Romans 5:20-21

“ Now the law was added, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace superabounded more: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. ” Νόμος (the) law, undoubtedly denotes the Mosaic law; but as positive law in general (regard being had to the absence of the article), we might almost translate: a law.

The Jews attributed a particularly important part to this institution in the history of mankind; they claim to make it the means of education and salvation of the whole world (Romans 2:17-20). Paul shows that it plays only a secondary part. It was added during the era of sin and death to prepare for the era of justification and life. It is from want of a more exactly corresponding term that we translate παρεισῆλθεν by was added. It should be: came alongside of. Compounded of the word εἰσέρχεσθαι, to enter, to appear on the stage (Romans 5:12), and the preposition παρά, by the side of, it applies to an actor who does not occupy the front of the stage, and who appears there only to play an accessory part. It is a mistake, therefore, to ascribe to this verb the notion attached to it by the Vulgate, when it translates subintravit, came in, as it were stealthily, a meaning which, besides, is incompatible with the solemn promulgation of the law. Calvin finds in this verb the notion of an intermediate which took its place between Adam and Christ, and Chrysostom, that of a passing appearance. But παρά signifies neither between nor in passing. The true meaning of the word is: by the side of, and this is also the meaning which best suits the passage. The Mosaic economy was, as it were, a side economy, an institution parallel to the economy of sin; as Philippi says, “it is a particular economy by the side of the great general economy.” It might be compared to a canal flowing by the side of the river which feeds it.

And why this special economy? That the offence might abound. If, instead of the word παράπτωμα, offence, fall, the apostle had said παράβασις, transgression, the thought would be easily understood. For he has himself said (Romans 4:15): “Where no law is, there is no transgression;” that is to say, in that case sin does not present itself as the violation of a positive command. The sense would consequently be this: The law was given to Israel that in this particular field of fallen humanity sin might take a graver and more pronounced character; that of transgression, and so manifest completely its malign nature; a process which should be the means of its cure. But this sense would require the use of the term παράβασις (transgression). The term chosen: παράπτωμα, offence, has a wider meaning (see on Romans 5:15). The word, indeed, denotes every particular act of sin committed under the law or without the law. This meaning is, on the other hand, more restricted than that of the word ἁμαρτια, sin, which comprehends, besides, the external acts, the corrupt inward disposition. The apostle therefore did not mean to say that the law was given to increase sin itself. Not only would the word ἁμαρτία have been required in this sense, but this thought would also be incompatible with divine holiness. Neither do I think the expression can be explained exactly by the passage, Romans 7:10-13, which refers to the use made of the law by sin; while Paul is here speaking of its providential object. The meaning rather is: that the law by multiplying prescriptions also gives rise to much more frequent occasions of offence. Now, each of these particular offences requiring to be expiated either by a sacrifice or a penalty, human guilt is thus more clearly manifested, and condemnation (apart from the intervention of grace) better founded. Man does not thereby necessarily become worse than he was; he only shows what he is already. Yet, if we went no further, we should still fail to apprehend the full thought of the apostle. Throughout the whole of this passage (Romans 5:15; Romans 5:17-18) the term τὸ παράπτωμα, the offence, has a sort of technical meaning: the offence of Adam. Is it not natural to take the word here in this definite acceptation? The meaning is therefore as follows: By the law it has come about that the offence of the first man has multiplied, or in a sense reproduced itself among his descendants in a multitude of particular acts of sin, like a seed which reappears in a harvest of fruits like itself. Those acts of sin are the offences of many, spoken of in Romans 5:16, and which are the object of individual justification. And the end of the law in making the manifestation of sin abound in Israel in this concrete form was to prove the inward malady, and to pave the way for its cure. How? The sequel will explain.

In connection with what precedes, the οὗ (δέ) (but) where, cannot have the general meaning of wherever..., as if the saying which follows were a maxim of universal application. The connection between the first and second part of the verse requires that the word where be taken in a strictly local and limited sense: where, that is to say, in the domain where the law has done its work, and made the offence abound in Israel. Against this view, Meyer urges the general character of the whole passage, and especially that of Romans 5:21, and, like Schott and many others, he refers the words: where..., to the whole world. This objection ignores the fact stated in Romans 5:21, that the experiment made in Israel was intended to profit the whole world. As to the temporal meaning given to the word where by Grotius, De Wette, etc., at the time when, it would suit the idea perhaps. But this use of οὗ is without example in the New Testament, and cannot even be demonstrated with certainty in the classics (ἀφ᾿ οὗ is different). The sense is therefore that given by Abélard in the words: in eodem populo quo...

As the law gave more frequent occasion in Israel of proving individual guiltiness, by that very means it gave occasion to grace to manifest itself in a manner more abundant and extraordinary (Romans 2:4). Among the manifestations of mercy referred to by these last words of our verse: grace superabounded, we cannot but suppose that the apostle places foremost the great expiatory act on which all the sins of Israel converged (Hebrews 9:15). As in the expression: sin abounded, he naturally thinks of the greatest crime of the Jewish people, that in which was concentrated their whole spirit of revolt, the murder of their Messiah, their deicide, the catastrophe of their history; so in the following words there is presented to the rapt view of the apostle the advantage which divine mercy has taken of this crime, by making it immediately the instrument of salvation for Israel themselves and all mankind. The word where might thus receive a yet stricter application than that which we have been giving to it till now. Golgotha, that theatre where human sin displayed itself as nowhere else, was at the same time the place of the most extraordinary manifestation of divine grace. The term ὑπερεπερίσσευσε, superabounded over, is explained by Hofmann in the sense of: grace abounded beyond itself; it, as it were, surpassed itself. This meaning is far-fetched. It would be better to refer the ὑπέρ, over, to the sin which was, as it were, submerged under this flood of pardon. But if Paul had meant to state this relation, he would certainly have repeated the same verb as he had just used in speaking of sin. It seems most natural to me to take this ὑπέρ, over, as expressing the superlative of the verbal idea: Grace overflowed beyond all measure, to infinity. Philippi accurately observes that πλέον in πλεονάζειν is a comparative (the more): while ὑπέρ (in ὑπερπερισσεύειν) expresses not only a more, but a superlative of abundance.