A.A. Hodge on God's Covenant with Man, III

The Westminster Confession of Faith defines God's relationship with Adam as "a covenant of works" (WCF 7.2).  After Adam fell that covenant of works did not disappear but remained in force and that understanding is foundational to the rest of the chapter of our confession. 

Commenting on WCF 7.3 and the phrase, "...the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace..."  Hodge writes the following:

"Since Adam forfeited for himself and his entire race the original promise of life upon the condtion of perfect obedience, and incurred the penalty of death attached to disobedience, it follows that, if the old constitution is left without supplement or modification, man is lost.  If mankind is to be saved, there must be a new and gracious intervention on the part of God.  And if God intervenes to save men, it must be upon a definite plan, and upon certain definitely proclaimed and accurately fulfilled conditions.  That is, a new covenant must be introduced, rendering life attainable to those who are to be saved on conditions different from those offered in the preceding constitution.  The question, then, relates to what is revealed in the Scripture as to the parties to whom the promise is made, and conditions upon which it is suspended."

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A.A. Hodge on God’s Covenant with Man, II

In light of the flap that is beginning based on this minister's views I wish to continue writing about God's Covenant with Man based on chapter VII of the Westminster Confession of Faith. 

Yesterday I included a comment about Adam's relationship with God being based on the Creator/Creature distinction.  The nature of such a relationship was probationary not filial.  Hodge builds on this idea with the following words:

"In the case of men and angels, God has been pleased to promise this transcendent benefit upon certain conditions; which conditional promise is called a covenant.  There can be no doubt that this amazing gift of God's personal love and life-giving society had been offered to angels, and at the beginning was offered to the first human pair, upon conditions.  Some object that the conditional promise made to Adam in the garden is not explicitly called a covenant, and that it does not possess all the essential elements of a covenant, since it was a constitution sovereignly ordained by the Creator without consulting the will of the creature.  It is a sufficient answer to these objections, - (1.) That although Adam's will was not consulted, yet his will was unquestionably cordially consenting to this divine constitution and all the terms thereof, and hence the transaction did embrace all the elements of a covenant. (2.) That several instances of analogous transactions between God and men are expressly styled covenants in the Bible.  If God's transactions with Noah (Gen. 9:11,12) and with Abraham (Gen. 17:1-21) were covenants, then was his transaction with Adam in the garden a covenant." 

A.A. Hodge, Westminster Confession of Faith: A Commentary. Banner of Truth reprinted 2002, pages 120-121. My emphasis.

A.A. Hodge on God’s Covenant with Man, I

Over the summer I've been working through the Westminster Confession of Faith. Last Sunday we covered chapter VII entitled God's Covenant with Man. This is one of those chapters with important implications for Federal Vision (FV) theology. I found Archibald Alexander Hodge to be a very reliable guide as I navigated this section of our confession.

One of the key components of the FV is God’s relationship to Adam. While the confession views the relationship in terms of Creature & Creature, the FV puts forth a Father & Son relationship. The first is probationary: the second is gracious. Follow Scripture and the Confession this is how Hodge understands God’s relationship to Adam:

“The duty which an intelligent creature owes to its Creator is inalienable, and springs necessarily, - (1.) From the absolute, imperative obligation which is of the essence of all that is morally right – which exercises authority over the will, but does not receive authority from it; and (2.) From the relation of dependence and obligation involved in the very fact of being created. To be a created, intelligent, moral agent, is to be under all the obligation of obeying the will and of living for the glory of the absolute Owner and Governor.”

“That, on the other hand, the enjoyment of the Creator’s fullness and love by the creature is a matter of sovereign grace, depending alone upon the will of the Creator, is also self-evident. The very act of creation brings the creature under obligation to the Creator, but it cannot bring the Creator into obligation to the creature. Creation itself, being a signal act of grace, cannot endow the beneficiary with a claim for more grace. If God, for instance, has created a man with an eye, it may be eminently consistent with the divine attributes, and a ground of fair anticipation, that at some time he who has given eyes will also give light; but, surely, the creation of the first can lay the foundation of no right upon the part of man for the gift of the second. And, of course, far less can the fact that in creation God endowed men with a religious nature lay the foundation of any right on their part for the infinitely more precious gift of the personal communications of his own ineffable love and grace. God cannot be bound to take all creatures naturally capable of it into the intimacies of his own society. If he does so, it is a matter of infinite condescension and sovereign will.”

A.A. Hodge, Westminster Confession of Faith: A Commentary. Banner of Truth reprinted 2002, pages 120-121. My emphasis.

A.A. Hodge on The Fall of Man, III

Commenting on WCF 6.3 and especially the phrase, "Adam as a public person" (WLC # 22) Hodge writes,

"That Adam was, as our Standards say, "a public person," and that the covenant was made with him "not for himself only, but for his posterity," is proved from the facts --

1) That he was called by a generic name, Adam -- the Man.
2) That everything that God commanded, promised, or threatened him related to his decendants as much as to himself personally.  Thus, "obedience," "a cursed earth," "the reign of death," "painful child-bearing," and the subsequent promise of redemption through the Seed of the woman, were spoken with reference to us as much as with reference to our first parents.
3) As a matter of fact, the very penalty denounced and executed upon Adam has been executed upon all of his descendants, from birth upward.  All are born spiritually dead, "by nature children of wrath" (Emphasis mine).  A.A. Hodge, The Westminster Confession of Faith: A Commentary, pp. 111-112.

A.A. Hodge on The Fall of Man, II

Commenting further on Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 6 Hodge writes,

"Now, although we cannot explain precisely the origin of sin in the holy soul of Adam, it is plain that the difficulty lies only in our ignorance.  We have none of us experienced the same condition of free agency as those which give characer to the case of Adam.  We have always been under the bondage of corruption, except in so far as we are momentarily assisted against nature by supernatural grace.  Now, in order that a volition shall be holy, it must spring from a positively holy affection or disposition; and as these are not native to our hearts, we cannot exercise holy volitions without grace.  But Adam was in a state of probation, holy yet fallible.  Saints and angels are holy and infallible, yet their infallibility is not essential to their natures but is a superadded divine grace sustained by the direct power of God.  While holiness must always be positive, rooting itself in divine love, it is plain that sin may originate in defect; not in positive alienation, but in want of watchfulness - in the temporary ascendency of the natural and innocent appetites of the body or constitutional tendencies of the soul of the higher powers of conscience" (my emphasis).  Westminster Confession of Faith: A Commentary.  A.A. Hodge, pp. 106-107.

A.A. Hodge on The Fall of Man, I

Commenting on WCF Chapter 6, Archibald Alexander Hodge writes the following,

"It appears to be God's general plan, and one eminently wise and righteous, to introduce all the new-created subjects of moral government into a state of probation for a time, in which he makes their permanent characer and destiny depend upon their own action.  He creates them holy, yet capable of falling.  In this state he subjects them to a moral test for a time.  If they stand the test, the reward is that their moral characters are confirmed and rendered infallible, and they are introduced into an inalienable blessedness for ever.  If they fail, they are judicially excluded from God's favour and communion for ever, and hence morally and eternally dead.  This certainly has been his method of dealing with new-created angels and men.  In the case of mankind the specific test to which our first parents were subjected was their abstaining from eating of the fruit of a single tree.  As this was a matter in itself morally indifferent, it was admirable adapted to be a test of their implicit allegiance to God, of their absolute faith and submission" (emphasis mine). 

 The Westminster Confession of Faith: A Commentary.  A.A. Hodge, pp. 105-106.