Putting our hand to the plow and not peaking back at our former ways means that we have a new creaturehood guiding our what matters to us now. We gander at the steel as it cuts the sod, and our own grip as we conduct all things forward into the bounty available in grace. Our hearts lift up in satisfaction as our minds consider the benefits which come from a job well done.

Good Morning,

This year as we’ve gone through a “Christianity 101” series on Sunday morning we have moved from the Trinity to now talking about covenant theology. This past Lord’s Day we looked at the covenant of works made with Adam in Genesis 2:15-17. For your benefit let’s look at the text:

Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

As I preached this passage I made note that there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes, particularly two things. First, that Adam is promised eternal life for the keeping of the covenant (the consequent of breaking it is death, hence the keeping of it is life), and secondly that the means of enjoying the garden is not to be found in the successful act of not eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge and good and evil, but in enjoying the garden God placed him in.

Last week in this space I made the point that as believers seek truth they are always pointed back to the Lord and who and what He is. The Godness of God is the foundation of our knowledge of such since as part of the gospel work of reconciliation we are receiving more than just forgiveness of sin, but the fullness available to us in God Himself. It is a relationship, as much as it is a religion. There should be a sense in which our heart beats to His beat and yearns to match His rhythm as well. That may sound weird, but it doesn’t need to. As we grow in grace one of the lessons we are to learn from Adam’s sin is that as long as we are seeking God we will not be lost.

Often in the Christian life we think abstaining from sin is the highest good, when in fact is to be found in resting in the way our Lord has designed His creation. It is in seeing the beauty of the whole and the bounty of the plethora of opportunities available in the Garden that Adam through observing and focusing on the pleasures available should have spent his time, redeeming it in a positive manner.

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