Reading Romans chapter 6 verse 8 to 23

The Wages of Sin

People are very concerned about wages these days. It is a great issue all over the world. Many would like the opportunity to earn wages but have no job or are unable to work. Many are kept in poverty by very poor wages, barely managing to survive from day to day. Many people earning a reasonable wage find it becoming worth less as prices rise and their standard of living falls unless they get a pay-rise. Many who earn what seems to us to be great sums are concerned to earn more. Governments spend much time debating the issue of wages to try and protect the poor. Governments all round the world make laws and regulations about wages.

Wages are an issue of concern to all.

The Bible speaks on several aspects of wages, criticises bad employers, urges the good use of earnings, tells us to be thankful to God as the giver of all good gifts, our income being a gift from God as we are always dependant on Him.

The Bible talks about wages in this verse, Rom 6 v 23. It talks about the wages of sin. Now sin is anything we do or think or say that is less than Gods standard of perfection, anything that falls short of the mark God has set. God's law tells us what He expects from each and every one of us.1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. The law referred to here is Gods law. We are all under the authority of Gods law. Galatians 4:4 - 5 "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Unredeemed people are under Gods law. Earlier in Romans 3 is a passage declaring the state, by nature, of all humanity. Romans 3:10 - 12 "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now 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."

Everyone born into this world, the 'all the world' mentioned in the verse, comes under Gods law, Gods rule. And as Romans 3 v 19 says all become guilty before God of breaking His law. There is none righteous, Romans 3 v 23"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"

So the Bible is plain about everyone being sinful and doing sinful works, so what about these wages? The Bible links these wages to doing sinful things. For the wages of sin is death, as we read in the text. That is what we earn by living a sinful life: we earn death. Every sinful thing we do earns a wage for us - death.

The Bible here means more than dying and being buried, though that is an unpleasant enough prospect: the Bible is referring to eternal punishment in hell. Either when we die, or if The Lord Jesus comes again before we die, then when we come before His Throne Of Judgement at the Day of Judgement. As we read in Hebrews 9:27 "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" In Revelation 20:12 - 15 we read "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. ;And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

Not a truth that is believed in many places in these days. This passage talks of people who had died once already but now dying a second time, being cast into the lake of fire, the second death. How terrible a thought, but the Bible is clear, the wages of sin is death. Sin is such a terrible thing because it is an offence against God who is perfect and sinless Himself.

But we all have a fallen, sinful nature. We are are born servants of sin, as we read in Romans 6:17 - 19 "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. ;I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness."

This is a passage addressed to born-again christian believers at Rome. Thus we see that before being born again, these believers at Rome were taken up with their sinful lives just like everyone else born into the world. As has been quoted already from Romans 3: 23 all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have earned the wages of sin, without exception.

But, and God be praised, the verse doesn't end with the wages of sin. It goes on to talk of something more wonderful than any of us could ever fully understand.

Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. "

The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In the original Greek the word is charisma, pronounced "khar'-is-mah", a divine gratuity, it can mean deliverance from danger or passion, specially a spiritual endowment, a religious qualification, or miraculous faculty, a free gift. The sense is one of something freely given by God. God gives the opposite to death as a gift. We've all sinned and earned death but God has not left mankind without hope of anything but a lost eternity. He gives eternal life, but it only can be given through The Lord Jesus Christ.

There's no other way to receive this gift than through The Lord Jesus.

Eternal life is the opposite to the second death.

Life or death; earned or given as a gift - opposites. Eternal life cannot be earned; neither does God deal out eternal death for nothing or for no reason. Sinful people can only bring hell upon themselves by their sinful rebellion against God unless they are given the gift of eternal life by God. It is one or the other; the two cannot be mixed.

What is this eternal life, this opposite thing to the second death in hell? We read in John 17:3 "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

Eternal life is to know The Eternal God and The Eternal Lord Jesus His Only Begotten Son. We further read in 1 John 5:20 "And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life."

Eternal life is to receive an understanding so we can know the true God and be in Him and in The Lord Jesus like He prayed for His people in John 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. and we also read in John 6:54 we read "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; (This is figurative of living in total dependance on The Lord Jesus Christ.) and I will raise him up at the last day." To have eternal life is to be raised up by the Lord Jesus at the last day, having, in this life fed upon Him, and having been dependant upon Him for life. Eternal life is wrapped up in God and The Lord Jesus; it is inseparable from God. Eternal life only comes from God through Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus said, as we read in John 10:27 - 30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. God The Father and God The Son are one and are involved in this giving of eternal life. It means eternal safety in the hand of The Lord Jesus for those to whom it is given. Once given nothing can take it away. Noone can wrest those to whom it has been given from Gods hand. They belong to God for eternity.