Of God's Covenant with Man, VII:1

The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which He has been pleased to express by way of covenant.

God is a higher order of being and the only being who has the power of self-existence. He is noncontingent, whereas all of his creation is contingent. He is perfect in all his ways and does not change. His creation is mutable.

As Creator, God has legitimate claims on his creatures. By the very nature of their created status the creatures owe God obedience. All that they are and have is his. He may do with them as he deems best (Romans 9:21). This is admittedly a hard teaching, for it offends human pride.

Conversely, the creature has no claims on the Creator. There is a pervasive attitude that God "owes" men. While men may legitimately expect justice from God (although few would be advised to demand it), many seem to think they are entitled to a panoply of other things. Even the "inalienable rights" with which the American Declaration of Independence insists that God has endowed men are only inalienable by other men--God has the absolute right to deprive any man of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness at any time according to his wise purposes. Indeed, that God forebears with sinful men and grants them life and health and prosperity are manifestations of his grace. Grace by its very nature is not obligatory.

Man in his sin does not like to be contingent or dependent. We search for ways to explain ourselves as other than God's creation--that is why so much is invested in maintaining a theory of origins that has no room for God. We seek to make our own destinies, to be beholden to no one but ourselves, and to follow no rules but those of our own making. We seek to be gods. We really haven't come very far from the garden. We still like to listen to lying serpents.

Tomorrow: A brief excursus on covenants.