not everyone has murdered. Almost everyone has lusted, but not all have committed actual adultery. The reason for this moderation of sin is that God, through his common grace (that is, grace that is extended to unbelievers), restrains the evil that people would do. For example, in Genesis 20 we read that King Abimelech did not sin as much as he could have, because God prevented him from committing adultery with Sarah, Abraham’s wife. And Paul writes the Thessalonians that “the mystery of lawlessness