Rom 5:20-21 | Barnes | STEP | Verse 20. Moreover . But. What is said in this verse and the following seems designed to meet the Jew, who might pretend that the law of Moses was intended to meet the evils of sin introduced by Adam, and therefore that the scheme defended by the apostle was unnecessary. He therefore shows them that the effect of the law of Moses was to increase rather than to diminish the sins which had been introduced into the world. And if such was the fact, it could not be pleaded that it was adapted to overcome the acknowledged evils of the apostasy. The law . The Mosaic laws and institutions. The word seems to be used here to denote all the laws which were given in the Old Testament. Entered . This word usually means to enter secretly or surreptitiously . But it appears to be used here simply in the sense that the law came in, or was given. It came in addition to, or it supervened the state before Moses, when men were living without a revelation. That sin , etc. The word "that"--(ινα)--in this place, does not mean that it was the design of giving the law that sin might abound or be increased, but that such was in fact the effect. It had this tendency, not to restrain or subdue sin, but to excite and increase it. That the word has this sense may be seen in the lexicons. The way in which the law produces this effect is stated more fully by the apostle in . The law expresses the duty of man: it is spiritual and holy; it is opposed to the guilty passions and pleasures of the world; and it thus excites opposition, provokes to anger, and is the occasion by which sin is called into exercise, and shows itself in the heart. All law, where there is a disposition to do wrong, has this tendency. A command given to a child that is disposed to indulge his passions, only tends to excite anger and opposition. If the heart was holy, and there was a disposition to do right, law would have no such tendency. See this subject further illustrated in the . The offence . The offence which had been introduced by Adam, i.e. sin. Comp. . Might abound . Might increase; that is, would be more apparent, more violent, more extensive. The introduction of the Mosaic law, instead of diminishing the sins of men, only increases them. But where sin abounded . Alike in all dispensations-before the law, and under the law. In all conditions of the human family, before the gospel, it was the characteristic that sin was prevalent. Grace . Favour; mercy. Did much more abound . Superabounded. The word is used nowhere else in the New Testament, except in . It means that the pardoning mercy of the gospel greatly triumphed over sin, even over the sins of the Jews, though those sins were greatly aggravated by the light which they enjoyed under the advantages of Divine revelation. (c) "Moreover, the law" (d) "grace did much more abound"

Romans 5:20-21

Verse 20. Moreover. But. What is said in this verse and the following seems designed to meet the Jew, who might pretend that the law of Moses was intended to meet the evils of sin introduced by Adam, and therefore that the scheme defended by the apostle was unnecessary. He therefore shows them that the effect of the law of Moses was to increase rather than to diminish the sins which had been introduced into the world. And if such was the fact, it could not be pleaded that it was adapted to overcome the acknowledged evils of the apostasy.

The law. The Mosaic laws and institutions. The word seems to be used here to denote all the laws which were given in the Old Testament.

Entered. This word usually means to enter secretly or surreptitiously. But it appears to be used here simply in the sense that the law came in, or was given. It came in addition to, or it supervened the state before Moses, when men were living without a revelation.

That sin, etc. The word "that"--(ινα)--in this place, does not mean that it was the design of giving the law that sin might abound or be increased, but that such was in fact the effect. It had this tendency, not to restrain or subdue sin, but to excite and increase it. That the word has this sense may be seen in the lexicons. The way in which the law produces this effect is stated more fully by the apostle in Rom 7:7-11. The law expresses the duty of man: it is spiritual and holy; it is opposed to the guilty passions and pleasures of the world; and it thus excites opposition, provokes to anger, and is the occasion by which sin is called into exercise, and shows itself in the heart. All law, where there is a disposition to do wrong, has this tendency. A command given to a child that is disposed to indulge his passions, only tends to excite anger and opposition. If the heart was holy, and there was a disposition to do right, law would have no such tendency. See this subject further illustrated in the Rom 7:7-11.

The offence. The offence which had been introduced by Adam, i.e. sin. Comp. Rom 5:15.

Might abound. Might increase; that is, would be more apparent, more violent, more extensive. The introduction of the Mosaic law, instead of diminishing the sins of men, only increases them.

But where sin abounded. Alike in all dispensations-before the law, and under the law. In all conditions of the human family, before the gospel, it was the characteristic that sin was prevalent.

Grace. Favour; mercy.

Did much more abound. Superabounded. The word is used nowhere else in the New Testament, except in 2Cor 7:4. It means that the pardoning mercy of the gospel greatly triumphed over sin, even over the sins of the Jews, though those sins were greatly aggravated by the light which they enjoyed under the advantages of Divine revelation.

(c) "Moreover, the law" Rom 7:8, Jn 15:22, Gal 3:19 (d) "grace did much more abound" Jn 10:10, 1Timm 1:14 Verse 21. That as sin hath reigned. Rom 5:14.

Unto death. Producing or causing death.

Even so. In like manner, also. The provisions of redemption are in themselves ample to meet all the ruins of the fall.

Might grace reign. Might mercy be triumphant. See Jn 1:17, "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

Through righteousness. Through, or by means of God's plan of justification. Rom 1:17.

Unto eternal life. This stands opposed to "death" in the former part of the verse, and shows that there the apostle had reference to eternal death. The result of God's plan of justification shall be to produce eternal life. The triumphs of the gospel here celebrated cannot refer to the number of the subjects, for it has not actually freed all men from the dominion of sin. But the apostle refers to the fact that the gospel is able to overcome sin of the most malignant form, of the most aggravated character, of the longest duration. Sin in all dispensations and states of things can be thus overcome; and the gospel is more than sufficient to meet all the evils of the apostasy, and to raise up the race to heaven.

This chapter is a most precious portion of Divine revelation. It brings into view the amazing evils which have resulted from the apostasy. The apostle does not attempt to deny or palliate those evils; he admits them fully; admits them in their deepest, widest, most melancholy extent; just as the physician admits the extent and ravages of the disease which he hopes to cure. At the same time, Christianity is not responsible for those evils. It did not introduce them. It finds them in existence, as a matter of sober and melancholy fact pertaining to all the race. Christianity is no more answerable for the introduction and extent of sin, than the science of medicine is responsible for the introduction and extent of disease. Like that science, it finds a state of wide-spread evils in existence; and like that science, it is strictly a remedial system. And whether true or false, still the evils of sin exist, just as the evils of disease exist, whether the science of medicine be well-founded or not. Nor does it make any difference in the existence of these evils, whether Christianity be true or false. If the Bible could be proved to be an imposition, it would not prove that men are not sinners. If the whole work of Christ could be shown to be imposture, still it would annihilate no sin, nor would it prove that man has not fallen. The fact would still remain--a fact certainly quite as universal, and quite as melancholy, as it is under the admitted truth of the Christian revelation--and a fact which the infidel is just as much concerned to account for as is the Christian. Christianity proposes a remedy; and it is permitted to the Christian to rejoice that that remedy is ample to meet all the evils; that it is just fitted to recover our alienated world; and that it is destined yet to raise the race up to life, and peace, and heaven. In the provisions of that scheme we may and should triumph; and on the same principle as we may rejoice in the triumph of medicine over disease, so may we triumph in the ascendency of the Christian plan over all the evils of the fall. And while Christians thus rejoice, the infidel, the deist, the pagan, and the scoffer, shall contend with these evils, which their systems cannot alleviate or remove, and sink under the chilly reign of sin and death; just as men pant, and struggle, and expire under the visitations of disease, because they will not apply the proper remedies of medicine, but choose rather to leave themselves to its unchecked ravages, or to use all the nostrums of quackery in a vain attempt to arrest evils which are coming upon them.

(e) "grace reign" Jn 1:17