We are now able to love properly, for we now have the love of God within us, which could not be said before we had faith.
All man experiences some degree of God’s love, no matter his state.
However, the common experiential love of man is denoted by “common grace” or “common providence”, in that the Lord provides some good things to all man, such as breath unto life.
This passage should make difficult the dogma of the “Immaculate Conception” for the Romanist, (RCC 484-511, especially 491).
Rejection:
Mary was of man, for she had an earthly father.
Mary would therefore have the stain of original sin.
It is illogical to claim that Mary could be born of man, without stain or original sin, in order to prerequisite Christ’s birth without original sin.
Christ was born of the heavenly Father and God Himself, meaning His federal head was not Adam.
Therefore Christ was born without the stain of original sin.
(v 13-14) 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
Paul reminds us that sin is only present if there is law, and death can only reign where there is sin. So how could there be death before Moses, if the law is that which was given to Moses?
The Law therefore must precede the law given to Moses, for death reigned.
This accounts for natural law given to all man, and not just the positive commands given to Adam and Moses.
This is a piece of evidence useful in refutation of the antinomian notion that even the 10 commandments are law given only to Moses, and that has been fully abrogated along with the civil and ceremonial law given to Moses.
Rather, Paul helps us to recognize that there must be some transcendent law present which man continues to transgress in that time between Adam and Moses.
We can also see this in the sin of Cain and in the Noahic Covenant.
Cain sinned, yet no law had been physically given (as we can yet see recorded in scripture). God still expected him to not only know that he should not murder, but even expected Cain to know that he must provide a proper tribute for his own sin.
Noah is given instruction on how to deal with murderers, and is given permission to eat of the flesh of animals, also implying to us that this was not permitted before this covenant with Noah, again demonstrating a law of some kind given to man.
Therefore, man has trespassed against a natural law of God before the law was given to Moses, not requiring this law to be written upon stone, but it is sufficient that this law has been written on the hearts of man.
To the universalist, on first look, verse 15 presents supporting evidence, however upon further review into verse 17, it actually argues against universal salvation.
If “many” have died through one man’s trespass, and that “many” is equivalent to “all man”, then how can the grace of God apply to “much more”?
If the whole set of man is included, how can grace apply to “much more” than the whole set?
So the phrase “much more” must not refer to “more people”, but be in reference to the magnitude of the gift when compared to the judgment of man.
I should spend some time later considering the implications of this.
In what way is God’s judgment “less” than His reward and mercy?
For the unelect, their sin increases so God’s justice can be more greatly displayed through judgment. This can be understood by mapping to human rendering of justice upon greatly evil men. We feel a grand achievement and relief in seeing great evils quelled, and all the more is this feeling increased when an eternal God acts out perfect judgment upon evil men.
For the elect, grace abounds in the sin we have committed, and the debt we are saved from is made greater, increasing our experience of His mercy in forgiveness.
Christ has covered us with His righteousness, but sin is still a reality for man. He has not abrogated the law insomuch as He has also deleted the effects of the law, which is the charging of sin upon man.
Grace abounds to an equal measure of the sin it covers, further glorifying the Lord in His mercy.
The one who is justified does not desire to further harm His Lord.
Despite the truth that greater forgiveness is a greater mercy given by the Lord, how much better is it for the believer to glorify the Lord through good works?
Therefore, we rest in the knowledge that God’s grace abounds in our sin, however, we should not act to intentionally increase the grace that God gives to us, rather desiring good works to bless Him.
Misunderstanding of this passage has led to Wesleyan Christian Perfection theology, where it is believed Christians can be without sin in this life.
Rather, we should understand this as telling us we are no longer bound (enslaved) to sin, and therefore are free to act without sinning.
But we are still not raised in new bodies yet.
Our bond to sin is broken; but our bodies still are broken by sin and the effects of the fall are still evident.
Again, our justification is not that we are righteous, but we are covered by Christ’s righteousness. Not until we are glorified can we claim that we can no longer sin.
We are dead to sin, but sin is not yet dead in us.
We can now do good, and are alive in Christ, for before we never could do good works.
We are not bound by the law of Moses, but bound instead to the law of the Spirit
Which allows us to serve and grow in observance of God’s eternal law
For we are not saved by our service, for we are only saved by the free grace and imputation of Christ’s righteousness, but rather we grow in the Spirit and in love for God’s law.
Notice that Paul refers to the tenth commandment here when demonstrating how the law reveals to him his sin as a mirror
This is not an arbitrary choosing, but rather the tenth commandment encompasses the whole of the law
Consider the commandments before the tenth, and ask yourself “what does the tenth add?”
The answer is “nothing”,
Except for an explanation/commentary of all the commandments prior
We covet our neighbor’s possessions, their wives, their lives, our parent’s position of honor, our time on the sabbath, and even our Lord’s position over us.
The law made it possible for sin to come in and bring death upon man.
Sin is the source of death, while the law acts as the judge and sentencer of death
Since the Mosaic covenant was not of the same substance as the covenant of grace, it can be properly called a commandment that brought death.
It shined a light on the latent sin of man
It made Israel accountable by giving them positive laws to follow (John 9:41)
The Mosaic covenant does indeed contain the Ten commandments, but Paul is not referring alone to the Ten commandments for his point. He is speaking to the entirety of the Mosaic law, and even that which is abrogated was still good for it was a command of the Lord.
“unspiritual” here can be translated as “fleshly”, so Paul is affirming that the law is of God and spiritual, not physical.
There is a question of which law he is referring to here. It makes sense it could be the eternal moral law because he is using a different word (νόμος) from what we translate as commandment earlier (ἐντολῆς).
There is the matter of verse 12 where both are used.
Part of what we can do is see that verse 12 lists 3 adjectives to describe the commandments, meaning this is referring to the threefold division of the whole law.
So we can therefore say the whole of God’s law is spiritual, not just the eternal moral law.
Spiritual does not equal eternal though, as angels are not eternal and yet are spirit.
Paul was a slave to sin, but while now regenerate he still does those things which he hates.
Why does he hate what he does though? It is because the law is good, and he states this immediately after.
If the law were not good, he would not hate that which he does when he sins against it.
Which leads him to conclude that there is still sin within him.
Consider 1 John 3:9: 9 Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
How can these co-exist?
The answer is in verse 17, that it is sin that does it, not the man who hates the sin and wills against it.
Christ is the only one who can rescue us, but until our body endures the death brought on by sin we cannot be rescued. We must follow in the footsteps of our Lord and be raised up from the dead to new life.