Even if after the fall a covenant of grace were not established, and Christ had borne only penal guilt and had again placed man there where Adam stood—even then, in order now to stand before God on his own account, man would have been in need of an ongoing active righteousness in order to continue sharing in the favor of God. How much more, then, now that there is a covenant!

Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 601.