We have seen that God’s covenants are divided into three major areas: the covenant of redemption, the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace. The covenant of redemption was within the Trinity and determined the redemption of an elect people. The covenant of works establishes that all of humanity, individually and corporately, are sinful, stand guilty before God, and need redemption. The covenant of grace reveals how God has worked out the covenant of redemption and satisfied the requirements of the covenant of works. God is the author and executor of this covenant and man is the undeserving recipient. Christ alone would be without sin, satisfying the requirement of the covenant of works and capable of providing himself as the redemptive sacrifice.

Adam rebelled against God by eating the forbidden fruit. As humanity’s representative head, Adam’s fall had dire consequences for every person who would come after him. Paul explains in Romans 5:12-19: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. . . Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. . . . For if many died through one man’s trespass, . . . For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, . . . For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, . . . For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, . . .”

Many people immediately protest, “Why am I condemned for what Adam did? That’s simply not fair.” Whether we think it fair or not, the protest is without support. Ask yourself these questions: Do I follow God with unwavering devotion, deep and sincere love, and sacrificial discipleship? Am I really without sin? Our very condition displays the truth of the Bible. We are sinners.

Adam’s rebellion was met by a curse upon Satan that was a promise of grace to Adam and Eve and their offspring: “The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman [Eve], and between your offspring [all humanity] and her offspring [those chosen in Christ, the elect]; he [Christ] shall bruise your head [a mortal blow], and you shall bruise his heel [an injury].” (Genesis 3:14–15 ESV). On the cross, Christ gave Satan a deadly blow (the “bruised heel”], while Christ himself suffered in obtaining our salvation (the “bruised heel”)

Humanity has been willingly, though unwittingly, subservient to Satan since Adam. Alongside the seed of Satan, however, have existed through divine grace followers of the true God. So how does a person enter the covenant of grace where a loving and compassionate God awaits and Christ satisfies one’s sin? One enters only through turning from one’s sin (repentance) and turning to God through belief that the perfect Christ satisfied the demands of divine justice on that person’s behalf. In short, one enters through faith:

Romans 1:16–17 ESV: ¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Romans 3:21–26 ESV: ²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—  ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:  ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,  ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  ²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 4:13–16 ESV: ¹³ For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.  ¹⁴ For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.  ¹⁵ For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.  ¹⁶ That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

Romans 5:1–2 ESV: ¹ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  ² Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Christ has come, shedding his blood to atone for the sin of repentant believers, fulfilling the promise God made in Genesis 3:15 and the covenant of redemption made in eternity. Old Testament saints looked forward to God’s provision of a Savior, and saints since Christ’s crucifixion have looked back to that fulfillment carried out outside of the city of Jerusalem. The question that must be answered is this: Are you looking in faith to the crucified and resurrected Christ as your Savior and Lord?