Whatever title one wants to give this first covenant, it establishes early in Scripture the coordination of law keeping and life. The pattern is already evident that blessing follows upon obedience, whereas curse follows upon disobedience. This needs to be appreciated as fully as possible, since so often law keeping (in the theological sense) is considered primarily to be a burden. The law is indeed prominently portrayed as a slave master to drive us to Christ (e.g., Rom 7:10; Gal 3:23). But there is also a fundamental sense in which law keeping leads to blessing. This continues to be true,
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