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Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Romans 4:15 · King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB For the law produces wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.
  • BSB because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
  • NKJV because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.
  • NASB for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.
  • NLT For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!)

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

The law brings wrath by exposing transgression. Where there is no law, there is no breaking of it.

Overview

Paul explains why salvation cannot come by law: the law's effect is to provoke 'wrath' because it reveals and condemns sin as transgression. Rather than granting the inheritance, the law shows us guilty and deserving judgment. This drives home the need for a righteousness that comes by faith and grace, not by the law.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 26

  • Rom 5:13(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
  • Gal 3:10For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
  • Rom 3:19–20Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
  • 1 Cor 15:56The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
  • Rom 7:7–25What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
  • John 3:36He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
  • Gal 3:19Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
  • 2 Cor 3:7–9But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
  • 1 Jn 3:4Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
  • Eph 5:6Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
  • John 15:22If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.
  • Acts 17:30–31And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
  • Rom 2:5–6But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
  • Rom 2:12–13For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
  • Rom 5:20–21Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
  • Zeph 1:18Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
  • Ezek 7:19They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
  • Num 32:14And, behold, ye are risen up in your fathers’ stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the LORD toward Israel.
  • Deut 29:20–28The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
  • Lam 2:22Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD’s anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.
  • Col 3:6For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
  • Rom 1:17For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
  • 2 Kgs 22:13Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.
  • Jer 4:8For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.
  • Rev 6:16–17And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
  • Rev 19:15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (7)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Romans videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Romans 4:15YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on RomansMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.

How Romans 4:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.