What about faith?

Tabletalk for October is looking at Covenant Theology, and has been really good.
Sproul, Sr. says:

"All covenants that God makes with creatures are gracious in the sense that He is not obligated to make any promises to His creatures."

So even in the "covenant of works," before any sin was present, God was gracious to us.

Sproul then goes on to say the distinction between covenants before and after sin is important, though, because we need to be assured that God will accept/forgive us even after we have sinned and broken His commands. Amen, I say.

He then defends the imputation of Christ's obedience to our account, so that God CAN accept us. Again, Amen and Amen, I say.

But what is missing in all of it is faith. It is faith that kept Adam and Eve obedient as long as it did, before they ate the fruit. Only when Eve believed the snake instead of God did she disobey. We miss the crucial role faith plays in obedience when we focus so hard on a covenant of works - "do this and live." By faith, the heroes of faith conquered kingdoms, etc. Not by how hard they prayed, how little they slept, how dour their expressions, how sad they were when they confessed, how efficient they were, how stoically they held up against temptation, ultimately. No, the crucial element is faith. Obedience flows out of faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God.

This is important for today because we can rely on our own efforts overmuch in our sanctification. If only our family worship/devotions are a little longer, if only I my standards for behavior for our children were a little higher, then God would accept me (or at least like me more).

It is also important because without it we can see Jesus' obedience for us as one of employee (the Son) for employer (the Father), instead of what it is - love and faith flowing into ready submission. If we're not careful, we end up imposing our ungracious legalism onto the Trinity Himself, distorting the image of God we are supposed to reflect into the world.