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I believe I established that Paul enjoyed word play. He made artistic use of multiple meanings of a word. I established this by showing how he used the word "law" in a variety of ways in a short piece of writing.

Today I return to the concept of guilt as Paul wrote about it in the Epistle to the Romans. I believe Paul used the word "sin" with multiple meanings. I will list the various meanings first.

"Sin" is:

• Actions that break the Ten Commandment Law of God (5:14).
• A natural condition that breaks the first of the Ten Commandments. A separation from God that became the natural condition for humans when Adam chose to separate from God (5:12).
• Guilt before God for either actions or condition that breaks the Ten Commandments (5:13).
• A human sense of being under guilt or condemnation, feelings of guilt (6:14).

Paul did know other words for these ideas:

• judgment (1:32; 2:2-5; 5:16-18)
• transgress (2:27)
• break the law (2:23)
• condemnation (5:16; 8:1)
• guilty (3:19)
• offense (4:25; 5:15-20)

Please notice, however, that from the middle of 5:20 to 7:25 the word "sin" covers it all. Look at Romans 5:20. "The law came in order that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."

To me the context suggests that Paul began by trying to use specific words for specific ideas, but when the his view of abounding sin and accompanying grace overwhelmed his words, he simply gave in and let the word "sin" suffice so he could go on with the comprehensiveness of his argument.

This has immense implications for me and perhaps for others who seem to find these passages puzzling regarding the nature of sin, the nature of man, and the nature of Jesus Christ. The new realization is that it also has implications for me regarding the nature of guilt and the source of guilty feelings.

That's all for today. Next I'll probably paraphrase parts of chapters 6 and 7.