”For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23New International Version (NIV)
Romans 6:23 Devotional (Daily Bible Verse)
The gift of God is eternal life
In Romans 6:23, Paul contrasted the wages of sin and the gift of God. Consequently, he ended up concluding that “the gift of God is eternal life“.
Wages
Normally, we exchange our time (work) for wages, provisions, salary, pay, or reward. Therefore, wages are earned. Once you have worked, you deserve to earn.
When you get a job, you will make an agreement. You will agree to do a specific job or task, then your employer will agree to pay you a certain amount of money for either the time you work or the amount of work you do. Therefore, when you meet your end of the agreement, your employer is obligated to pay you what you have earned.
This is why you can think of getting what you rightly deserve. You worked and you deserve to be paid for the work done.
The wages of sin is death
Therefore, if you serve sin, you will get its wages. You will deserve shame and death.
The gift of eternal life
But if you serve God, you will get eternal life. And it will be a gift, that is, a reward you didn’t deserve.
Disobeying God (sin or rebellion) earned us separation (of our spirits) from God’s presence. And because God is just, He has an obligation to make sure that you and I are paid what we deserve for our sins. This is what makes Him just and fair.
Remember, wages deserved earnings. But a gift is not like a wage because you cannot earn it. Because if you earn it, then it will stop being a gift – it will become a wage.
Eternal life is a gift. There is nothing you can do to earn it (Ephesians 2:8-9). This, therefore, means that the gift is greater than the sin.
In fact, when you look at it from another perspective, the gift of God cancels out the wages of sin. When you receive God’s gift, it eliminates or overrides the wages that were supposed to be paid to you for your sin.
Death versus Life
In Romans 6:23, Paul contrasts death, the wages of sin, and eternal life, the gift of God. And he makes it clear that the difference-maker in this contrast is Jesus.
Therefore, this is where you have to make a choice. You can either pay the wage of sin or receive the gift of God. Meaning that if you choose to pay the wage, then God will give you the penalty for sin that you deserve. But if you receive God’s gift, God will place the penalty you deserve on Jesus, which will pay for your sin and allow you to receive the gift of eternal life. It is literally the difference between eternal life and eternal death.
Sadly, this is not preached about a lot in our churches anymore. But the truth is that we all deserve death. However, what we have now received is life (John 10:10). And the beauty of this eternal life is that you have it now. You are just waiting for it to be realized in the last days (end times).
The core of the message of the gospel is that you deserve death, but you don’t have to experience it because Jesus took the same for you. He took your physical and your spiritual death to the cross. Jesus endured the full wage of your sin so that you wouldn’t have to.
Therefore, you no longer have to worry about death. Yes, we will all physically die unless Jesus comes back first, but we no longer have to worry about the wage of our sins. Jesus took what we deserved so that He could give us what we didn’t deserve.
Prayer/Blessing
Loving Father, I am eternally grateful that the Lord Jesus paid the price for my sins through His death at Calvary. I receive Your free gift of salvation and eternal life in Him.
It’s very clear that I deserved death because of my sin, but that you offered forgiveness. I, therefore, ask you to forgive me and to fill me with Your Holy Spirit.
Thank You for the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ, who sacrificed Himself for my sin. I pray this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Daily Bible Reading
Acts 9-10 (see How to Read the Bible in One Year or How to Read the Bible (for Beginners))
