Romans 5:20

‘And the law came in besides, that the trespass might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly,'

The emphasis here is on the fact that the Law could not save, it could only condemn, and indeed on the fact that it ‘multiplied sin', partly because its detailed requirements, by their very nature, increased the number of indefensible sins, and partly because it even provided an incentive to sin. For the more men are told not to do something, the more they tend to do it. Thus the consequence of the coming of the Law was that ‘the trespass', which resulted in all men's trespasses, abounded.

But fortunately for mankind God did not leave them in that situation. Where sin abounded, God's grace abounded even more, so much so that He provided a remedy for the situation. He provided for man a righteousness which would cover his trespasses, and could enable him to be presented as ‘not guilty' in the eyes of the eternal Judge, thus making him fully acceptable to God.