Question
In Romans 5:13, what does Paul means when he says, “but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”?
Response
The first thing we need to do, of course, is to make sure that we understand the context of verse 13. And in Romans 5:11-21 God has Paul teach us the details about “the atonement” (i.e. the permanent “at-onement,” or the permanent reconciliation) that we now possess with God, being ones who have been justified by faith when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our all-sufficient Saviour as per “the gospel of Christ.” This is the doctrinal context in which Paul says what he does in verse 13.
Along with this we also need to recognize that in order for God to teach us about the permanent “at-onement” (or the permanent reconciliation) with Him that we now have, He naturally needs to first have Paul teach us some things about our former “enemy” status. That is, we need to learn some things about the former “enemy” and ‘at-odds’ and ‘death bound’ status that we had with God when we were “in Adam” before we believed “the gospel of Christ”. And this is what we are taught about in verses 12-14. This, therefore, is the specific context in which verse 13 exists.
Now in connection with this, the direct purpose behind what Paul declares in Romans 5:13-14 is to underscore the reality of what God has him state in verse 12 regarding our former “enemy” status. And what God has Paul state in verse 12 is the fact that our former “enemy” status came into existence when sin entered the world “by one man”, i.e. Adam. Moreover, because of who Adam was (i.e. the head of the whole human race) when he sinned he therefore made it so that “death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned”. Or in other words, when Adam sinned (being the “one man” that he was, and so the head of the whole human race that was vested in him) this made it so that man as a whole became a sinner with death upon him. And so with man as a whole having become a sinner with death upon him, this made it so that every man coming forth from Adam has been born a sinner by nature with death already naturally upon him.
Now this, therefore, means that men do not become sinners and enemies of God by sinning. But rather men sin and are at enmity with God because they are sinners by nature having been born a sinner as a ‘child of Adam’. And neither do men die because of personal sins that they commit. But rather men die by nature because they are sinners by nature, having been born into this world with death already upon them.
This, once again, is the gist of what verse 12 states. And it is the gist of what we need to understand about our former “enemy” status ‘in Adam’ so that in verses 15 and following we can be taught what we need to know about the new and permanent ‘at-one’ status that we now have with God through and in Christ Jesus.
But before teaching us the details about our permanent ‘at-one’ status “in Christ” God has Paul clearly underscore the reality of what verse 15 says. (For it is essential that we clearly understand that what verse 12 says is true, without a shadow of a doubt.) And God does this by having Paul say what he does in verses 13 and 14 about “the law”. And as Paul says, what God did with “the law” clearly does underscore and prove the fact that men truly are sinners by nature, and are at enmity with God by nature, and that they die because they are “in Adam” by nature, and so are born into this world with death already upon them.
For as Paul declares in verse 13, sin was in the world for a long time before God ever instituted “the law”. And during that time men were committing all sorts of personal sins for which they were worthy of death, just as the Scriptures about that time testify. However, since God had not yet instituted “the law” (and since one of the things “the law” is designed to do is to personally charge a person with his sins and declare him worthy of death on account of them). God therefore was not imputing men’s personal sins to their accounts during that time. “Nevertheless,” as verse 14 says, death still reigned during that time and men still died during that time, even though they had not sinned “after the similitude of Adam’s transgression.”
So then since God was not imputing men’s personal sins unto them during that time, this then clearly shows that since “death reigned” during that time and men died during that time it was not because they had become sinners by committing the sins that they did, nor did they end up dying as the result of their personal sins. But rather since God did not have “the law” in effect during that time (and therefore He was not imputing their personal sins unto them at that time) this clearly shows that they had to be dying because they were sinners by nature and because they were born into the world with death already upon them. And this, once again, is exactly what verse 12 says.
So once again verses 13 and 14 clearly underscore the reality of what verse 12 says about the nature of men’s natural “enemy” and ‘at-odds’ status with God. And in view of wanting to be able to do make this truth clear and plain, this is one of the reasons why God purposefully did not institute “the law” right away, with its function of indicting men as sinners and imputing their sins unto them as guilty sinners. By not instituting “the law” right away God has made it abundantly evident that men are born into this world ‘in Adam’ and at enmity with Him, and as such they are sinners by nature with the condemnation of death already upon them.
This then is the gist of my understanding of what Paul means when he says “but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
Keith Blades
Enjoy The Bible Ministries
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