Covenant of Works – A Catholic Perspective


Do the first few chapters of Genesis present us with one or two divine covenants? Is there a covenant of creation and a separate Adamic covenant of promise(cf. Gen 3:15)?

The locus classicus for this debate is Hosea 6:7

Like Adam, they have broken the covenant—they were unfaithful to me there.

Other passages relate to the debate: Jeremiah 33:20-26 and 31:35-36 relate the Davidic covenant with God’s covenant with creation.

As the Presbyterian Church in American holds its General Assembly to discuss the Federal Vision debate, I’d like some help formulating a Catholic perspective to the covenantal narrative of the creation and fall of mankind. The Presbyterian Westminster Confession of Faith presents a somewhat flimsy explanation based on the “Covenant of Works” and the “Covenant of Grace.”

II. The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works, wherein life was promised to Adam; and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience.

III. Man, by his fall, having made himself incapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second, the commonly called covenant of grace; wherein He freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life His Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to believe. (WCF vii, II-III)

This is an attempt to push a false dichotomy of “grace vs. works” into the nature of creation. A Catholic cannot accept a dichotomy of grace and works in the pre-fall state of Adam because the Catholic Church believes that Adam possessed a supernatural habit of grace and original righteousness prior to the fall. It was not an existence of “strict merit” prior to the fall. Rather, Adam was the “son of God” (lowercase “s”) and not a slave laborer walking the tight-rope.

Comments Policy: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic. If your comment contains a hyperlink to another site, your comment automatically goes into "Comments Purgatory" where it waits for release by way of moderation.