LD 3: Heaven Must Be Earned: A Tale of Two Trees and Two Heads
January 15, 2011 1 Comment
Gotta say this… Me blogging through the HC will never do the catechism justice, but this week, it’s especially glaring. I’m in way over my head with trying to synthesize HC #6-8. Here are some quick stats to give you perspective on why I feel this way. What Ursinus teaches in these three questions and answers comes to about 120 words in English. When he goes on to explain the same embedded doctrines covered in this third Lord’s Day, he takes about 40 pages in his commentary (pp. 27-66). That spells trouble for me. I’m convinced this tension is going to exist week in, week out. Amazing how so few words turn into so many pages. This is why the HC is so good; it’s both so brief and so dense. Let’s see what I can do in about 1000 words, so on to Lord’s Day 3…
How bad are things? Well (in Adam), very bad.
What makes man’s wickedness and perversion so wretched is the fact the man was created very good (in righteousness and holiness) with the complete ability to love God his Creator just as the law would demand: with all his heart. He was perfectly able to do what God had commanded. Unfortunately, HC #6-7 describe how great the reversal from God’s very good creation of man to man’s fall into corruption. In one swoop, Adam’s created nature in holiness and righteousness becomes poisoned and totally depraved. Immediately, Adam’s context of needing personal good works for eternal glory with his Creator shifts to needing salvation from his bad works of sin from his Redeemer. Adam cannot do anything to help the eternal damnable mess he has gotten himself into (as well as us).
So let’s turn to the Garden of Eden and explain the bolded sentence above from the perspective of the trees, where I’ll explain the significance of good works in Scripture’s story of redemptive history.
Heaven Must Be Earned: A Tale of Two Trees and Two Heads
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
Within Adam’s creation (by virtue of the Image of God) was embedded the future hope that he would posses a body fit for heaven one day. He was created with an earthly body in holiness and righteousness, but Adam’s context was a covenantal context where he had to obey God’s command to not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Had Adam completed the obedience set before him by way of trial (known as the probation period), Adam would have been confirmed in his righteousness, only to wait for the guaranteed, future day of consummation. For this reason, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is also known as the Probation Tree; it stood as the Garden’s symbol of the works required for a more perfect eternal rest.
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:15-17)
Adam was not in a situation where he needed grace because he was created without sin. There is no need for grace where there is no sin. His situation was to perform the necessary good work God asked him to do. Held out before Adam was the promise that he would obtain eternal life on his own grounds by his own works (opposite the consequence of sure death for disobedience). In essence, Adam was supposed to earn heaven by his own works; this is why heaven must be earned. This is known as the Covenant of Works. This original intent of the Law was to produce life; so says Lev 18:5, “5 Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.”
But Adam failed at the moment of crisis which was centered at the tree. At the Probation Tree he failed to uphold the law of life. HC #7 states, “This fall has so poisoned our nature that we are born sinners—corrupt from conception on.”
When Adam sinned, he sinned for us. His sin, immediately became ours. His sin was imputed to our accounts, so that our nature, even before birth is already sinful and depraved. The consequence of this is that we are, “so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined toward all evil.” This is how bad our situation is.
But what of the second tree? The promise of eternal life held out to Adam is seen in the second tree…
The Tree of Life
Notice in Genesis 3:22 that had Adam obeyed (which at this point he had already failed), he would have earned a life lasting forever. This everlasting life was qualitatively different from the life he was already living. Genesis 3:22 says:
22 And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
The Tree of Life was a sign of the heavenly life to come. Adam’s obedience would have brought him to the Tree of Life (or the Tree of Promise). Adam was created in perfect holiness and righteousness with an earthly body, but that holiness and righteousness was meant to lead him to live a life characterized by those perfect standards. Had he done that, he would have attained a heavenly body earned by the works of his holiness and righteousness confirmed in the righteous passing of his probation test.
He didn’t and now sin is imputed to us. Not good. Not good at all!
But the next verse in Genesis 3 is so full of hope:
23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:23-24)
Though Adam was banished from the Garden of Eden (and for his own good!), the Tree of Life was noticeably preserved and not destroyed. Adam’s works were no longer suitable to meet the law’s demands, so any attempt by him to earn the promise of eternal life associated with the Tree of Life would have earned him the exact opposite: hell. He no longer could offer God the works required for heaven’s entrance. For this reason, Adam’s banishment from the Garden was for his own good.
Two (Federal) Heads
Adam’s convenantal context carried with it massive biblical significance. Romans 5:12-21 makes it clear that Adam was acting on behalf of himself and all his posterity. Federal Headship is the biblical notion that one individual acts on behalf of the many. What Adam was doing was for us; he was our federal head. At the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam failed as our federal head and earned for us sin. He failed to obediently uphold the Covenant of Works.
Romans 5 also states that the Second Adam was Christ. He too was in a covenant; his was a covenant of works to the Father. Like Adam, Jesus had to obey Him perfectly. And like Adam, Jesus was acting on the behalf of all his people. In Romans 5, Paul is declaring that Jesus is now our federal head. But unlike Adam, Jesus obeyed the Father perfectly. By His obedience, Jesus merited eternal life for us. His good works earned heaven for us. The absolutely mind-boggling part of all this is what we offer Christ and what He gives us:
- All we give Jesus is all our sins.
- Jesus, the Last Adam, gives us the perfect righteousness that the Father requires of heaven through faith.
This is history’s greatest transaction: Heaven is earned, but not by us; it is earned for us by Christ. This is my Savior who loves me and gave Himself for me. He is who I need. His works are what my sins need. Without Christ I’m dead in sins. Christ obeyed perfectly and now his righteousness is imputed to us. This is not only good, but very good!
How good are things? Well, (in Christ) it’s already so glorious, but in heaven it’ll be that much better.
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Lord’s Day 3
Q & A 6
Q. Did God create people so wicked and perverse?
A. No. God created them good and in his own image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that they might truly know God their creator, love him with all their heart, and live with him in eternal happiness for his praise and glory.
Q & A 7
Q. Then where does this corrupt human nature come from?
A. From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise. This fall has so poisoned our nature that we are born sinners—corrupt from conception on.
Q & A 8
Q. But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined toward all evil?
A. Yes, unless we are born again, by the Spirit of God.
