[2.] As full of grace. He knows that sin had shut up the whole way of grace towards him; and whereas God aims at nothing so much as the manifestation of his grace, he was utterly cut short of it. Now, to have a complete righteousness provided, and yet abundance of grace manifested, exceedingly delights the soul; — to have God’s dealing with his person all grace, and dealing with his righteousness all justice, takes up his thoughts. God everywhere assures us that this righteousness is of grace. It is “by grace, and no more of works,” Rom. xi. 6, as the apostle at large sets it out, Eph. ii. 7–9. It is from riches of grace and kindness that the provision of this righteousness is made. It is of mere grace that it is bestowed on us, it is not at all of works; though it be in itself a righteousness of works, yet to us it is of mere grace. So Tit. iii. 4–7, “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” The rise of all this dispensation is kindness and love; that is, grace, verse 4. The way of communication, negatively, is not by works of righteousness that we have done; — positively, by the communication of the Holy Ghost, verse 5; the means of whose procurement is Jesus Christ, verse 6; — and the work itself is by grace, verse 7. Here is use made of every word almost, whereby the exceeding rich grace, kindness, mercy, and goodness of God may be expressed, all concurring in this work. As: 1. Χρηστότης, — his goodness, benignity, readiness to communicate of himself and his good things that may be profitable to us. 2. Φιλανθρωπία, — mercy, love, and propensity of mind to help, assist, relieve them of whom he speaks, towards whom he is so affected. 3. Ἔλεος, — mercy forgiveness, compassion, tenderness, to them that suffer; and χάρις, — free pardoning bounty, undeserved love. And all this is said to be τοῦ Θεοῦ σωτῆρος, — he exercises all these properties and attributes of his nature towards us that he may save us; and in the bestowing of it, giving us the Holy Ghost, it is said, ἐξέχεεν, — he poured him out as water out of a vessel, without stop and hesitation; and that not in a small measure, but πλουσίως, — richly and in abundance: whence, as to the work itself, it is emphatically said, δικαιωθέντες τῆ ἐκείνου χάριτι, — justified by the grace of him who is such a one. And this do the saints of God, in their communion with Christ, exceedingly rejoice in before him, that the way of their acceptation before God is a way of grace, kindness, and mercy, that they might not boast in themselves, but in the Lord and his goodness, crying, “How great is thy goodness! how great is thy bounty!”