The Covenant of Life (WSC 12)

Q. 12. What special act of providence did God exercise towards 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.

In the ancient world, the king was often said to be an “image” of the deity. The OT is full of the language of “images” – usually with a negative tone: because “images” are generally associated with idolatry. God says that we should not worship him by means of images, because God himself has established his image – Man.

In Genesis 1 we see that God created the world to be a temple – a house where God could dwell together with his people.

Now we need to see that there is an image in God’s temple. Adam – created as male and female – is the image in the temple of God. The reason why images are forbidden in worship is not because the idea of images is wrong – but because no man-made image can compete with the God-made image that God himself placed in his holy temple.