Les Feldick Bible Study

Did the law enter to help people control sin or to make the offense abound?

Scripture teaches that the law entered that the offense might abound, not to help people control sin. It came twenty-five hundred years after Adam. The common assumption that it was given so God could control sinful men or so men could control their own habits and desires is corrected by the text.

Les explains that the law entered that the offense might abound. It came twenty-five hundred years after Adam. Most people think it should be the other way around—that the law entered so God could get control of sinful men, or so men could get control of their own habits and desires. But Les stresses, “Uh-uh!” and says the law entered for one purpose: that the offense might abound.

Romans 5:20

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

More Questions

What does it mean that the law entered so that sin might abound?

The law entered so that man's sin might abound — not meaning it made sin worse, but that sin would be seen for what it really is.

Why did the law enter according to Romans 5:20?

Most people think the law entered so that God or people could get control of sin, but Romans 5:20 says it entered for the opposite purpose: so that the offense would abound.