“(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone's account where there is no law. Before the law, sin existed—not as transgression of explicit command but as violation of whatever moral order existed. Sin without law cannot be charged as transgression. Yet death—the consequence of sin—reigned even before Sinai.
Church Fathers on Romans 5:13
“For until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law.” The phrase “till the Law” some think he used of the time before the giving of the Law — that of Abel, for instance, or of Noah, or of Abraham— till Moses was born. What was the sin in those days, at this rate? Some say he means that in Paradise. For hitherto it was not done away, (he would say,) but the fruit of it was yet in vigor. For it had borne that death whereof all partake, which…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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