While God’s covenant with Adam is properly called the covenant of works, that covenant nonetheless was suffused with grace. But it was a very specific kind of grace. Theologically, it is important to distinguish between redemptive grace and condescending grace. Redemptive grace is that grace which overcomes demerit and redeems God’s people from their sin. There was no redemptive grace in the covenant of works. Indeed, there was no logical place for redemptive grace since sin and demerit themselves were absent. Condescending grace, on the other hand, operates without regard to demerit and stoops to bestow something that has not been deserved.

STEPHEN G. MYERS, GOD TO US – COVENANT THEOLOGY IN SCRIPTURE, 108.