“Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” (Philippians 4:5) Moderation seems to have been quite lost in our society today. We can see it as we drive down the road at the maximum legal speed of 55mph and watch cars fly past us and down the road. A little while ago, we were traveling on a fairly well-filled four-lane highway, when someone who was parked at the end of a driveway on the other side of the road apparently decided that he had to cross at any cost. He successfully crossed two lanes before colliding with the car directly ahead of us.

While Paul spoke by name of faith far more often than of grace, he did speak of grace often: eighty-five verses in the King James Version (not including Hebrews), compared to, for example, forty-five for church and forty-seven for sin, so it is certainly not a topic for us to ignore. Twenty of those verses are in the book of Romans.

The word faith occurs in thirty-four verses in Romans, more than twice as many as gospel and fourteen more than grace, perhaps an important note at a time when the “Doctrines of Grace” are being promulgated in a way that almost seems to assume that they are Paul's focus and the most important of all doctrines. In fact, in Paul's New Testament writings (not including Hebrews because I doubt that Paul wrote it), faith occurs in 129 verses, while grace only appears in eighty-five, a significant forty-four verse difference.

The fall of man was a catastrophic event. A peaceful, beautiful world was plunged into despair and misery. A bountiful, helpful earth was turned into a bed of thorns and thistles. Even the animals and humans which populated the earth and heretofore had lived in peaceful coexistence, would soon be turned one against another, creating violence and strife which would not cease for thousands of years. After their sin, Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden, and, now knowing their sinfulness, vainly strove to conceal themselves.

Genesis 3 presents what may be the most catastrophic event ever to occur on the earth, the Fall. The serpent convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and Eve gave of the fruit to Adam, who also partook of it. Because of this God expelled them from the garden, and sin is widespread in the world today. Perhaps studying this text can help us to avoid sin today. It appears that there are three fundamental, related deceptions which the serpent used to cause Adam and Eve to fall.

Genesis 2 tells the story of the formation of the first man, Adam, which provides a foundation for the rest of the Bible. If we believe that “thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11), then we know man’s purpose for life. Otherwise, we are left adrift on a sea of unknowing. No Christian should have to wonder why he is on this earth, because God has told him in the Scripture. Nor should he have to wonder what his purpose in life is.

The first verse of the Scripture declares God’s creation of the earth, a manifestation of God’s great power. Many times, studying or reading the Scriptures, we tend to focus on our responsibility and position in the world; however, the Scripture gives an abundance of information about God, and we need to understand God and His character if we desire to fully grasp our responsibility toward Him.

Scripture uses the division between light and darkness, which literally, physically happened in the Creation, to bring out what may be the most important division in the world today. This is brought out clearly in the first chapter of John. “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” (John 1:5) Here we have the contrast between light and darkness. The light, which is life in Jesus according to verse 4, is separate from the darkness, but the darkness does not recognize the light.

Forgiveness is essential to the Christian. “But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” (Mark 11:26) When we forgive someone, we give up our bitterness and our desire to get even. In our heart, we release the person who hurt us. “To forgive is to grant pardon without harboring resentment.” (American Heritage Dictionary) When we consider the entire scope of the Bible, we can realize that when we don’t forgive other people, we are the ones who are being “unfair.” This is because, due to our own sins, we owe a debt to God that all the offenses in the world will not be sufficient punishment for—we deserve every offense that people give to us, and it’s not “fair” at all for us to be upset about something that we truly deserved.

It’s interesting to me to see how, for some false doctrines, “evidences” which have already been proven false are still being widely taught as proof of the doctrine. And people believe them, even though true data would not be hard to find. An example of this is what could be labeled the “doctrine of crowns,” which states that ungodly people can reach heaven (provided they believe a few necessary facts); however, they will receive fewer “crowns,” which are given to the saints to cast at the feet of Jesus.