19.1 The Instruction Of The Lord Is Perfect

Table of Contents

The Text

Psalm 19:7a (CSB) The instruction of the LORD is perfect, renewing one’s life;

The Chapter

God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart, and a particular precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; by which he bound him and all his posterity to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience; promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it.

The Confession

God gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart, and a particular precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil

Genesis 1:27 (CSB) So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 (CSB) Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”

I am vaguely familiar with this reoccurring debate of the Historical Adam. Stick around long enough in one lifetime, you will see books from well-intended scholars asking open-ended questions like, "Did Adam really exist and why is so important?

One just has to do a simple word search in your Bible-application-of-choice for the key term, "Adam," to see what authors, especially in the New Testament, who penned the Bible had to say.

Luke 3:38 (CSB) son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.

But more so, with all the titles and that names that the Christ has for himself, one of the most important is that of as the last Adam.

1 Corinthians 15:45 (CSB) So it is written, The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

So why is this so important? The historical Adam is important to the gospel of Christ. If God actually created the first Adam, breathed life into him, what was Adam like before he sinned?

Genesis 1:27 (CSB) So God created man in his own image;
he created him in the image of God;
he created them male and female.

Adam, before he fell, was created in the image of God. Adam was an imagebearer. He is like his Father God in heaven. If that is true, then if we can figure out what God is, we can, in part figure out what Adam was like.

Remembering what Christ said about God?

Mark 10:18 (CSB) “Why do you call me good? ” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone.

Again, we are not speaking of a good like the taste of tacos. We are speaking of a good that is perfect, holy, and righteous. If God is good, then what he made had to been good. And it was good. And when he made mankind, God, who is good and the source of all good, declared that it was very good.

Genesis 1:31 (CSB) God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.

One of the other things is that God is living. Not mere flesh like you and me but always living. He is the source of life.

John 1:3-4 (CSB) All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

So, God being good, and existed before he created, was able to create Adam, and was good because God was good, we know that Adam, as long as he obeyed God, he would have lived forever and never die.

Genesis 2:16-17 (CSB) And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

by which he bound him and all his posterity to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience

Romans 10:5 (CSB) since Moses writes about the righteousness that is from the law: The one who does these things will live by them.

God created Adam and Eve good like him and in perfect relationship with him. Adam and Eve, created in goodness and perfection, in their will and desire, had the ability to obey God perfectly.

Stay with me here. You might be wondering, "Okay, how did Adam know what was the law of God? How did he know what was right and wrong? How could he obeyed God without God telling him what to do or writing it down like he did with Moses?"

Romans 2:14-16 (CSB) So, when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts. Their consciences confirm this. Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them on the day when God judges what people have kept secret, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus.

Remember, Adam was not an Israelite. The Israelites didn't come about until Isaac was born as a son of Abraham. Technically, Abraham being the father of the Israelites, is he himself not Jewish. But I digress.

Adam and Eve were born in perfection knowing instinctively what was right and wrong. They did not have to be told or shown what was good because they had the moral law inherently within them. How is this possible? They were sons of God.

promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it

Galatians 3:10–12 (CSB) For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them.

They had the ability to keep it because they were born sons of God.

God did threatened them with death with breaching this. But because I am once born a son of Adam and now born again and alive to Christ, I see this in other way: God preached the law to Adam. In other words, "the wages of sin is death."

And when Adam and Eve sinned against God, they did not drop dead. They did not vanish. But death they did die. They died spiritually instantly because the Holy Spirit, was breathed into them by God, departed them. From that moment on, their selves and creation around them began to decompose, fail, and die.

God did preach the law. He did preach the wages of sin is death. No need for the good news because they were in perfect relationship with God. But when they sinned, they didn't experience the right wrath of God but they got to see God in ways they have never experienced before:

The God of renewed mercies, grace upon grace, and his steadfast love.