44 The Fundamentals in an Eden of beauty; conscience, that is, the knowledge of good and evil with responsibility to do good and eschew evil; promises, with the help of God available through prayer; law, tried on a great scale, and through centuries of forbearance, supplemented by the mighty ethical ministry of the prophets, without ever once presenting a human being righteous before God (Rom. 3 :19 ; Gal. 3 :10 ; Heb. 7 :19 ; Rom. 3:10, 18; 8 :3 , 4) ; this is the Biblical picture. And it is against this dark background that grace shines out. DEFINITION The New Testament definitions of grace are both inclusive and exclusive. They tell us what grace is, but they are careful also to tell us what grace is not. The two great central defini tions follow: “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2 :7 ) . This is the inclusive, or affirmative, side; the negative aspect, what grace is not, follows: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2 :8 , 9). The Jew, who is under the law when grace comes, is under its curse (Gal. 3 :1 0 ) ; and the Gentiles are “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). And to this race God comes to show “the exceeding riches of His GRACE in His kindness toward US,” “through CHRIST JESUS.” The other great definition of grace is: “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man ap peared”—the positive aspect; “Not by works of righteousness
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