Romans 4

Romans 4
One of the difficult things with this chapter, and all of Romans for that matter, is the style of language and the way it was translated. I find it to be confusing and difficult. The contrast Paul is making is between being justified (pronounced clean and worthy for salvation, to be acceptable to God) by the Law of Moses and circumcision, or being justified by righteousness and the condition of the heart. The Jews in Rome are evidently still making the argument that it was by the law that Abraham was justified, because he was circumcised (the sign and covenant that a man was dedicated to God). Paul is saying that it is by the grace of Christ that those who have faith and works are justified. We look at faith and works as two sides of the same coin, but neither of those can bring about justification without the grace of Christ. All three are part of the same equation. Look at the JST of verse 16.

Verse 15 says that where there is no law, there is no transgression. Nephi's words are, where there is no law, there is no punishment. There is always a transgression because a law has been broken. Even though everyone has the Light of Christ and knows right from wrong, in some cases, the Savior's atonement removes the punishment because sin is not imputed to the person. Adam and Eve transgressed one law to keep another law. One law was transgressed, eating the fruit, but it was not a sin. There were consequences of the transgressed law, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden, but those consequences did not affect their salvation.