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"So, how far can my boyfriend and I go... you know, without going too far?" The college student couldn't quite make eye contact with her Bible Study leader. Her leader answered, "A better question to ask, is are your ‘interactions' with your boyfriend honoring to God?" That made the college girl uncomfortable. "Well, yeah. But we are going to do things. So, where is the line? Is there really a line? Because if we do something wrong, God will forgive us, right? So, there isn't any real harm done. That's what grace is all about, right?"

His testimony is so much bigger than mine, she thought, sinking down in the church pew while a former drug addict and prostitute shared how God had rescued him from a life of sin. He's a better Christian. He will do more for God, because he needed more of God's grace to save him. My testimony is lame - I can't even remember when I got saved. I know my life changed, but it isn't a great story. Maybe if I had sinned in bigger ways, I would have needed more grace and had a way better story.

"Sinner! What a disgrace to the Christian faith!" she shouted at the radio. Recently, a local pastor had come forward about a cliché affair with his secretary. And now, just 3 months later, the radio announcer was interviewing the same pastor about the steps he was taking to live in repentance. "If I was his wife, I would never, ever forgive him! How hurtful and humiliating! Ahhhhhh!!! If I was God, there would be no grace for adulterers!

Grace. A common buzzword tossed around in Christian circles, requested in prayer meetings and lifted up in popular worship songs. Whether you were raised in the church, or a newcomer to the faith, grace is a word that is familiar to our ears. But do we actually understand it? Do we live lives characterized by grace?

Valuing Grace

Sin, feel guilty at church, ask forgiveness, indulge in temptation, and then sin again. Far too many Christians live their lives in this cycle of sin, using grace as a cheap fix for the guilt felt after sinning. But nothing really changes. There is no true repentance. Such behavior reduces grace - purchased by Christ's life, death and resurrection - to the status of a morning-after pill used as a ‘quick fix' to correct a night of sinful debauchery. We aren't really repentant; we just want to negate the consequences.  Jesus did not die to give us a spiritual morning-after pill! He took our sins in his body on that cross so we might never sin again.

We often treat grace like a limitless, cheap commodity that is doled out from a vending machine anytime we punch the "sorry" button. Grace is a miracle. Grace is limitless, not because it costs nothing, but because it comes from a limitless God. Grace is free to us because we can never, ever, no matter how hard we try, afford it. It's a gift because we can't buy it for ourselves. We're like the poor people who are given handouts to survive, yet then waste that money on alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes while their children beg for food on the street corners to survive.

Grace is a gift from God to lift us out of that sin, not allow us to continue in it! As Paul says in Romans 6, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life...So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."

Grace is the means by which we have been and continue to be saved. It's the vehicle of salvation. Grace brings about our righteousness (from a sordid life of sinful rags) so we can be with God. John Piper says, "God will spare sinful sons, precisely because he did not spare his only sinless Son." Grace cost Jesus everything, let it cost us our sin.

Recognizing Grace

We're amazed when God saves a rebel heart, heals someone of cancer or provides for a huge financial need. We're awed by how big and powerful God is in that instance. We marvel at the grace extended by God to win the hardened heart of a slave trader, like John Newton. Yet we dismiss the grace extended in Christ' forgiveness of our sins. We take for granted the grace involved in cleansing us from daily, hourly unrighteousness.

The grace God extends to a dying abuser saved on death row is the same grace given to save you and I. The grace that God bestows to forgive the sin of a murder is the same grace given us to resist temptation. The grace that freed us from sin is the same grace that allows us to daily become more like Christ. Every day we have with Christ, every sin forgiven, every sin resisted - it's all the work of grace. John Piper explains, "If God is only in front of you beckoning, you tend to become a legalist. If God is only behind you pushing, you tend to lose resoluteness [and sin].... Not all of God's grace is behind us pushing to obey. There is also grace in front of us beckoning us to follow. As Christians, we are sandwiched in God's grace."

Grace comes from God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our salvation comes through grace. Our relationship with the Lord is maintained by grace. We are literally at the mercy of the grace of God - and it's a beautiful place to be! "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Ephesians 2:4-9

Responding to Grace

The miracles of Jesus - giving sight to the blind, healing the leper, making the lame walk again - are living pictures of what grace does in our hearts. "And immediately Jesus said to them, "Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk'?" Mark 2:1-11. The miracle is grace. And how should you respond to such a miracle?

1. Marvel. Take time to marvel at the gift of grace. Rejoice in the option of salvation. Worship the glory of God which is full of the grace of God. John Piper shares, "If you want to be really alert to seeing Jesus' divine beauty, his glory-the spiritual brightness that sets Him apart as self-evidently real and true-then make sure you tune your senses to see His grace. That's what His glory is full of." It is vital that we regain an awestruck view of the miracle of grace, for a right understanding will keep us from taking for granted that which cost Christ all.  "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Romans 5:1-2
2. Cherish. A person who treasures the grace of God runs from sin. A right view of grace makes us realize how amazing and costly it was. When we value grace, we consistently turn from evil and do good. Grace is given that we might repent, not say we're sorry and keep on sinning. Grace allows us to leave behind the life of a sinner and embrace a life of freedom, victory and joy with Christ. Piper states, "Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin.  Grace is power, not just pardon." "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." Galatians 2:16-21
3. Bestow. A person transformed by grace, marveling in the gift, cherishing grace by running from sin is a person that will extend grace to others. God's grace flows through them to a graceless world. A right understanding of grace compels us to reach out to murderers, adulterers, churchgoers, and family members alike. Grace isn't tolerant of sin, it's ministering to the repentant heart. Grace doesn't excuse the flesh, but cultivates the spirit. We give limitless grace to others, because we've received limitless grace from God. "The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and [all] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus to be received by faith." Romans 3:22-26.

For the college girl, grace allows her to draw near to God and trusting that His parameters for intimacy are best. For the girl in church, grace facilitated her salvation and allows her to now rejoice in that freedom. For the woman listening to the radio, grace flows through her to call others to repentance and extend the forgiveness she herself experiences. For each of us, living for Christ requires grace.

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see. T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear. And Grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ‘Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far and Grace will lead me home."

(Gabrielle Pickle writes for the Unlocking Femininity blog at www.unlockingfemininity.com)

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[Note: The following post originally ran on http://www.albertmohler.com/. It represents an excellent call to fathers to protect their sons and daughters from becoming enslaved to the screen.]

We are now the people of the screen. We are surrounded by screens, monitors, and other flickering devices, and each demands our attention. What began with the television has now spread to a host of other technologies. Our minds are increasingly shaped, entertained, informed, stimulated, and perhaps even altered by the Age of the Screen - and so are the minds of our children.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, meeting this week in Boston, expressed concern about the effects of exposure to screens on children. Over a decade ago, the academy proposed that pediatricians should ask questions about screen exposure when conducting routine medical exams and evaluations. Just this week, the groups adopted a new set of guidelines, calling upon parents to put severe limits on the exposure of young children to television.

Parents should pay close attention to the group's statement, released as "Media Use by Children Younger than Two Years." According to the AAP, 90 percent of parents reported that their children under the age of two "watch some form of electronic media." These children watch, parents reported, an average of one to two hours of television a day. A considerable number of parents indicated their belief that television is "very important for healthy development," and leave the television on virtually all waking hours.

The physicians called for "unstructured, unplugged play" for toddlers, warning specifically that television exposure around bedtime is associated with "poor sleep habits and irregular sleep schedules, which can adversely affect mood, behavior, and learning."

One statistic cited by the group is truly shocking - by age three, almost one third of all children have a television in their bedroom.

Of course, the American Academy of Pediatrics was not addressing this new statement to toddlers, but to their parents. Toddlers do not put televisions in their bedrooms; their parents do. Furthermore, the AAP warned parents that their own television viewing was exposing their young children to second-hand adverse effects. It turns out that second-hand television, like second-hand smoke, is a real danger to children.

The very fact that the AAP considers media exposure to be such a serious medical issue should tell us all something. And the research undertaken by the academy is both serious and sobering.

Consider this: An AAP report released just over a year ago found that children and adolescents "spend more time engaged in various media than they do in any other activity except for sleeping."

Citing the 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study, the pediatricians estimated that children and teenagers spend more than seven hours a day engaged with various media.

When these children and young people reach age 70, "they will have spent the equivalent of 7 to 10 years of their lives watching television."

The number of American homes with television outnumbers the number of homes with indoor plumbing. The average American home with children has four televisions, one DVR, up to three DVD players, two CD players, two radios, two computers, and two video game units.

If almost one third of three-year-olds have a television in their bedrooms, 70 percent of American teenagers do. At least one third of the nation's teenagers have a computer with internet access in their bedroom.

The pediatricians warned that the presence of a television in a teenager's room is associated with higher rates of substance abuse and sexual activity.

It should tell us something that the nation's pediatricians are alarmed about the media exposure of our children and teenagers. We should know that "there is no such thing as an educational program" for very young children and that what children really need is face time with parents and the experience of hands-on play.

Christian parents must consider this research carefully and candidly. We know that every technology comes with its own dangers, and the technologies of the screen offer subtle dangers as well as more obvious problems. We must prepare our children and teenagers for life in a world filled with screens, and this will be no easy task. But it starts with parents exercising control and preventing the alarming levels of screen exposure this research reveals.

This means that Christian parents must be concerned, not just with what content children are watching, but how much exposure they really experience. Something has gone wrong when the default position of the television is on, rather than off. There is something even more wrong when children and teenagers have televisions and Internet access in their bedrooms.

We, along with our children, live in a new danger zone. We will need deep Christian conviction - and keen Christian judgment - if we are to remain faithful in the Age of the Screen.

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[Note: Following is the final installment in this four-part series]
 

Have We Forgotten Glory?

            Christ's purpose and joy was to glorify his Father, and he did this by submitting to him, thus elevating submission and the role of a servant for all time.   The Holy Spirit, for his part, was to glorify Christ.  If God gives me, as a woman, a task, that is the place and position from which he wants me to glorify him.  His intention is that my position of submission to my husband would bring glory to God.  And not only to him-‘The woman,' wrote the apostle Paul in I Corinthians 11:7, ‘is the glory of man.'  What if God has glory in store as I joyfully submit to my husband?

            Now I am going to play devil's advocate for a little bit.  What if, after all, the apostles Paul and Peter did not really mean that a wife should submit to her husband?  What if-after all-I have been living under an undue stricture?  What have I lost-my pride?  But is that not what I am supposed to lose?  What about my identity?  But does not the New Testament teach me that my identity is in Christ?  What about possibilities for self-development?  Helping one's husband obey and rule will lead to plenty of self-development, I've noticed, without even looking for it-whether or not it is the sort I had in mind.

My Confession

            Last: my confession.  Somewhere in the effort of putting those 27,000 words down on paper, I understood something.  I had said I believed in submission-and I came to believe in it more, not less-but I had not been living as a truly submissive wife.  I recognized that I had not been honoring and respecting Trent as my head when it did not fit with my personal ideas.  I had not let him truly lead me when I thought I knew better.  That gets to the crux of the matter, I suppose.  I went to him and asked his forgiveness.  He forgave me.

            How do I know what ‘submission' means on a day-to-day basis?  I have noticed that when I desire to be submissive to the Lord, he has a way of letting me know what is in my heart in relation to my husband.   I'm beginning to recognize those instances more quickly.  So, it is not the concept of submission I wrestle with anymore, but I am certainly still working on living it out. 

I have a suspicion that, when I see Jesus in glory, still submitting to the Father, I will say, ‘Oh, that's what it means!  I wish I had been submissive like that!'

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Glory!

            The glorious part comes in debunking some serious misconceptions about submission and in beginning to understand God's intent.

            Misconception # 1: Submission is negative and demeaning

The first misconception is that submission is negative and demeaning.  We had best consider Jesus here.  He submitted himself to the Father in everything he said and did.  ‘Truly, truly,' he stated, as if some of them (and us) would find this hard to believe, ‘I say to you, the Son can do nothing of himself, unless it is something he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner' (John 5:19).  Just to make sure they got it, he repeated the idea in John 8:28, ‘I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught me.' To think of the Father as demeaning Jesus is inconceivable.  In fact, the Father said, at the occasion of Jesus' baptism, ‘This is my beloved Son.  Hear him.'

            Thus, Jesus himself debunks the idea that submission is negative.

            Consider the Holy Spirit.  Jesus says of the promised Helper, ‘He will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak...He shall glorify me' (John 16:13, 14).  Again, it is unthinkable to suppose the Holy Spirit is being denigrated.  He simply has a different function to perform in the Godhead. 

            Consider the Church, who is to submit to Christ, her head.  Do we valuate that as a negative idea?  No, we believe it to be the right order of things. 

            Most astonishing of all, perhaps, is that Jesus Christ will continue in submission to the Father.  Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians 15:28: ‘And when all things are subjected to him [the Father], then the Son himself also will be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.' The context for that verse is the second coming of Christ!  In other words, Christ will, in a perfect Godhead in a perfect heaven, remain in submission to the Father.  It's a mystery.

            Misconception #2: Position defines worth

            The second misconception is that position defines worth.  This is a secular concept-it is not in the Bible.  Does Christ's position of submission to the Father make him worth less?  No-he was equal with the Father.  Does the Church's position of submission to Christ make the Church worth less?  No-Christ died to prove the worth of the Church and his love for her.  Not only that, everything he did and taught was to prepare the Church to be his spotless bride.  (We might ponder that for awhile.)  Further, does a child's submission to his parents make him worth less as a person?  No-it simply means he has a different position in the family. 

            Misconception #3: The temperament and gifting loophole

            The third misconception is that submission has something to do with personality or temperament or gifting.  I admit, I looked for a loophole here.  I could not find one.  The idea goes like this: there are women who are naturally quiet or introverted or shy, therefore, it must be easier for them to submit.  A friend once suggested that it was easy for me to submit because I am ‘quiet.'  I assured her that, though I may have an introvert's personality, I also have very strong opinions and hold some dearly cherished values.  Ask my husband if I find it easy to submit!  I am Eve's daughter: I am not naturally submissive.

            Neither is it true that if a woman is more of an extrovert or has a stronger personality than her husband, she, therefore, does not need to submit to him.  The Scripture says nothing about temperament-that loophole is just not there.  A study of Sarah and Abraham will reveal that Sarah had at least as strong a personality as Abraham!  Yet she is honored by the apostle Peter for her submission to her husband (1 Peter 3:5, 6). (Why had the ‘voices' never quoted Peter?)

            What about gifting?  We cannot waste, the argument goes, spiritual gifts!  What if a woman has natural leadership abilities, more so than her husband?  What a waste for her to have to submit to him!  How unfair to ask him to lead her!  I have seen plenty of marriages where this is the case.  However, if God gives a woman leadership abilities, he will most likely give her a realm in which to exercise them for his glory.[i]  (See Proverbs 31 for some ideas.)  How about leading her children?  A mother may and must lead her children, but, even there, she is still to be in a position of submission to her husband.  How about leading other women?  The apostle Paul spells out very clearly that the older women should teach the younger ones.  (What he tells them to teach the younger women is also worth pondering.)[ii]  Here is a built-in, significant role for every Christian woman!  Thus, a wife's stronger personality does not indicate she is free to be the head in the marriage; neither can it be used as an excuse for the husband to abdicate his God-given position. (Adam, where are you?)

            Misconception #4: It works; it doesn't work 

            The fourth misconception is in the area of experience.  I have heard people say, ‘It works for us to do away with roles in our marriage.'  This is the concept that ‘if it works, it must be right,' or ‘if it doesn't work, it must be wrong.'  Jesus' submission to the Father-did it ‘work'?  His submission led him to the cross!  The early apostles' submission to their Lord-did it ‘work'?  It led them to martyrdom.[iii]  To say something ‘works' or does not work is not the test of truth.

            The validity or invalidity of something is also not determined by its misuse.  The fact that many men have wrongfully used ‘headship' to demean and devalue women is often proclaimed as proof-positive that there is something wrong with the concept of women submitting to men.  Because women have been mistreated by men who misused the concept of headship or leadership-does that make the concept wrong?  That is very dangerous ground to stand on. We should expect God's designs to be misused.  That is the nature of our fallenness.

            Neither did I find a loophole that we in the 21^st century can disregard specific, clear instructions given by God's appointed apostles in the first century as though they were outdated.  What others, then, would we also disregard?

The picture that emerged in my spiral notebooks from the first page of the Bible to the last is that the instructions in the New Testament grew out of the design at creation, a design that God did not revoke, albeit further defined, after the fall.  

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[i] Even so, I dare to say that the presence of gifts or talents does not necessarily mean we will always have a realm in which to exercise them.  We may be called on to relinquish them for a time, even to die to them or to the way in which we thought we were to use them.  It may be that God is after my humility more than my gifts.

[ii] See Titus 2:4, 5.

[iii] I garnered this thought from Dr. Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

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Distinctive Helping

            I had to stop here, and consider.  In bringing Eve along as Adam's helper, God was giving her her own dignity and her own distinction.  Being, with the man, equally created in the image of God, she was yet other, a woman, and she had a realm in which to offer her particular contribution to this glorious, as yet unfallen world, as a woman and a wife.

            How was Eve to help her husband?  God had already given Adam his work, and now to the pair of them, a grandiose calling.  The two of them together were to work at subduing the earth.  That, to my astonishment even now, leaps off the page.  How in the world were they supposed to ‘subdue the earth'?  In part, at least, by ruling-together- over ‘every living thing that moves on the earth.'  

This is where Eve's distinction as helper comes in.  It took some careful looking, but the juxtaposition of two major verses told me something about one way Eve was to be a helper.  God gave to Adam-before Eve was created-the privilege and the prohibition: eat everything you want, except for the fruit of that very significant tree.  Following the prohibition, God says, in a conversation within the Trinity, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper...'  None of the animals was suitable for this task, so God made Eve.

Adam's need to obey and Adam's need for a helper are directly juxtaposed in these verses.

            Does it strike you, as it did me, that God knew the man would need help in obeying?  This is before the fall, remember.  Being given a prohibition implies a choice.  Unfallen man was not to be left alone in this quite serious business of obeying God.  He would need help in ‘subduing' the earth, even a perfect one.  Likewise, he would need help in subduing his own nature, with its God-given free will, in order to be able to obey God.  

            Here was the most highly intelligent being God had created and whom he further endowed with his image.  Yet this man needed the kind of help no animal and no other kind of human being (male friend or brother, for instance) could give him.  He needed a woman, equally made in God's image, yet other.[i]

            Thus, in Eve I found everything I was meant to be: created as a woman, created to be a wife,[ii] created for her husband by God's design, getting to enjoy an unspoiled universe with her unspoiled husband, being given the most significant vocation we can imagine-that of helping her husband rule over this amazing world.   So far, so good.

Eve Quits Helping

            Then one of those ‘living things that moves on the earth,' over which she was to help rule, comes along and talks to her.   And she quits helping. 

Instead of helping Adam to obey by her own obedience (or by deferring to Adam, to whom the prohibition was originally given), Eve listened to the crafty creature (that is the Bible's description) blatantly lying about God.  And instead of helping her husband subdue this creature and obey the Creator, she crossed a boundary line by becoming independent.

            In so doing, Eve helped Adam disobey.  (He had his own culpability, of course.  I am not suggesting that Adam was off the hook.  I will refer to this later.)

            Thus, I see in Eve everything I was not meant to be: greedy (she had all she needed plus beautiful surroundings), disobedient (she knew of the prohibition), believing an outright lie (she herself quoted God), stubbornly independent and thus open to deception, and, finally, consumed with shame. 

            What about the boundaries now?  God redefined them and made them more restricting.  Eve, essentially ‘mother,' was now going to experience childbirth as gaspingly laborious at best, and painful as the norm.  Eve, essentially ‘helper' but one who wanted independence instead, was now going to be ‘ruled' by her husband. 

            God lets us see in Eve what we were meant to be and what we were not meant to be.  Then he takes the rest of Scripture, so to speak, to show us how it works out. 

            But before I left Eve and Adam, one more mighty important piece of the story needed to be carefully considered.  Eve was culpable for her part in the first sin and was punished for it, but Adam was held responsible for the fall.  It was to Adam God gave the prohibition; it was Adam God singled out when the two were trying to hide their nakedness from him.  Three questions God asked of Adam, and clearly, Adam recognized that an answer was required of him.[iii]  

            This gave me a clue as to where things stood.

Intentional Design

            In injecting order, boundaries, and submission into the design of creation, God clearly chose one person to bear the ultimate responsibility (the apostle Paul will corroborate this),[iv] and one person to help.  These positions were God's intentional design, an intent that would continue to unfold. 

            Something told me-and my experience bears this out-that it was going to be harder for Eve to help her husband, now a fallen man who may not always want her help.  Her own fallen nature was also going to get in the way.  ‘Your desire will be for your husband,' God said to Eve, ‘and he shall rule over you.'  She was going to experience the conflict of desiring this man and chafing under his rule.

            You may be wondering when I'm going to get to the ‘glorious' part.

            But before I get to that, I need to mention that God already had a plan in mind, and it was not ‘Plan B.' It was The Plan.  God promised nothing less than redemption through the woman and for the woman within his boundaries for her, and it had to do with childbearing.  Her ‘seed' was going to do what she did not: subdue forever the power of the serpent.  God was already offering a foretaste of glory for womankind.  But Eve had sidestepped God's boundaries, to her detriment. 

            As I looked at woman after woman throughout the Old Testament and up through the beginnings of the Church, I found both shame and glory, sometimes in the same woman.  Where a woman respected her husband and submitted to his leadership, she was honored by God, by her husband, by the public and by the Old and New Testament writers.  Where a woman took things into her own hands in defiance of her husband, she brought shame on him and trouble for herself.  

When we come to the New Testament, both before and after the cross, we find Jesus and women, Peter and women, Paul and women-and nowhere do we find any one of them suggesting that women have been ‘set free' from the God-designed order, submission, and boundaries instituted at the creation.  Not one of them implies that it is the fault of the patriarchal culture that women are ‘in a bind.'  In fact, not one of them thinks of it as a bind or sets about to change that culture. The submission of a woman to her husband is held up, rather, as a high calling within the culture, whatever that ‘culture' happens to be.

I came to the conclusion that ‘helping' and ‘submission' go together

Yes, now we get to the nitty-gritty.  You hoped I would find a way out, but I did not.  In the New Testament, a woman's submission to her husband is spelled out quite plainly, both by Paul and Peter.  Paul calls this ‘sound doctrine' (Titus 2:1), and Peter, an ‘imperishable quality' (I Peter 3:4, 5).

(Friday: Part III)

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[i] Granted, Adam needed a woman in order to help populate the earth, but that is not the context in which the need for a helper is articulated. See Genesis 3:16-18.

[ii]Each woman is created with the capacity for being a wife, whether or not she marries. 

[iii] See the Scriptures' treatment of Adam's responsibility in Romans 5:12-21 and I Corinthians 5:21, 22.

[iv] See Romans 5:14 and 1 Corinthians15:21, 22.