for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given
Paul continues to drive home the fact that we are all sinners - not because of any written rules or laws - but because we have inherited a sin nature from Adam. For the Jews, Paul's statement here is a problem. They were convinced that keeping the religious laws handed down to them from their fathers was the way to salvation. Paul destroys the teaching that adherence to any laws has anything to do with a persons salvation by explaining the law itself cannot save anyone, because no one is condemned solely on their failure to keep any particular written law or rule - it runs deeper than that.
If salvation depended on written laws or rules, how did so many that lived before the time of Moses discern good and evil? Why were the people of Noah's time wiped off the face of the earth for their evil deeds - yet Noah was found righteous in God's eyes? (Genesis 6:9-13). Why were Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed, yet Abraham was able to discern good and evil?
Our sinfulness is not based on our inability to keep God's written laws and commands. Our sinfulness it is embedded in our nature. We are condemned and separated from God because we have inherited a sinfulness from Adam that has spread like a cancer to every human that ever lived. Therefore:
The answer to our condemned state is not mustering up some 'ability' to keep laws that were given long after the fall of man; instead the answer to our situation lies in our reconciliation to God - which is only possible through the forgiveness of not just our sins, but our sinfulness itself, which is the root cause of our separation from God.
but sin is not counted where there is no law
It seems that Paul is contradicting himself here, but instead he is actually clearing things up for the Jews. Before the law, men were condemned based on their inherited sin nature (original sin). They were not condemned for specific sinful acts, but for their sinfulness in general. God was visible to them through His eternal power and divine attributes, and specifically through creation, yet man in his sinfulness refused to recognize God for who He is. (Romans 1:20)
The fact that those who lived before any written laws from God were given stood condemned puts an even greater responsibility on the shoulders of all of us who have access to God's Word - for we are condemned by the same original sin - yet we have been given access to all that God has revealed in Scripture - which should serve as a floodlight, revealing our sinfulness, our specific sinful acts, and our desperate need for redemption. If those before Adam were without excuse (Romans 1:20), how much worse off are we if we do not see the Truth in light of all the information we have been given?
We are completely condemned based on our overall sinfulness that we inherited from birth - and - we are specifically condemned on the basis of any and all transgressions of God's perfect commands and laws that have been laid out before us. Our sins are counted.
Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses
Paul restates that death (physical and spiritual - brought on by sin) was in full effect the entire time man was on the earth before Moses, and before any written laws were given. The Gentiles that Paul talks about in Romans 2:14,15 are an example of people having knowledge of God's law without access to any written laws -
For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them
The law God gave to Moses was not the solution, but rather shed more light on the problem!
even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam
I take this as also being a reference to those who lived before the law, whose specific sins were not counted against them but instead were condemned because of their inherited sinfulness that made itself visible through their willing suppression of God's truth (Romans 1:18) This was different than Adam's sin. Adam and Eve were not condemned because of an inherited sin nature, rather they were condemned because of a specific evil act: disobedience to God. Through this specific act, every single one of their ancestors was born with the knowledge of good and evil, and a nature that opposes God.
who was a type of the one who was to come
Speaking of Adam here, Paul says that he was a type of someone who was coming after him.
type: Greek - a die (as struck), that is, (by implication) a stamp or scar; by analogy a shape, that is, a statue, (figuratively) style or resemblance; specifically a sampler (“type”), that is, a model (for imitation) or instance (for warning): - en- (ex-) ample, fashion, figure, form, manner, pattern, print.
In the King James Version, type is translated the figure of him that was to come.
So we can see that Paul is saying that Adam was a form, a figure, or a resemblance of someone who was coming after him. We will revisit this part of verse 14 as we dig into verse 15, where Paul reveals to us that the someone referred to here is Jesus Christ. These are some fascinating verses, as Adam and Christ stand in stark contrast to each other, yet they have similarities. Paul will explain this for us going forward.
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