Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”
Romans 5:18,19 “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. (19) For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
As Christians, the office and work of the Lord Jesus Christ is of the utmost importance. Therefore, it behooves us to be able to answer these two questions — “For what purpose did thd Son of God need to come into this world?”, and, “By doing so, what did He accomplish?” Now, there may be a hundred different places to begin to answer these two questions; but there is one more question that will eliminate all of the arbitrary starting points — “What is the relationship of the Lord Jesus Christ’s incarnation, His life, His ministry, His death, burial, and His resurrection, to what happened in the Garden of Eden?” It is from here that we frame our inquiry into our two questions stated above.
When answering such questions it is always a temptation for us to think subjectively; we might say, “to save sinners”, “to bring forgiveness of sins”, or, “So we could go to heaven and live eternally”. Whilst these statements are all true, it is always wrong to begin with the subjective when speaking in terms of God; we must always begin with the objective truth. So, what is this truth? The apostle John tells us this, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”(1 Jhn 3:8) The Lord Christ came into this world to destroy the works of the devil, what are these? They are sin and death! Essentially, the devil destroyed the good works of God and the Lord has come into the corporeal world to reclaim that which God created in the beginning, where after the 6th day of creation, “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” So, the primary purpose of Christ’s life and death upon the cross is rightly to be described as God “…in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,” God, through Christ, redeemed His creation from the destruction that entered into it by the devil when he caused Adam to rebel against the perfect law of God. Even though this redemption is not complete at this very moment, for, we see that the world is in a state of perpetual sin and decay; nevertheless, the work of the Lord on the cross has made certain that which will be fulfilled according to God’s good pleasure. And, at a pre-appointed day and hour, the Lord will return to this earth and make all of His enemies His footstool, remove all of iniquity from it, judge the quick and the dead, and, redeem all of creation along with glorifying the bodies of His chosen saints. And, at that very moment God’s glorious creation will be made completely new, perfect, and eternal. There will be no more devil and his angels, no more sin nor sinners, and no more death; they will all be cast into the eternal lake of fire and be separated from God and His glorious creation for all of eternity.
It has been rightly stated that the holy Scriptures are separated into two sections. I do not mean our classical distinction of Old Testament and New; but, rather, from Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 3:14 as the first section, and Genesis 3:15 to Revelation 22:21 as the second section. The first section is God’s perfect creation and the fall of that creation to the works of the devil, and the second section is God’s plan of redemption being worked out and accomplished. So, this brings us to the grand question — “What is the relationship of the Lord Jesus Christ’s incarnation, His life, His ministry, His death, burial, and His resurrection, to what happened in the Garden of Eden?” And, our answer is the answer to our second question — “By coming into the world, what did the Lord Jesus Christ accomplish?”.
The Lord Christ not only destroyed the works of the devil, but, He accomplished that which Adam failed to do; what was that? Adam failed to keep the perfect law of God. This is how the first section of the Scripture ends — Adam breaks the law of God’s covenant with him, and, by doing so, causes all of mankind to be guilty of his sin, and death came into the world by his sin. The entirety of the meaning of Scripture hinges on this very fact — that God always deals with mankind according to covenants. And, the first covenant was with Adam in the Garden of Eden; this covenant was broken and the entire creation is in a state of sin and death because of it; and, a second covenant is now in effect, the covenant of grace. And, it is by this covenant of grace whereby it has pleased Almighty God to send His Son into the world and suffer the death of the cross in order to redeem His creation unto Himself.
Lord willing we will examine these glorious covenants of works and grace, and show how an understanding of the covenant of works as it was with Adam in the Garden of Eden is essential to understanding why our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had to come into this world, bare the sins of His people, and die on the cross. Not only this, but, our Lord’s resurrection cannot be properly understood outside of the covenant of works either. So, considering the importance of these covenants we will prayerfully return to this subject, if the Lord permits.
Scripture Alone 