[Rom 5:20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more].

This verse is not referring to a particular sin because then we’d never be able to tell exactly which sin Paul was referring to. Instead it refers to the inherent tendency to sin that entered the human heart, which turned Adam into a sinner by nature. Adam then passed this inherent sinful nature on to all his offspring. Yes it was only a single act of disobedience, but it opened his heart to the entrance of the sinful condition.

Every human being has inherited this sinful nature from Adam, and the reason why the Law was given was to stimulate our sinful nature so that we became more aware of our sinful condition.

[Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come]. Because of Adam’s sin, the whole world became guilty. If anybody were to end up in hell, it would not have been because of their own sins but because they inherited Adam’s sinful nature at birth. In the same way, nobody will go to heaven because of their own goodness or level of obedience, but only because of their faith in Jesus’ perfect obedience.

[Rom 5:15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many]. Because of Jesus’ obedience, those who believe in Him are justified by faith.

Now when God gave the Law it was meant to come in beside sinners to show how huge our lack of holiness really was. It wasn’t given to turn mankind into sinners, because sin existed even before the law was given (see Rom 5:14 again). The purpose of the Law was to show us the depth of our depravity. God didn’t introduce the Law because He wanted to make us sin more, but He wanted us to be more conscious of our sins and the fact that we had an utterly sinful nature. Notice in Rom 5:15 that Paul does not say “offenses” (plural) but “offense” (singular), which is a reference to the sin (sinful state) of Adam. A few of the heroes of the faith made the following comments:

Charles Spurgeon: “A stick is crooked, but you do not notice how crooked it is until you place a straight rule by the side of it. You have a handkerchief, and it seems to be quite white. You could hardly wish it to be whiter. But you lay it down on the newly fallen snow, and you wonder how you could ever have thought it to be white at all. So the pure and holy law of God, when our eyes are opened to see its purity, shows up our sin in its true blackness, and in that way it makes sin to abound. But this is for our good, for that sight of our sin awakens us to a sense of our true condition, leads us to repentance, drives us by faith to the precious blood of Jesus, and no longer permits us to rest in our self-righteousness. It was the practical result of the giving of the law that men became greater sinners than they were before, and it was the design of the law that they should see themselves to be greater sinners than before. The law is the looking-glass in which we see our spots, but it is not the basin in which we wash them away. The law has a provoking power, for such is the perversity of our (old) nature that, no sooner do we hear the command, “You shall not do so-and-so,” than at once we want to do it”.

Dave Guzik: “The flaws in a precious stone abound when contrasted with a perfect stone, or when put against a contrasting backdrop. God’s perfect law exposes our flaws, and makes our sin abound. There is another way that the law makes sin abound. Because of the sinfulness of my heart, when I see a line drawn I want to cross over it. In this sense, the law makes sin abound because it draws many clear lines between right and wrong that my sinful heart wants to break. Therefore, the law makes me sin more – but not because there is anything wrong in the law, only because there is something deeply wrong in the human condition”.

John Piper: “I take it to mean that one crucial function of the law is to turn our original sin into actual transgressions of specific commandments. First, we are guilty in Adam and sinful by nature, and then the Law confronts us with the specific will of God: “Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Don’t covet.” And the effect is that it turns sinful nature into specific sinful acts of transgression. One writer said it well: the Law makes little Adams out of us all”. (“The law has the function of turning those it addresses into ‘their own Adam.”)

So we see the Law was given so that sin might abound. Our key verse however says that where sin abounded, Grace abounded much more! [Rom 5:20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more]. Let’s look at some quotes on Grace that abounds:

Wayne Barber: “Now there are two words used in that verse for abound or increase. The first one is pleonazo (used with “sin”), which means “is more than enough” or “to have enough.” The other word (used with Grace), perisseuo, is actually a synonym, but when they are used together, they are saying different things. Pleonazo means to abound, but perisseuo means to go even beyond that (and) takes it to a greater extreme. Not only that, but Paul put a preposition, huper, in front of the word perisseuo (huperperisseuo). So what he is saying is that not only does Grace extend beyond where sin increased, but Grace goes WAY beyond”.

In his book, “What’s So Amazing About Grace,” Phillip Yancey points out that part of our problem is in the nature of Grace itself. Grace is scandalous. It’s hard to accept, hard to believe, and hard to receive. Grace shocks us in what it offers. It is truly not of this world. It frightens us with what it does for sinners. Grace teaches us that God does for others what we would never do for them. We would save the “not-so-bad”. God starts with prostitutes and then works downward from there. Grace is a gift that costs everything to the giver and nothing to the receiver. It is given to those who don’t deserve it, barely recognize it, and hardly appreciate it. That’s why God alone gets the glory in your salvation. Jesus did all the work when he died on the cross.

Law added transgressions, showing even more clearly the super-abounding (huperperisseuo) Grace of God.  Grace did not set aside the Law, but rather completely satisfied it. As deep as sin goes, God’s Grace goes deeper. As wide as sin is, God’s Grace is wider. When sin abounded, Grace super-abounded. God’s Grace is greater than all our sin.

Barnhouse also comments on Paul’s use of “abounds” and “super-abounds”: “In the Greek, these are two different words. “Where sin overflowed, grace flooded in.” Where sin measurably increased, grace immeasurably increased. Where sin abounded – pleonazo – grace did much more abound – huper-perisseuo. The prefix huper is like the Latin “super”. The movie ads have taught us what “super” does to a word. Instead of being colossal, something is super-colossal. So, where sin could be measured by multiplying the number of commands of the law by the number of human beings in the world, Grace could never be measured because it would require the multiplication of the number of acts of God’s Grace by the infinity of His being. Our text might well read: “Where sin was finite, Grace was infinite.”

In Grace
Andre van der Merwe