The life and work of St. Paul

EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS, AND THEOLOGY OF ST. PAUL. 477
fedd as the second half of the parallel, " so, too, by one man came justification, and
so life was offered to all." The conclusion of the sentence was, however, displaced
by the desire to meet a difficulty. He had said, " all sinned," but some one might
object, " How so ? you have already told us that where there is no law there is no
transgression ; how, then, could men sin between Adam and Moses ?" The answer
is far from clear to understand. St. Paul might perhaps have referred to the law
of nature, the transgression of which involved sin ; but what he says is that " till
the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law." If he
had said, " sin is not brought into prominent self-consciousness," his meaning
would have been both clear and consistent, but the verb used (t\\oyeiTcu) does not
admit of this sense. Perhaps we may take the word popularly to imply that " it is
not so fully reckoned or imputed," a view which may find its illustration in our
Lord's remark that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was less unpardonable than
that of Chorazin and Bethsaida. It seems as if he meant to imply a distinction
between " tin " in general, and the " transgression " of some special law or laws in
paiticular. 1 "Every sin," as St. Thomas Aquinas says, "may be called a transgression
in so far as it transgresses a natural law but it is a ;
more serious thing to
transgress a law both natural and written. And so, when the law was given, transgression
increased and deserved greater anger." But the only proof which St. Paul
offers that there was sin during this period is that, throughout it, death also
reigned. 2
When, however, he passes from this somewhat obscure reply (13, 14),
to show how Adam was a type of Christ, his meaning again becomes clear. He
dwells first on the points of difference (15 18), and then on those of resemblanc
(18, 19). The differences between the results'caused by Adam and Christ are differences
both qualitative and quantitative both in degree and kind.
i. By Adam's one transgression the many died, but the free grace of Christ
abounded to the many in a far greater degree. 8
rate, imitate St. Paul in dwelling rather on the positive than the negative side, rather on
Christ than Adam, rather on the superabundance of grace than the origin of sin.
1 "
So most of the commentators. Sine lege palest csse quis iniquus sed nan praevaricator"
(Augustine). Luther
" "
explains AAoyeIr