The Westminster Shorter Catechism

Q12. What special act of providence did God exercise toward man
in the estate wherein he was created?

A. When God had created man, He entered into a Covenant of Life with him,—
upon condition of perfect obedience,—forbidding him to eat of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.[1]

Proofs

[1] Genesis 2:16–17; Galatians 3:12.

Comments

When God had created Adam and Eve, He established a probationary covenant with Adam, under which he and his posterity would live forever if he kept His Laws personally, perfectly and perpetually (Gal 3:12; Rom 10:5). The pledge of the eternal life, which was promised them, was the Tree of Life (WLC 20). The law which Adam (and Eve) had to keep refers to God’s Moral Law (in a pre-fall or supralapsarian form), which is inscribed in their hearts (Rom 2:14–15), they being created in the image of God. But as a concrete and representative test of his total obedience, God commanded Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil upon the penalty of death (Gen 2:16–17), which death refers both to physical and temporal death, as well as spiritual and eternal death. Physical death refers to the separation of the soul from the body. It is temporal because the bodies of both believers and unbelievers will be raised at the resurrection—the bodies of believers unto honour and glory, the bodies of unbelievers unto dishonour and corruption. Spiritual death consists in (a) separation of the soul from God; (b) the lost of conformity to God’s image; and (c) the prospect of eternal torment in hell under the wrath of God.

This covenant is known as the Covenant of Life, and is frequently called Covenant of Works (cf. WCF 7.2). This covenant was never abrogated though the Fall made it impossible for man, who descend by ordinary generation from Adam, to keep it.

When Christ lived in this world, He lived a life of perfect obedience; and as the Second Adam, He essentially obeyed the Covenant on our behalf. His human righteousness (so obtained by His Active Obedience) is imputed on us who are His covenant children, just as His Passive Obedience on the Cross paid for the penalty of our sins.