“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned. For until the law sin was in the world, but sin was not imputed, when the law was not. But death reigned from Adam unto Moses, even over them also who have not sinned after the similitude of the transgression of Adam, who is a figure of him who was to come.”
Original justice, the original state of man, was a gracious state of a loving relationship with God, each other, and nature “And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good” (Genesis 1:31), that is, in harmony, concord, and proper ordering. This was entirely a gift from God, who made man out of love and for love, and in his original innocence, this love was magnificently intact: “The Lord hath wrought great glory through his magnificence from the beginning” (Ecclesiasticus 44:2); “Above every soul Adam in the beginning” (Ecclesiasticus 49:19). Adam and Eve, through their sin, lost this gracious reward, and their descendants were born outside of the state of grace, lacking this harmony with God: “I heard thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10), each other: “And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and slew him” (Genesis 4:8), and nature: “Cursed is the earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life” (Genesis 3:17); “The wicked that denied to know thee, were scourged by the strength of thy arm, being persecuted by strange waters, and hail, and rain, and consumed by fire… For at one time, the fire was mitigated, that the beasts which were sent against the wicked might not be burned” (Wisdom 16:16-18). This is state worthy of pity, just as one born with physical defects draws great pity, and this weighed down the beauty of human nature with a great inclination to evil: “And God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times” (Gensis 6:5). While repentance was possible: “She brought him out of his sin, and gave him power to govern all things” (Wisdom 10:2), the aforementioned harmony and loving relationship was still absent from the hearts of men, and was only restored by the grace Jesus: “Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these?” (John 21:15); “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, will himself perfect you, and confirm you, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10). This life lived outside of love is death: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23); “And he cast out Adam; and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24), whereas the love that Jesus brings is life: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). When St. Paul then says that death passed to all, it is because man was not made for a fallen world: “And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning: wherein he placed man whom he had formed” (Genesis 2:8), but for an eternity of a life of love: “And night shall be no more: and they shall not need the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall enlighten them, and they shall reign for ever and ever” (Apocalypse 22:5). Thus, death is a grace when one dies in the state of grace, as through it one enters into the eternal sanctuary of God’s love: “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection” (Apocalypse 20:6). Now, when St. Paul moves into saying that “until the law sin was in the world,” this is not to say that the law took away sin, but that it existed even before the law highlighted what was sinful: “But I do not know sin, but by the law” (Romans 7:7), for there is a natural law: “And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner” (Luke 6:31), that man cannot help but fall short of fulfilling on account of their fallen, broken nature: “For a just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again” (Proverbs 24:16); “For there is no just man upon earth, that doth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:21). Most men, before the law was instituted, did not realize that God had any care for their affairs: “And they have said: ‘The Lord shall not see: neither shall the God of Jacob understand” (Psalm 93:7); “The clouds are his covert, and he doth not consider our things” (Job 22:14), with the natural law being known and enforced primarily through others; St. Thomas Aquinas gives as an example the patriarch Joseph being accused of adultery: “His master hearing these things, and giving too much credit to his wife’s words was very angry. And cast Joseph into the prison, where the king’s prisoners were kept, and he was there shut up” (Genesis 39:19-20). It was not until it was revealed that “The Lord his name is Jealous, he is a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5) that sins against God would weigh so heavily on the conscience and there would be a fear of offending God. Spiritual death still reigned in the wicked, and separation from God was in all men: “For behold I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 50:7). This is what is meant when it is said that even those that had not sinned the sin of Adam, that is, of making a conscious decision to sin against the law and violate God’s commandment: “Who shall rest in thy holy hill? He that walketh without blemish, and worketh justice” (Psalm 14:1-2), even these did not have the loving relationship with God that Jesus brought: “For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17); “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say: ‘Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matthew 4:17), thus death reigned in them, for even those that were just under the law did not receive the gift of life: “And this is the testimony, that God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son, hath life. He that hath not the Son, hath not life” (1 John 5:11-12). Now, if it is a sin against natural law to act against love of neighbor, a violation of the law to act against the love of God, how much more so when it is a sin not against a distant all-powerful being, but a God that so tenderly loves you? “Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, and called thee by thy name: thou art mine” (Isaias 43:1). Thus, under Moses it was shown that God does have an eye to human affairs: “The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps” (Proverbs 5:21), but through Jesus this was seen to be the loving eyes of a Father upon His children: “Keep me, as the apple of thy eye” (Psalm 16:8); “Thou becamest honourable in my eyes, thou art glorious: I have loved thee” (Isaias 43:4). Finally, where by Adam all receive the gift of life, the gift of divine love is received through Jesus Christ: “If then any be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away, behold all things are made new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).