The Abrogation of the Covenant of Works

 

(the following notes are based on Herman Witsius' The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, Vol. 1, pgs. 151-162)

Before any discussion is made of what is abrogated concerning the covenant of works, it must be stated what is not abrogated. 

The following things in the covenant of works are universally and eternally binding:

[1]. The precepts of the covenant of works oblige every man to perfect obedience, whatsoever state he is in (cf. Galatians 5:3). 

[2]. Eternal life, as promised by the covenant of work, can be obtained by no other condition than perfect and complete obedience.

[3]. Death will always be the due punishment of sin, and no act of sin escapes God's vengeance. 

However, these statements and axioms do not exclude the surety, the Lord Jesus Christ, who performs the condition of the law and undergoes the penalty in the place of man.

Sin, is be definition (1 John 3:4), "the transgression of the law". Therefore where there is no law, no act of disobedience can truly be reckoned or designated as sin, any longer. Thus, this aspect of the covenant of works is still binding. 

Furthermore, the law of the covenant of works, as inscribed on the conscience of man (Rom. 2:14-15), is a transcript and revelation of the image and nature of God, which is no less immutable than God Himself. Since the law reflects the nature of God, which is immutable, therefore the law is also immutable, otherwise it would not be a perfect reflection of God. 

Jacob Arminius (in Præstantium ac eruditorum virorum epistolæ ecclesiasticæ et theologicæ, pg. 173), outright denies that God requires the obligation of obedience from man after his fall into sin, using the following arguments to prove his teaching:

Argument #1 - When man is in a state of sin, he is not in covenant with God, therefore there is no contract between God and man whereby God can require his obedience to the covenant. 

Response: Man's obligation to obedience is primarily founded on the holiness and majesty of God, rather than the covenant itself. God would not be absolutely sovereign if any of His creatures were not bound to obey Him, and thus not truly subject to Him. 

Argument #2 - Because of sin, God has taken away man's ability and power to obey the law. Therefore, He no longer requires man to fulfill it. 

Response: Man is both the meritorious and physical cause of his own impotency, just as a servant who drinks alcohol excessively renders himself unfit for his master's service. 

Though God has deprived man of his ability to obey the law, yet He can still require man's obedience of it. This is because no sin of man, however wicked it may be, and justly punished by God, can in the slightest decrease or diminish God's authority over him. 

It is the blasphemously absurd to say that man by his disobedience, obtained exemption and freedom from the authority of his Creator God. If this were the case, then the serpent would have been to tell Eve, that should would become "like God", for her to have eaten of the forbidden tree. 

Argument #3 - The nature of the law, is that one who performs it should have a true love to God and honor Him with affection. But since fallen man is not in such a state, therefore he is not obligated by God to obey the law.

Response: The sum of God's law to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Man's conscience bears witness that God is the chief and highest good and supremely amiable and beautiful, and therefore ought to be loved as such. To say that man is not obligated to love God, because he is in a fallen state, is contradictory to the nature of God. For can God be unwilling that His creatures should acknowledge Him as what He truly is, namely the highest good?

Therefore we conclude that the law, the promise, as well as the threatening of the covenant of works are still binding upon all of mankind without exception. 

Nonetheless, there are some aspects of the covenant of works, which on the part of God, have indeed been abrogated. It is consists in this - God has revealed that no man can, by this law, any longer have true fellowship and communion with Him. Galatians 3:21 says "Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law."

After Christ paid the satisfaction unto the law of this covenant and fulfilled its law on our behalf (His active obedience), the covenant of works became the law of Christ. I can not put it better than as follows:

"In a word, the same law, which was to man in innocence a commandment to life, and is to man in sin the law of sin, giving him up to the dominion and guilt of sin, becomes again in the Redeemer the law of the spirit of life, testifying that satisfaction was made to it by the Redeemer, and bestowing on man, who by faith is become one with the Redeemer, all the fruits of righteousness for justification, sanctification, and glorification." (Herman Witsius)