From: "Chad Richard Bresson" <breusswane@...>

> If God promises something on a condition and the condition is met, he owes
> it.  Period.  His justice demands it.  Only when God gives it when the
> conditions aren't met is it grace.
>
JGR:  I agree.  But all that God promised Adam was that he would not die as
long as he did not eat of one tree. There were no conditions, except "don't
eat," and there was no promises except "you will not die." You are imposing
something totally foreign to the text. You are denying that  remaining in
the garden as long as he did not eat was an entitlement given by God in the
beginning and insisting that Adam was under some kind of arrangement
(covenant of works ??) whereby he had to daily earn the right to keep on
staying alive. There is not a shred of evidence that Adam must earn the
right of continued existence. He was given life at his creation. There is
not a shred of evidence showing that not eating the tree would earn for Adam
something he did not already possess.

If I warn you that a given bottle contains poison and you will die if you
drink it surely means you will continue with your present life if you do not
drink it. However, it does not in any way promise you a different kind of
life as a reward if you do not drink it. It does not promise you one single
thing that you do not presently have but merely promises you that you will
not die. The thing that is totally absent in Scrpture is Adam "earning life"
by obedience.    JGR

PS.  I think your warning to us of the NP is more true of your position. I
think your whole "earning" concept has far more danger of leading to the NP
on justification than what some of us are advocting.