In the covenant of works, Adam is supposed to secure eternal life by his own obedience. In the covenant of grace, Christ obtains eternal life for His people through His obedience and suffering. We do not produce good works to be saved. Rather, we produce good works because we are saved.

How do we benefit from and access the work of the last Adam? The covenant of works rested on Adam’s perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience to secure eternal life. This is why theologians have called it the covenant of works—it rested on Adam’s obedience. Conversely, in the covenant of grace Christ takes up the failed work of the first Adam and offers His own perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience to secure salvation for His people. Recall that as a part of the covenant of redemption, the Father appointed His Son as the covenant surety (Heb. 7:22), the One who would be responsible for all the legal obligations of the covenant. In this case, Christ offered His obedience to the law to secure eternal life on behalf of those who are in covenant with Him. Christ fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law on behalf of those who trust in Him. Theologians call this aspect of Christ’s work His active obedience. God has imputed (or credited) to all human beings Adam’s sin (Rom. 5:12–21); we are also responsible for our own personal sins. Christ also came to pay the penalty for the broken law—the fractured covenant of works and all our personal sins against God’s law. Theologians call this Christ’s passive obedience. The term passive comes from the Latin word passio, which means “suffering.” Moreover, Christ offers His passive obedience throughout the entirety of His life—from womb to tomb, He suffered for His people.

Laying the groundwork and foundation of the covenant of grace in the completed work of Christ (active and passive obedience) is vital to understanding the nature of our salvation. The covenant of works requires obedience, whereas the covenant of grace requires faith in Christ to the exclusion of our good works for salvation. In other words, in our justification, law and gospel stand in antithesis. Paul makes this clear: “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Rom. 3:28). When Paul explains the nature of the doctrine of justification, he quotes Genesis 15:6: “For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’” (Rom. 4:3). Had Adam been obedient, God would have declared him righteous (in conformity to God’s commands and law) by his obedience. But now in the covenant of grace, God declares us righteous on the basis of Christ’s finished work:

Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” (Rom. 4:4–5)

We partake of the covenant of grace by the gift of faith, and this faith is the God-given empty hand that lays hold of the completed work of Christ.

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