(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
For until the law, х achri (G891) nomou (G3551)] - not 'until (the cessation) of the law,' or until the time of Christ; as Chrysostom and Augustine, with other fathers, and Erasmus, strangely understood the expression. Clearly, the meaning is, as expressed in Romans 5:14, "from Adam to Moses," or until the giving of the law,
Sin was in the world - the same "sin," obviously, as that meant in Romans 5:12; which we have seen is, not 'actual sin' (with Stewart and others), nor (with more and better interpreters) 'the principle of sin' inherited from Adam, but that sin whose penalty was death-the first sin, considered in its criminality, exposing all mankind penally to death.
But sin is not imputed when there is no law. This is nothing else than a general principle, identical with that expressed in Romans 4:15 - "where no law is, there is no transgression" - and much the same as in 1 John 3:4, "sin is the transgression of the law." It is surprising that so sagacious an interpreter as Calvin should have followed Luther here (as he himself has been followed by Beza, Tholuck, Stuart, etc.) in taking the 'imputation' of sin here to mean the sense or feeling of sin by men themselves. For this, besides putting an unwarranted sense on the word 'imputation,' confuses and obscures the apostle's statement, which plainly is, that God's treatment of men, from Adam to Moses, shows them to have been 'reckoned' sinners, and consequently violators of some divine law other than that of Moses. Alford, while admitting the proper sense of 'imputation' here, yet gives it a turn even worse than the above-making the meaning to be, 'sin is not fully imputed where there is no law.' The view we have given, as it is the simplest, so it is the only one, as we think, that suits the purposes of the apostle's argument; as will appear from what follows.