Sin is not imputed when there is no law

[Erick_Ybarra]

I’ve been trying to work through the Catechism on original sin. But there is no direct address to what St. Paul says in Romans 5:12-13 where he says ‘‘sin is not imputed when there is no law’’ and 4:15 ‘‘where there is no law there is no transgression’’.

Is he saying that the human beings who lived between Adam and moses did not have their sin imputed to then and they did not die for their own sin? If sin is not imputed and no one can transgress when there is no law, then doesn’t this mean that what Paul is saying is that God is not looking at the hhuman beings who lived from Adam to moses but sees then through Adam who is their sinful representative? I know this is a protestant argument but I wanted to know the catholic understanding.

 

[FaithInTheSon]

why two separate threads?

 

[FaithInTheSon]

by the way I read the wrong passage the 1st time for one part. Sorry IDK what happened lol.

sin exists without law. say adam stole from eve when god didn’t tell him not too. the sin would incur no debt (our debt is payed by our Lord, as you know just clarifying). it is still sin but no1 is held accountable. we are all guilty of the original sin which is trusting the snake over God and eating the insert fruit here, therefore also knowing the difference between good and evil. after that, we, by default, have the law in us therefore are accountable for what is now called sin. if no one is held accountable the whole definition of sin changes. words are deceptive. I think this is what made things unclear to you.

Everyone who came to this earth as a man, but not the Son of God and Son of Man (who is God), is subject to Original Sin. How was there no law? God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree. God’s word IS law. The truest definition of it. When they ate of the tree, God’s law was put in them, allowing them to know the difference between good and evil. This would make Moses subject to Original Sin in every form.

What did God say to Adam and Eve in genisis? Of course Moses would be subject. Moses was not God, he was a prophet.

 

[FaithInTheSon]

When I say God’s law was put in them I don’t mean he told them up front. Of course, God knows that too. He has raised us like children in more than one sense of it. In genesis he pretended not to know things that he did know.

The knowledge of good and evil made them accountable for their own sin’s and our savior is also their savior. He is their sinless representative.

For instance, God sent Cain to the land of Nod, out of his sight. He also protected his life. Why would he do that just to damn him for all eternity?
I think this argument holds more credibility than the Protestant argument you refer to ( I doubt all of them feel that way).

 

[cap76]

It seems that Paul meant to raise an objection there because he clearly proved that sin was imputed during that time in verse 14, “death reigned from Adam to Moses.”
Death being the wages of sin, of course.

 

[Chesster]

I think St. Paul is differentiating between sin and transgression, where transgression is a specific type of sin meaning - a violation of a revealed law. What he is saying is that sin is not imputed (as a transgression) where there is no law but that doesn’t mean that there was no sin. In fact he specifically states that sin was in the world before the law, it just wasn’t imputed as a transgression.