John Calvin Commentary Romans 4:15

"for the law worketh wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there transgression." — Romans 4:15 (ASV)

For the law causes wrath, etc. This is a confirmation of the last verse, derived from the contrary effect of the law. For as the law generates nothing but vengeance, it cannot bring grace. It can indeed show the way of life to the good and the perfect, but as it prescribes to the sinful and corrupt what they ought to do and provides them with no power for doing so, it shows them to be guilty before the tribunal of God. For such is the viciousness of our nature that the more we are taught what is right and just, the more openly our iniquity is discovered, and especially our stubborn disobedience, and thus a heavier judgment is incurred.

By wrath, understand God’s judgment, which is its meaning everywhere. Those who explain it as the wrath of the sinner, excited by the law because he hates and detests the Lawgiver whom he finds to be opposed to his lusts, offer an ingenious explanation, but it is not suitable to this passage. For Paul meant nothing else than that condemnation alone is what the law brings upon us all, as is evident from the common use of the expression and also from the reason which he immediately adds.

Where there is no law, etc. This is the proof by which he confirms what he has said; for it would have been difficult to see how God’s wrath is kindled against us by the law, unless this point had been made clearer. The reason is that as the knowledge of God’s justice is revealed by the law, we have less excuse, and therefore we offend more grievously against God. For those who despise the known will of God justly deserve to sustain a heavier punishment than those who offend through ignorance.

But the Apostle does not speak of the mere transgression of what is right, from which no one is exempt. Instead, he calls it a transgression when a person, having been taught what pleases and displeases God, knowingly and willfully crosses the boundaries fixed by God’s word. In other words, transgression here is not a mere act of sin but a willful determination to violate what is right. The particle, οὖ, where, which I take as an adverb, some consider to be a relative, of which; however, the former reading is the most suitable and the most commonly accepted. Whichever reading you may follow, the meaning will be the same—that one who is not instructed by the written law, when he sins, is not guilty of as great a transgression as one who knowingly breaks and transgresses the law of God.