The Narrow Path Ministries

Romans 9:12-14

12 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--
13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
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 states in v13b, that in some cases "sin is not imputed". My question is: Under what circumstances does he see one as having sinned, but yet not having it imputed against them?

The phrase "Until the Law" implies he is referencing the period of time from Adam until Moses. However, during this time God did impute sin - for example, Noah's flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, etc,.

Does anyone know about whom/when Paul is speaking of in this clause?

Thanks,
Pete

Maybe it has to do with how they will be judged on the last day. Maybe their temporal judgment is all they will receive? Just a guess.

We receive a fine if we break traffic laws. But we may commit a traffic "sin" against another driver against which there is no law. Maybe I'm wrong, but I haven't heard of a traffic law against "pullouts", that is, the act of pulling out of a side road in front of a vehicle so that the driver is forced to brake. It can be very irritating, and may cause an accident. But the practice is not imputed (counted against) the driver. He receives no legal penalty for so doing.

It seems to me that Paul is saying that those who lived before the Mosaic law will not be penalized for breaking the law, since it is impossible to break the law, if there is no law against the wrong thing one is doing.

Sean.

Thanks very much for your thoughts. The difficulty I percieve with the view you've described is that even if the temporal judgement was all they recieved, then they have still had their sin imputed against them. Romans doesn't seem to restrict the punishment for their sin to a time after their death.

Paidion,

Thanks also for your thoughts. I have some trouble with this understanding of the passage, for this reason: I've been taught that the definition of the word 'sin' is 'a violation of any of God's commands'. A subset of God's commands are the Old Testament Laws given to Moses. The verse says that these people have sinned, but Paul says there has to be a law.

I can see two possibilites for a solution:

(1) Maybe the word 'sin' should be understood as something other than I've described above.
(2) Maybe the word 'law' is used in two different ways in the Romans passage.

For the latter possibility, maybe the passage should be understood this way. Bold text added.

12 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--
13 for until the Law given through Moses sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no command from God of any sort.
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.

So, then in v13b Paul is just stating the obvious - that God only imputes sin when a command has been both given and has been violated. The disadvantage of this view is that Paul still uses the word 'sin' to describe a violation of a law that doesn't exist, which seems peculiar.

Peter