Romans 5.13-Sin Was Universal Before the Mosaic Law But Was Not Charged to the Sinner's Account
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday April 30, 2008
Romans: Romans 5:13-Sin Was Universal Before the Mosaic Law But Was Not Charged To The Sinner’s Account
Lesson # 161
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 5:12.
This evening we will continue with our study of Romans chapter five.
In Romans 5:12a, we studied that the sin nature and spiritual death entered the human race through the disobedience of one man, Adam.
In Romans 5:12b, we noted that each and every member of the human race received the imputation of Adam’s sin at the moment of physical birth.
Then, in Romans 5:12c, we studied that Adam is the “federal” and “seminal” or “natural” head of the human race.
This evening we will note Romans 5:13 in which Paul will teach us that sin was universal prior to the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai but was never charged to the sinner’s account.
Let’s read Romans 5:12-21 and then concentrate on verse 13 this evening.
Romans 5:12-13, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
Romans 5:14, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”
Romans 5:15, “But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”
Romans 5:16, “The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.”
Romans 5:17, “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
Romans 5:18, “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.”
Romans 5:19, “For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”
Romans 5:20-21, “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Let’s look at Romans 5:12 again and then concentrate on verse 13.
Romans 5:12-13, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
In Romans 5:12, “therefore just as” introduces a comparison that is drawn from a conclusion from Paul’s statements in Romans 5:1-11.
As we noted in our study of Romans 5:12, the adverb of manner hosper, “just as” is used in the protasis of a comparison meaning that to which the main idea is being compared.
Romans 5:12-21 identifies the comparison as being between the consequences of Adam’s act of disobedience and Christ’s act of obedience.
In Romans 5:12, he uses hosper to introduce the protasis and then employs a parenthesis in Romans 5:13-17 to develop the significance of Adam’s disobedience and Christ’s obedience but then completes the comparison in Romans 5:18-19.
So the comparative adverb hosper introduces the protasis of a comparison, which Romans 5:12-21 identifies as being between the consequences of Adam’s act of disobedience and the effects of Christ’s act of obedience.
The protasis is “just as one man’s act of disobedience, namely, Adam, was the basis for the condemnation of the entire human race.”
The apodasis is completed in Romans 5:18b where Paul says “so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of all life to all men.”
The comparison emphasizes that just as one man’s act of disobedience, namely, Adam’s, was the basis for their condemnation so Jesus Christ’s act of obedience to the Father’s will is the basis for the believer’s justification and reconciliation.
By making this comparison between Christ and Adam, Paul intends to demonstrate that what God accomplished through Christ’s act of obedience is as universal in its scope and consequences as was the act of disobedience by Adam.
Therefore, in Romans 5:13, Paul does not complete the comparison but rather employs a parenthesis in Romans 5:13-17 to develop the comparison between the results of Adam’s disobedience with the results of Christ’s obedience.
Romans 5:13, “for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
In Romans 5:13, “for” is the “explanatory” use of the conjunction gar (gavr), which introduces statements that appear, in Romans 5:13-14 that anticipate an objection and explain Paul’s statement in Romans 5:12.
This explanatory statement is designed to address the possible objection in which it could be implied that there was no sin nature and spiritual death prior to the giving of the Law to Moses.
The conjunction gar introduces a statement that “explains why” the human race was enslaved to the old Adamic sin nature and under real spiritual despite the fact that the Law was not yet given to Moses in written form.
The conjunction gar introduces a statement that explains the relationship between the sin nature and the Law, specifically, why the entire human race was spiritually dead before the giving of the Law to Moses.
Since spiritual death is the penalty for transgression of the Law, why did people prior to the giving of the Law, die spiritually and eventually physically.
The answer that appears in Romans 5:13-14 is that the people who lived prior to the giving of Law in written form to Moses on Mount Sinai were “in” Adam or in other words, they were under the “federal” and “seminal” headship of Adam.
Adam disobeyed the prohibition to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and ever since that time, his descendants have disobeyed God’s law and not just the Mosaic Law.
This accounts for the universality of spiritual and physical death.
Romans 5:13, “for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
“Until the Law” refers to the period of time, which began with Adam’s fall and concluded with the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai.
This is indicated by Paul’s statement in Romans 5:14.
Romans 5:14, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”
Paul is saying that “prior to” the giving of the Law, the practice of personal sin was habitually taking place in the human race.
“The Law” refers to the Mosaic Law as indicated by Paul’s reference to Moses in his statement in Romans 5:14.
Romans 5:13, “for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
“Sin” does not refer to the sin nature but rather to personal acts of sin since it is anarthrous (does not have the definite article before it).
The word refers to the different manifestations of the sin nature that take place through the function of volition.
Therefore, Paul is saying that even though personal sin existed in the human race prior to the giving of the Law to Moses, it is never charged to a person’s account when there is no law forbidding certain actions.
“Was in the world” means that individual acts of sin were habitually taking place among the individual members of the human race from the Fall of Adam to the giving of the Law to Moses.
The adversative clause “but sin is not imputed when there is no law” means that personal acts of sin by members of the human race are never charged to the account of the sinner by God when the Law in written form was non-existent.
However, this does not mean that God does not hold men accountable for their sinful actions since the Flood in the days of Noah rejects that idea.
The absence of a law to break does not mean that the human race is innocent.
They are held accountable because they are Adam’s posterity with the result that they possessed his sinful nature and were spiritually dead.
So even though there was no law to break, which would identify specific sins and condemn them as guilty, the entire human race still stood condemned because they were the posterity of the first sinner Adam and possessed his sinful nature and were thus spiritually dead in the eyes of a holy God.
Paul’s point is that they are not condemned because of what they do or in other words, the sins they commit but rather they are condemned because of who they are, namely, because they are Adam’s sinful posterity.
Even though there was no law to reveal to the sinner his actions were against God and to condemn him, he was still a sinner by nature, which is manifested in that he is spiritually dead, which in turn revealed he possessed a sinful nature.
Even though sin would still exist, it could not be identified as the specific transgression of a particular prohibition or command in the Mosaic Law (Compare Romans 5:13; 7:7-11).
Nonetheless, the entire human race was spiritually dead.
Romans 5:14, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”
The fact that members of the human race were still spiritually dead even though they had broken no law or prohibition like Adam indicates that the human race were sinners by nature.
They were sinners by nature even though there was no law to break because all without exception had received the imputation of Adam’s original sin in the Garden at the moment of physical birth and were under the “federal” and “seminal” headship of Adam.
Therefore, Paul is saying that even though there was no law from God in written form for the human race to break, they still were habitually committing acts of sin and were still under real spiritual death because they received Adam’s sin nature at the moment of physical birth through imputation.
He is trying to emphasize with his readers that they sin because they are sinners by nature!
They are condemned by God not because of personal acts of sin but rather because of their progenitor, Adam.
Therefore, in Romans 5:13, Paul is attempting to emphasize the fact that Adam is the reason why members of the human race are spiritually dead and under the righteous indignation of God and thus in need of Jesus Christ as their Savior to deliver them from sin.