John Calvin Commentary Romans 5:13

"for until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law." — Romans 5:13 (ASV)

For until the law, etc. This parenthesis anticipates an objection. Since there seems to be no transgression without the law, it might have been doubted whether there was any sin before the law; the existence of sin after the law admitted of no doubt. The question only refers to the time preceding the law.

To this, then, he gives this answer: that though God had not yet denounced judgment by a written law, yet mankind was under a curse, and that from the womb. Therefore, those who led a wicked and vicious life before the promulgation of the law were by no means exempt from the condemnation of sin, for there had always been some notion of a God, to whom honor was due, and there had always been some rule of righteousness.

This view is so plain and clear that it, by itself, disproves every opposing notion.

But sin is not imputed, etc. Without the law reproving us, we, in a manner, sleep in our sins; and though we are not ignorant that we do evil, we still suppress as much as we can the knowledge of evil offered to us, at least we obliterate it by quickly forgetting it.

While the law reproves and chides us, it awakens us, as it were, by its stimulating power, so that we may return to the consideration of God’s judgment. The Apostle then intimates that men continue in their perverseness when not roused by the law, and that when the difference between good and evil is laid aside, they securely and joyfully indulge themselves, as if there were no judgment to come.

But that iniquities were imputed to men by God before the law is evident from the punishment of Cain, from the deluge by which the whole world was destroyed, from the fate of Sodom, from the plagues inflicted on Pharaoh and Abimelech on account of Abraham, and also from the plagues brought on the Egyptians.

That men also imputed sin to one another is clear from the many complaints and expostulations by which they charged one another with iniquity, and also from the defenses by which they labored to clear themselves from accusations of wrongdoing.

Indeed, there are many examples which prove that every man was conscious in himself of what was evil and what was good; but for the most part, they connived at their own evil deeds, so that they imputed nothing as a sin to themselves unless they were constrained.

Therefore, when he denies that sin without the law is imputed, he speaks comparatively; for when men are not pricked by the goads of the law, they become sunk in carelessness.

But Paul wisely introduced this sentence, so that the Jews might therefore more clearly learn how grievously they offended, inasmuch as the law openly condemned them. For if those whom God had never summoned as guilty before His tribunal were not exempted from punishment, what would become of the Jews, to whom the law, like a herald, had proclaimed their guilt, indeed, on whom it denounced judgment?

Another reason may also be adduced why he expressly says that sin reigned before the law but was not imputed; and that is so that we may know that the cause of death does not proceed from the law, but is only made known by it. Therefore, he declares that all became miserably lost immediately after the fall of Adam, though their destruction was only made manifest by the law.

If one translates this adversative δε as though, the text would run better, for the meaning is that though men may indulge themselves, they still cannot escape God’s judgment, even when there is no law to reprove them.

Death reigned from Adam, etc. He explains more clearly that it availed men nothing that from Adam to the time when the law was promulgated, they led a licentious and careless life, while the difference between good and evil was willfully rejected, and thus, without the warning of the law, the remembrance of sin was buried.

Indeed, this availed them nothing, because sin still issued in their condemnation. It therefore appears that death even then reigned; for the blindness and obduracy of men could not stifle the judgment of God.