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Covenant of works

The "covenant of works" (also known as the "covenant of life" or the "covenant of creation") refers to the original commandment given by the LORD God to Adam, the ancestor and head of the human race, when he created him.

This is recorded in Genesis 2:15-17: "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

The command is given in the context of creating Adam and placing him in the garden of Eden "to work it and keep it" (what is called the cultural mandate). 

The command involves permission ("You may surely eat of every tree of the garden") and prohibition ("but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat").

Obedience or otherwise to the command will have divinely imposed consequences: "for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." There are different views as to whether Adam had eternal life, and lost it, or whether, by his obedience, he failed to obtain something he did not yet have. (I tend towards the latter view.) 

Romans 2:6-13 can be seen as a reiteration of this "covenant of works". Arguably it remains in force after the fall, and to the present day. No one is saved by the covenant of works, but Christ the Other Adam saves us by fulfilling it for us, both in his active obedience (doing God's command) and his passive obedience (suffering the consequences of our disobedience). 

Calling this command the "covenant of works" is based on the wording of these verses reflecting the wording of covenants elsewhere in Scripture, for example, the presence of parties, blessings, stipulations and sanctions. Hosea 6:7 may or may not be a reference to these verses as a "covenant". 

"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." 
(Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter VII.2)
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