First posted on May 28, 2012 at jakebelder.com.

A few weeks ago while on holiday, I had the opportunity to read O. Palmer Robertson’s book, The Christ of the Covenants. The book is something of a legend in the Reformed world, a tradition which sees great significance in the covenant theme in Scripture. Not having read it before, I thought the week off would prove a good time to do so.

While the book as a whole is valuable, Robertson’s chapter on the covenant of creation is particularly important. As I’ve written elsewhere, we have a tendency to devalue the covenant of creation, which in turn leads us to neglect the role God gives to humanity on this earth. Instead of recognising that the covenant of creation shapes the whole of man’s life in relation to God, some view this relationship as only encompassing the prohibition God sets in place with respect to the tree in the garden because it is key in ushering in the subsequent covenant of redemption.

Robertson rightly demonstrates that this perspective effectively ignores the whole of man’s responsibilities under the covenant of creation, and instead

an extremely dangerous dualism will develop between man’s ‘religious’ or ‘spiritual’ responsibilities and his ‘cultural’ or ‘work-a-day’ responsibilities. Adam under the covenant of creation did not have one set of duties relating to the created world, and another more specific duty of an entirely different nature which could be designated as ‘spiritual’ (81-82).

How we understand the covenant of creation has all to do with how we understand the gospel and the Kingdom of God. Failing to fully understand the implications of the covenant of creation often results in limiting the transforming power of the gospel and the rule of Christ to the spiritual dimension of life. For Robertson, however, the covenant relationship is a ‘total-life relationship,’ one in which God expects humanity to submit the whole of their lives to his rule.

Too often

[Christians] may fail to consider adequately the effect of redemption on the total life-style of man in the context of an all-embracive covenant. That view results frequently in a by-passing of the responsibility of redeemed man to carry forward the implications of his salvation into the world of economics, politics, business, and culture (82-83).

The covenant of creation originally called Adam to exercise authority over all of creation as God’s co-regent. That mandate has not ceased or been overturned. Our continuing call as God’s people is to bear witness to his sovereign rule over the totality of creation. The fall into sin adds a different element to our task in that we now need to carry out our work in the context of a creation distorted by sin. But the redemptive work of Christ ensures the redemption of the whole of creation and enables us to continue fulfilling the cultural mandate and already now to work towards freeing creation from the corrosive effects of sin.

In this way we faithfully carry out the role assigned to us in the covenant of creation and honour the sovereign King who so graciously brought us into relationship with himself.