Romans 5:13

Until the law. Literally, “until law” (see on chapter 2:12). That is, during the period between Adam and Moses (chapter 5:14). Though in this context “law” clearly refers to the law given in the time of Moses, the article “the” is omitted. All are equally involved in death. Paul seeks to show that there is something else at work besides the guilt of individuals for personal sins. That something is the result and effect of Adam’s fall. All of the descendants of Adam share in the effect of Adam’s fall, because death and the tendency to sin are inherited evils.

Sin was in the world. Paul here states a truth that his readers will not challenge.

Imputed. Greek elloged, a different word from the one translated “reckoned,” “counted,” “imputeth” (see on chapter 4:4-6; etc.). In the New Testament it occurs only here and in Philemon 18, and means, “to set to one’s account.” Its meaning is illustrated in the papyri where two women write to their steward, “Put down to our account everything you expend on the cultivation of the holding.”

Paul does not mean that the Gentiles, who did not possess the written law, were without sin. He has already noted that all, Jew and Gentile, “have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); and again, in chapter 5:12, that “all have sinned.” Thus the Gentiles were not without sin. They were under obligation to obey the law so far as it had been revealed to them (see on chapters 1:20; 2:14, 15). Sin has been in the world ever since the original transgression of Adam. It may be defined as lack of conformity with the will of God whether in act, disposition, or state.

Paul’s point in this present passage is that whether or not men have had an explicit knowledge of God’s will (chapter 5:14), “all have sinned” and all are involved in the inheritance of death (cf. verse 12). The one act of Adam’s transgression caused sin as a principle and a power to enter this world. Even in the absence of personal transgressions, as in the case of infants, men are subject to death. Paul is emphasizing the universality of sin and death so that by contrast he may emphasize the universality of grace.