Because the law works wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Read Chapter 4
Ambrosiaster
AD 400
In order to show that no man can be justified before God by the law, nor can the promise be given through the law, Paul says that “the law brings wrath.” It was given in order to make transgressors guilty. But faith is the gift of God’s mercy, so that those who have been made guilty by the law may obtain forgiveness. Therefore faith brings joy. Paul does not speak against the law but gives priority to faith. It is not possible to be saved by the law, but we are saved by God’s grace through faith. Therefore the law itself is not wrath, but it brings wrath, i.e., punishment, to the sinner, for wrath is born from sin. For this reason Paul wants the law to be abandoned so that the sinner will take refuge in faith, which forgives sins, that he may be saved. Paul says that “where there is no law there is no transgression,” because once the guilty have been removed from the power of the law and given forgiveness, there is no transgression. For those who were sinners because they had transgres...
For the law worketh wrath, not of itself, nor by the intention of the lawgiver, but in as much as it is the occasion of greater punishments, when persons transgress it knowingly. (Witham)
The law abstracting from faith and grace, worketh wrath occasionally, by being an occasion of many transgressions, which provoke God's wrath. (Challoner)
The law works wrath and makes those who are under it liable for their transgressions, which is a curse, not a promise! … But when faith comes it brings grace with it, and so the promise takes effect. For where there is grace there is forgiveness, and where there is forgiveness there is no punishment. Once punishment is removed and righteousness takes hold from faith, there is no obstacle to our becoming heirs of the promise.
