fall). Jesus could stand in for all the elect and die for them *because* Jesus is the *federal head* of all the elect, just as Adam is the federal head of all humanity until an individual is regenerated by the word and the Spirit and comes under the federal head of King Jesus Christ.

This is why the Bible calls Jesus the second Adam. He fulfilled what the first Adam failed to fulfill. The two Adams are the spine of Federal Theology.

So that's what the law given on Sinai (the Mosaic Covenant which is the Covenant of Works republished) is to us.

What that law is to national Israel is, as mentioned above, different. Again, it's not different regarding individual salvation of Israelites. They were saved by faith in the coming Messiah just as we are saved by faith in the already come Messiah. But it was different in the other ways having to do with the unique aspects of national Israel as a unique player in God's plan of redemption (the three numbered aspects above).

As a type for the coming Messiah national Israel had a works relationship to the law, just as the future incarnated Messiah, Jesus Christ, did. Because national Israel is merely a type for the coming Messiah that works relationship to the law is not a direct parallel to Jesus' relationship to it. Because salvation was not possible for individual Israelites through law-keeping their typical relationship to the law took on other meaning. Staying in the land, for instance. This for some reason confuses people endlessly. Follow my law, God says, and stay in the Promised Land. Cease to follow my law and get kicked out of the Promised Land. Because salvation is not at stake this becomes similar to the experience of the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years. They waxed and waned on following God's law too, and they were punished and rewarded for it as well. In the very same manner, really. So it shouldn't be confusing to see the same thing regarding national Israel in the Promised Land.

As the substance of the word of God (their history communicated God's revelation in His revealed word) national Israel became an example to all of how the law doesn't save because fallen man can't fulfill the law perfectly. All of national Israel's history is an object lesson to fallen man via the revealed word of God regarding the need for grace. But national Israel *had* to have some kind of - some degree of - binding relationship to that law to make it an effective object lesson.

Finally, national Israel carried within its collective womb, so to speak, the future incarnate Messiah. For this reason the laws given on Sinai, the judicial laws, the moral laws, the ceremonial laws, played a real role in national Israel bringing this about. The ceremonial laws pointed to the coming Messiah which is how individual Israelites could have faith in the coming Messiah. To just know about the coming Messiah they needed the ceremonial laws as types pointing to Him and His work of salvation. They may have also had other direct special revelation in their day. Prophets, etc. They also needed the harsh judicial laws to keep themselves together, and to keep their bloodline pure - at least in the Royal line from Adam to Christ - while being surrounded by idol worshiping nations that were continually tempting them. The moral laws - the Ten Commandments - were the same for them as they are for us. They are for all generations.

Also, the issue of memory and how in just one generation all that God taught them could be lost (this is really the Devil's biggest advantage in this world) required God to give them the law as He did after the fall and to have them write it down and teach it continually to each generation.

For all the above reasons this is why it is said the Covenant of Works in the Garden was republished on Sinai (the Mosaic Covenant).

This doctrine must be held to because it is biblical and because it is part and parcel of 'seeing' the Covenant of Works to begin with. False teachers mainly want to keep people in bondage to the Beast system of works righteousness (of one stripe or another), and false teachers always have to attack justification by faith alone and eventually attack the very existence of the Covenant of Works in the Garden (that is confusing to people who are beginners in doctrinal matters). So, ironically, people who are yet naive to these issues attack republication thinking they are *defending* justification by faith alone when they are naively *doing the opposite* and falling into the very hands of the false teachers who hate the biblical fact of justification by faith alone.

I know that is confusing to them (the false teachers grin at how easy it is to fool and confuse, but God's elect won't be fooled, not for long anyway, and none of them are lost, and the Devil and his children can only play for time, i.e. the false teachers can annoy God's plan, but they can't defeat God's plan), but if you can understand all that is written in this post then you can understand this last point.