Of God's Covenant with Man, VII:5

This covenant was differently administered in the time of the law, and in the time of the gospel: under the law it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all foresignifying Christ to come; which were, for that time, sufficient and efficacious, through the operation of the Spirit, to instruct and build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they had full remission of sins, and eternal salvation; and is called the old Testament.

The Confession is still speaking of the covenant of grace here. Specifically, it looks at the way this covenant was administered in Israel before the time of Christ. Then salvation through Christ was a promise that God had given to his people, not explicitly and certainly not with the depth and breadth of detail that we enjoy on this temporal side of the cross. But it was reality nonetheless. God gave his people prophets to tell them what was to come, he instructed them through the sacrificial system that was a picture of Christ's perfect sacrifice (see Hebrews) and was even more specifically signified in the Passover, the covenant sign of circumcision, and all the other foreshadowings that appear in that time (priests, kings, etc.). These all were, by God's providence, both "sufficient and efficacious" to their purpose as administered by the Holy Spirit. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin--no one was ever saved solely and directly by the Jewish sacrifical system. The people of Old Testament times were saved just as we are, by faith in Christ. "To obey is better than sacrifice." Then it was trust in God to fulfill all that he told them he would do; now we look backward in faith to the fulfillment of these things.

Tomorrow: The current dispensation of the covenant of grace.