God was covenantally obligated to grant eternal life to Adam if he had obeyed. We know this because God was covenantally obligated to raise Christ from the dead, declaring him the Son of God with power (Romans 1:4). Christ fulfilled the required conditions, and therefore God in his justice gave him his due reward.

Reformed theologians historically have held to a “covenant of works” (or covenant of creation) between God and Adam. Many evangelical scholars today deny that such a thing existed. I believe that it does.

This following questions and answers cannot do justice to the relative complexity of the debate, but perhaps it will be helpful for the theologically inclined to see why some of us do believe that the Bible teaches there was such a covenant with Adam.

Was there a covenant between God and Adam?

A fruitful way to answer that is by examining the two most common objections to the presence of a covenant in the garden: (1) The Hebrew word for covenant isn’t found in Genesis 2-3 (it doesn’t show up until Genesis 6:18); (2) Covenants have to have either explicit oaths or ratification ceremonies (like animal ceremonies in Genesis 15:7-21), but this is not found in Genesis 2-3.

The first objection commits the word-thing fallacy. Words and things are not the same. The absence of a particular term does not entail the absence of a particular concept. For example, Genesis 3 does not contain any of the standard Hebrew terms for sin or transgression, but the concept is obviously there. Consider also that Psalm 89:3 (cf. vv. 28, 34, 39) refers back to 2 Samuel 7 as a covenant involving an oath, even though 2 Samuel did not use that terminology. So it is with Hosea 6:7, where Hosea says of his generation that “like Adam they transgressed the covenant.” Similarly, Isaiah 24:5 says: “The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.” Furthermore, William Dumbrell argues that heqim + berith in Genesis 6:18 and 9:9ff implies a pre-existing covenant (Creation and Covenant, p. 26).

The second objection is reductionistic, incorrectly defining the word covenant. Explicit oaths and ratification ceremonies are sometimes included in covenants, but not always. The promise of a lasting priesthood to Phineas and his descendants is called a covenant (Numbers 25:12-13). Marriage is called a covenant (Proverbs 2:17; Malachi 2:14). David and Jonathan’s arrangement with each other is called a covenant (1 Samuel 18:3; cf. 20:8; 23:18; Psalm 55:20).

What then is a covenant?

Gordon Hugenberger defines covenant as “an elective, as opposed to natural, [family-like] relationship of obligation established under divine sanction.” He sees five necessary elements of a covenant—(1) two parties, one of who is also the divine witness; (2) historical prologue of past benefactions; (3) stipulations; (4) sanctions; (5) a ratifying oath/oath-sign—and argues that all five are present in Genesis 1-3. A simpler definition—which is complementary to Hugenberger’s—is proposed by Ligon Duncan: “A covenant is a binding relationship with blessing and obligations.” On either definition, it is clear that God and Adam were in covenant with each other, and the parallels between Christ and Adam in Romans 5 confirm this.

Was there a probationary period?

A probationary period is another way of referring to a time of testing that is not perpetual. Genesis 3 does not use terms like “probation” or “testing”—but again, we must be careful not to commit the word-thing fallacy. It is obvious that Job was tested by God and that Jesus was tested when he was thrust into the wilderness by the Spirit—but no terms of testing are used to describe those situations.

The alternative to denying a probationary period is to believe that Adam would remain in his current state for all eternity, assuming that he did not transgress the command of eating from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But I don’t think this makes a great deal of sense.

First of all, it would imply that the fall would remain a perpetual possibility for all eternity. Augustine helpfully distinguished between posse non pecarre (able to not sin) and non posse non peccare (not able not to sin). Adam had the former (he had the ability to refrain from sin), but he didn’t have the latter (the inability to sin). Obviously the latter is a greater form of contentment and enjoyment and security in the presence of God. This is what our glorification will entail: we will be in the presence of God in the new heavens and new earth without the possibility of sin. But it makes no sense to me to imagine that such was an impossibility for Adam.

Secondly, the idea of a perpetual probation does not fit well with Adam’s representative role. The future of man’s relationship with God hung on whether or not Adam obeyed. But if there was never a terminus to the testing, then Adam and his posterity would always be dependent upon Adam’s obedience. I think absurdities start to happen if we think along those lines. What if Adam’s great-great-great grandson sinned? Would the whole world be plunged into sin? It seems so, but that would deny Adam’s representative role.

Finally, Paul’s parallelism of Adam and Christ suggests a limited probationary period. Christ’s obedience to his Father was tested. He passed, and was “declared to the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). If Christ was tested and the duration of the test was for a limited time, this suggests that Adam was tested for a limited time as well.

In short, I can think of no good reason to deny a probationary period for Adam. When the whole of redemptive history is considered, I believe that we must understand Adam as having been in a probationary period.

How long was the probationary period to be?

We have no way of knowing. Because the fall was ordained, the biblical authors have no interest in asking that question. But as I indicated above, I don’t think it’s possible that it was to be eternal.

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