Romans 4:15 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Where no law is, &c.— "Of that concerning which there is no law, with the sanction of a punishment annexed, there can be no transgression, incurring wrath or punishment." Thus it may be rendered, if we read the original word ου, with an aspiration, as some do: but whether it be taken to signify where or whereof, the sense will be the same; for the Greek word παραβασις here, to make St. Paul's argument of force, must signify such a transgression as draws upon the transgressor wrath and punishment by the force and sanction of a law; and so the Apostle's proposition is made good,—that it is the law alone which exposes us to wrath, and that it is all which the law in this sense can do, for it gives us no power to perform. Locke.