Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
All Commentaries on Romans 5:20 Go To Romans 5
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
By this Paul has clearly indicated that the Jews did not know by what dispensation the law had been given. It was not given in order to bring life, for grace brings life through faith, but the law was given to show with what great and tight chains those who thought they could fulfill all righteousness in their own strength were bound. So sin abounded, both because desire grew more ardent in the light of the prohibition and because the crime of trespass affected those who sinned against the law. Whoever considers the second of the four states of man will understand this.
