New Testament—Display of Grace

The New Testament then is the opening of that period which we speak of as the dispensation of the grace of God: His clemency toward sinners. Indeed, it is more than this, for the history of man's responsibility was closed at the cross, and we now come in on the ground of sovereign grace. God allowed ages to pass (the different, distinct periods in which man has in divers ways been put to the test, and in which he has had time to show what he is) without yet accomplishing His work of grace.