Thank you. These resources are very helpful, also Jon's course "Ruin and Redemption".
That is true, but one could also say this is true of ch 7 of the 1689 Baptist Confession. Eg, 7:3 "This covenant is revealed in the gospel. It was revealed first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation through the seed of the woman. After that, it was revealed step by step until the full revelation of it was completed in the New Testament. This covenant is based on the eternal covenant transaction between the Father and the Son concerning the redemption of the elect. Only through the grace of this covenant have those saved from among the descendants of fallen Adam obtained life and blessed immortality. Humanity is now utterly incapable of being accepted by God on the same terms on which Adam was accepted in his state of innocence."
It seems to me it comes down to your historic-redemptive approach re covenant theology.
I can be edified and subscribe to LBC 7:3 without sensing any inconsistency with what I now profess about covenant theology.
However, I've subscribed to both 1689 Federalism and to Reformed Covenant Theology, and I like the latter much better. It's a damper on your devotional reading to read through two-thirds of the Bible and think of it as being written to and for people living under a meritorious covenant which delivered promises only pertaining to this life, but somehow only in a shadowy sense pertaining to the Gospel. It's too difficult to look at Abraham as being the paradigm of all who believe if you think of him as fulfilling conditions in a bilateral contract, to get blessings that only pertained to this life.
But in Reformed CT, Christ and the Gospel, although not so clearly and plainly in the OT as in the NT, are front-and-center at all times, and the deliverance of the virtue of the mediation of Christ is
the aim and purpose of the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic Covenants.
The difference when I subscribed to Reformed CT was almost immediate. It cleared away many lingering doubts and objections I had about the grace of God. It made me see the astounding wonders of the character of God, who is so good and so kind that He would bind Himself to bless, and would do it freely and graciously.
1689 Federalism cannot do that with the Old Testament narrative. "Do this" and then shall "neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation" separate you from your covenant blessings. "Do this, and then will you know God's mercy, patience, and faithfulness." Israel's prosperity is always in some measure because of "something in my hands I bring." We are reminded frequently in Baptist covenant theology that no grace was given in the Old Covenant to fulfill the conditions. So the story of the Mosaic Covenant then becomes the recycling of the story of Adam standing in his own righteousness before God, although this time around man has less to work with than Adam did, and God is much more lenient in how He passes judgment. I think it ultimately distorts both law and grace.
In Reformed CT, it's far, far easier for me to open the Old Testament, see the grace of God, see them as addressed to me, and say, "These books are
mine."