Wages or a Gift?
Chris Cunningham

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

Paul, in keeping with the analogy of a servant and his master, acknowledges that servants always receive some kind of compensation for their service.

How many times have you heard someone say, “I just want what’s comin’ to me.” In other words, “I want what I deserve.” I do not. “What’s comin’ to us,” as sinners, is Hell. The word death is used here, but not what we think of as death. We do not really know what death is. There is physical death, spiritual death, eternal death, the second death, all of these are spoken of in the Bible, but what is this really, this death that is said here to be our just payment for our sin? Whatever it is, it is the worst that the living God can do to you, and it is forever.

God is merciful and gracious, He delights to show mercy, and is plenteous in mercy. His mercy is in Christ. If you reject His Son, despise His Son, are found guilty of murdering His Son (which guilt we all bear by nature), there will be not one iota of mercy mixed with His wrath against you. Our sin debt is infinite, being against the infinite God, and the punishment must fit the crime.

God is faithful and just to forgive us in Christ, because Christ having born our guilt and punishment on the cross and having represented us perfectly before His Father, God can be just and justify us. In fact, He can only be just if He justifies us, so long as Christ stands for us. But outside of Christ, if we die in our sins, God must be just and pour out His unrestrained judgment, His unmitigated punishment upon us.

Eternal life, which is the consequence of sinlessness, of justification in Christ is called “the gift of God,” as opposed to wages, because, while wages are earned, we have life and all spiritual blessings in Christ simply because God loves us, and freely chose us in Christ, called us to Christ, revealed Christ in us and counts us in Christ to be holy, unblameable and unreproveable in His sight.

What we deserve is everlasting, infinite death, but because of Christ, what we receive is eternal life. Just as this death is much more than a cessation of physical life, this life is much more than just a perpetuation of physical life. Christ is life. Eternal life is through Him, that is, because of what He has done for us, and by virtue of us being in Him. And the life itself is to be with Him, in Him, like Him and one with Him forever.

I made the statement earlier that we really do not know what death is. The truth is, we really do not know what life is either. I have described it accurately above, but to what would we compare this life? We know that it is a Person. And we know the Person, but we do not yet know, as we are known. We have eternal life now, we just do not experience it as we shall. I know this: 1 John 5:11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.