Jesus was the gift of eternal life

JESUS WAS THE GIFT OF ETERNALLIFE
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift
of God is eternal life in ChristJesus our Lord.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
CovetThe BestGift!
Romans 6:23
S.R. Aldridge
Contrastheightens effect, as artists by a dark backgroundthrow the
foreground into brighter relief. So the apostle places two careersin close
proximity. He will not allow that it makes little difference which path men
tread, in which condition they are found, or what qualifications they seek.
I. A MOMENTOUS BLESSING. "Eternallife." All life is wonderful Easyis it
to destroy the ephemerallife of a moth, but to restore it is beyond human skill.
The disciples were assuredof eternal life, yet they died; consequentlythe life
they receivedwas not to be measuredin ordinary scales, norto be probed by a
material dissecting knife. Eternal life is a different kind of life from mere
transitory existence;it passes unharmed through the crucible of animal death,
for spiritual powers are untouched by earthly decayand corruption. Eternal
life means the quickening of the moral nature, its resuscitationfrom the sleep
of trespassesand sins. And as ordinary life in its fulness involves freedom

from pain and sickness, anda vigorous activity, so spiritual life, when fully
realized, implies peace of mind and the power to do right. They are feeble
Christians who do not know the joyous energy of children "with quicksilver in
their veins," delighting to exercise their limbs and thus to develop their
growing faculties.
II. THIS BLESSING RECEIVED AS A GIFT. By a sinful course of actionwe
merit death, as a soldier by his service earns his rations and his pay. We
disobey the Law, and bring the sentence upon ourselves. But we have no
poweravailable to procure for ourselves acquittal and favour. Much as the
youth joys to see his first-earned sovereignglittering in his palm, he could
take no delight in the stripes which his disobedience brings upon him. Human
weakness has beenprovided for in God's plan of salvation. He who breathed
natural life into man comes againgraciouslyto inspire his creatures with
spiritual life. God knows the needs of his creatures, and the gift is pre-
eminently suitable. The Romans loved the games ofthe amphitheatre; but
when famine threatened the city, the curses were loud and deep againstNero
because the Alexandrian ships expectedwith corn arrived instead with sand
for the arena. And men like a beautiful present; let us not, therefore, hang
back from accepting the royal bounty so adapted to our wants. Treatthe gilt
with care, prize and use the treasure.
III. THE BEARER OF THE GIFT. It comes "throughJesus Christ our
Lord." He is the Channel through which new life streams into us, the envelope
containing the promise of life. Life in the abstractwe cannotcomprehend; it is
ever connectedwith some person or organism. "In him was life; .... Your life is
hid with Christ in God." Life has been scientificallydeclaredto consistin the
harmonizing of our external and internal conditions. The chief condition on
our part is sinfulness, on God's part righteousness;and it is Christ who
reconciles us unto God, putting awaysin by the cross, andinvesting us with
the righteousnessofthe Holy One. In his words, example, and offices we find
all help and blessedness. As the navigatorpassing through the Straits of

Magellaninto the Pacific connectedits tranquility with the southern cross
gleaming in the sky above, so can we rejoice in the peace whichChrist brings.
It is not a creedwe are invited to accept, but a living Person, with whom we
may hold converse, andbe instructed in perplexity and cheeredwhen
despondent. We have this earthly life as the period and opportunity of "laying
hold on eternal life." - S.R.A.
Biblical Illustrator
For the wages ofsin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life.
Romans 6:23
The wages ofsin and the gift of God
J. Vaughan, M. A.
I. THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH. "Wages"here means "the rations"
supplied as pay to a soldier. If sin is your commander, you will have "death"
to eat as your pay. "Sin" is treated as a person, even as "God" is, and the
more we treat it as a living enemy, the more we are likely to fight againstit
manfully. "Death" may be defined as separation. Spiritual death is a present
separationfrom God. Physicaldeath is a separationof body and soul, and the
separationof both from this world. Eternal death is final, total separationof
body and soul from heaven, and from God forever. Now we are prepared to
unravel the sentence.
1. God treats "sin" as a master. "Whosoevercommitteth sin, is the servant of
sin," and "his servants ye are to whom ye obey." Now sin is any violation of
God's will which a man does with his eyes open. We can make no scale of sin.
The only measure of the sin is the light which it darkens, and the grace which
it resists. Badtemper at home — pride and unkindness — want of truth —
self-indulgence and sloth — lust and uncleanness — meanness —
"covetousness, whichis idolatry" — a cherishedscepticism— and all the

negatives — no prayer, no love to God, no usefulness — all, and many else,
are equally "sin."
2. Every "sin" has its "wage";and the devil is the paymaster.(1) He promises,
indeed, very different "wages" from what he gives. He promises the gay, and
the affectionate, andthe satisfying. But God has drawn up the compact, and
He has shown it to you, "The wagesofsin is death."(2)Now the expression
implies that there is a deliberate engagement — a title. You have a right to
your "wages."A servant canclaim his "wages,"and the master must give
them: for whosoever"sins"is doing his employer's work.(3)Let me tell you
what it is. First, to destroy your own soul; then to spreada contagion, and
hurt others' souls, so to increase your master's kingdom, and give him another
and another victim! Is that all? No. To insult God — to grieve the Holy Ghost
— to rob Christ of a jewel — that is the work which everyone who "sins" is
doing for his employer.(4) And often it is very hard work. How hard a man of
the world is working;and how little he knows of the employer he is working
for. And shall not the wages be a proportionate wages? — the more work, the
more pay.(5) The "wages" generallygiven are to be paid soon;not all at once,
they accumulate. Happy are you if you at once recogniseit as your "wages,"
and determine that you will earn no more of them! Happy if you resolve, "I
will quit the service!" For, if not, the "wages"willgo on being paid. Little by
little, the separationfrom the goodand the pure will widen. The Bible will be
put further and further aside. Gulfs will come in betweenyou and God. And
out at that distance, the soul will have gotvery cold; heavenly things will
wither! But there is a greatdeal unpaid yet. Perhaps there will come a
separationunmitigated by any real hope of a reunion: to go out — where? To
a land of darkness!No voice in the valley! no arm in the crossing!And, then,
separationforever! Separationfrom that father of yours, that mother, that
husband, that wife, that child, that saint, that church, that happy fellowship,
that God!

II. "THE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNALLIFE." Here, too, is service — real,
severe, lifelong. And "wages"?Yes;certain wages — wages in a most just
degree. But it would not be right to callthem so. "Wages"do not precede the
work. But here the "wages" do precede the work. You do not work to get your
"wages,"but you work because you have them. But they are infinitely
disproportioned to the work; rather, all the work is so bad, that it wants to be
forgiven, and a part of the wages is that Goddoes forgive. But were it
"wages,"and deserved, it would not be half so happy as now — to be an
unearned thing — a gift of the love of God! What would heaven be, were it not
a gift? Nevertheless,it is "wages."Godis just to give it, because deservedby
"Jesus Christour Lord."
(J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The wages ofsin and the gift of God
J. Burbidge.
I. THE FIRST FACT. St. Pauldoes not say, "The punishment of sin is death,"
howevertrue that may be. He uses the word "wages."Thesewe earn —
1. When we dishonour our bodies.(1)We do this when we forget them, or
withhold from them that on which their health, and vigour, and usefulness
depend. We see this on a large scale whenwe face the terrible effects of
preventable disease. Now,is it not a sin to allow bad air, water, drainage, filth,
and overcrowding to court these fiends, and bid them come and do their work
among us? We say pestilence is the judgment of God, and so it is; but it is His
judgment on wilful neglect, blindness, selfishness,and wrong.(2)When you
give way to drunkenness, destroying thereby the high faculties of your
manhood; when you yield to lust, surrendering yourselves to "the strange
woman";when you throw the reins on the neck of pleasure, and chase it
whereverit may lead you; when in this way you lay deep and sure the seeds of
premature decay, are you not learning by the bitterest experiences that"the
wages ofsin is death"? Trifle not with the body. Forgetnot it was made by

God's hand, and redeemedby Christ's blood. Dishonour not that which
should be the temple of the Holy Ghost. The sins of the body will bring their
awful retribution. It will come as a curse upon yourselves, and, perhaps, upon
your children.
2. When we stifle the voice of consciencewithin us.(1)Every time you do what
you know to be wrong, every time you surrender yourselves to a thought
which you know to be evil, you are earning the wages ofsin which are death
— death to all peace of mind, to all noble feeling, to all nobility of character,
to all solid success in life. You go off with companions and give way to drink.
Well, what of the morning? You feel that you have lost caste athome, among
the friends whose respectyou value, and you hate and loathe yourself.(2)And
so it is whenever a duty is sacrificedto a selfishpleasure, wheneverthere is
the leastdeparture from strict integrity, for the consequence must be
uneasiness ofmind, a load upon the heart which cannot be laughed off or
drunk away;for God has ordered it. Let me beg you not to stifle the voice of
conscience. It will surely, sooneror later, be heard. If you do not heed its
gentle remonstrances, it will thunder condemnation. Say not that you make
goodresolutions, but that you are too feeble to keep them. Ask God, by His
Spirit, to make you a man, and not suffer you to be a miserable weakling.
Trust to yourselves, and you are no match for the devil.
3. When we rejectthe offers of the gospel(Proverbs 1:24, etc.). There is no sin
so awful in its characterand so terrible in its results as unbelief. That sin some
of you are committing every day, every hour; and its wagesare death — death
to that peace which a man canonly know when he has been cleansedby the
blood of Christ; death to that hope of a happy hereafter which a firm trust in
his Saviouralone canbring to him, and the death which never dies. What I
have as the consequenceofmy sin, either here or hereafter, I have earned, and
must have. I may, by God's grace, give up my sin, but the wages ofsin are
shown in my shattered health, and, it may be, by the sickliness ofmy children.

And if the death of the body sees me unsaved, how my misery will be
deepenedwhen I am constrainedto say, "I have earned damnation."
II. THE SECOND FACT. Poor, lost, unworthy sinners may have eternal life
in Christ, and that as a gift from God, and not as something which is to be had
in another world, but something which may be had in this. See you not what a
grand, brave, and noble thing it is to live in this world knowing that we belong
to God, that our bodies are His, our minds His, our souls His, and that, by His
grace, we are using them to His glory? Then choose ye this day whom ye will
serve.
(J. Burbidge.)
Wages?-- or gift
J. A. Kerr Bath, M. A.
? — The more important any matter is, the more need there is that we view it
in a right light. A human face rich with expression, or a monument of
architecture rich with grandeur, or a bit of landscape rich with beauty, cannot
have all that is in them setforth in one picture. Even a picture cannot set forth
the Christian life: it must be experiencedto be known.
I. THE WAGES SYSTEM OF HUMAN EXISTENCE. In all departments
work is a marketable article, of which wages is the price. The one balances the
other. Wages,as distinguished from other modes of income, is something that
stands due though the accountis seldompresented: they are paid directly to
the man after a period of work is finished. St. Paul says that sin is an
employer of labour. It pays wages,is bound by strong law to do so. True it
does not pay in full as work is done, but will in the end clearup the debt. This
is one systemunder which men live. Not always is this a matter of definite
purpose, but it is of prevailing disposition. Their trust in this system is not
always strong — are they likely after all to earn much that is desirable? But

things cannot drive them hard under a God who is good. Unhappily they are
not apprehending what their decisionmeans — that it is wages and the
paymaster sin. Let us remove any ambiguity about the terms of this contract:
the wagesofsin is death. These wagesare openly paid. The installments he
pays hint the kind of final recompense to be paid in the end: he now pays in
disorders, loss, calamity, disease, discontent, hatred, uneasy forebodings. He
cannot hide the characterof these payments. God has revealedthis as the
recompense. This systemgoes on uncheckedbecause sinis what it is; it rests
upon the nature of things, God is the one source of life; if He is forsakendeath
must be the result. Am I working for so sada result?
II. THE FREE GIFT SYSTEM OF HUMAN EXISTENCE. We now pass into
a different climate of things. It is as if we had been walking along the northern
side of a mountain in the springtime, within the chill shadow of its peaks,
where the lingering wind of winter is blowing across the slushy snow, the
fields bare — and now had travelled round the mountains into the southerly
sunshine. We have removed from the presence of a rigorous employer to that
of a most munificent friend; from hard earned wagesto generous gift; life
instead of death. It seems very evident that the gift system of living is brighter
than the wagessystemof living. There must be some powerful prejudice to
make men choose the latter. In other matters betweenGod and men in the
world the gift systemis actually at work and men do not quarrel with it.
Providence not less than grace is pervaded by this system. What do we render
for the sunlight; are wealof body or mind, safety, earned? A pure wages
system in the world would mean death. Sin pays like sin; Godgives like God.
He will give life, real, unbounded, happy. It is too great to be earned. And this
is a gift from Him whom we have greatlywronged. In Christ the wagessystem
has been brokendown. Christ has earnedthe gift for us.
(J. A. Kerr Bath, M. A.)

Wages versus gift
J. H. Rogers,M. A.
I. SIN AND ITS WAGES.
1. Sin a service.
(1)Notan independence, as the world thinks.
(2)A service to which wages are attached;eachsin has its consequence.
2. These wages are "death," andare invariably paid.
II. GOD AND HIS GIFT. A gift —
(1)To those who are not earning it, for they are in the service of another.
(2)To those who do not want to earn it, for they have yielded themselves to
another service.
(3)To those who cannot earn it, for they cannot atone for one sin, and their
very efforts to do so impair God's one condition (Ephesians 2:8, 9).
(4)Which all may have for the taking (Isaiah 55:1; Revelation22:17).

2. That gift is eternal.(1)Christ Himself. Life
(a)From Christ, depending solelyon His substitution.
(b)In Christ, ours only by appropriation.
(c)A part of Christ, continued to us only by indwelling.(2) Eternal life.
(a)Begunwhen Christ began.
(b)Begun to us when we graspedit.
(c)Continuing till — eternity.
(J. H. Rogers,M. A.)
Deathand life: the wage andthe gift
C. H. Spurgeon.
I. DEATH IS THE WAGES OF SIN.
1. Deathis the natural result of all sin. When man acts according to God's
order he lives; but when he breaks his Maker's laws he does that which causes
death.(1) The further a man goes in iniquity, the more dead he becomes to
holiness:he loses powerto appreciate the beauties of virtue, or to be disgusted
with the abominations of vice. You cansin yourself into an utter deadness of

conscience, andthat is the first wage ofyour sin.(2) Deathis the separationof
the soulfrom God. Can two walk togetherexceptthey be agreed? Manmay
continue to believe in the existence ofGod, but for all practical purposes God
to him is really non-existent.(3) As there is through sin a death to God, so is
there a death to all spiritual things (1 Corinthians 2:14).(4) Inasmuch as in
holy things dwells our highesthappiness, the sinner becomes anunhappy
being; at first by deprivation of the joy which spiritual life brings with it, and
afterwards by suffering the misery of spiritual death (Romans 2:9).
2. The killing powerof some sins is manifest to all observers.(1)See how by
many diseases anddeliriums the drunkard destroys himself; he has only to
drink hard enough, and his grave will be digged. The horrors which attend
upon the filthy lusts of the flesh I will not dare to mention; but many a body
rotting above ground shall be my silent witness.(2)We have all known that
sins of the flesh kill the flesh; and therefore we may infer that sins of the mind
kill the mind. Deathin any part of our manhood breeds death to the whole.
3. This tendency is in every case the same. Even the Christian cannotfall into
sin without its being poison to him. If you sin it destroys your joy, your power
in prayer, your confidence towards God. If you have spent evenings in
frivolity with worldlings, you have felt the deadening influence of their society.
4. Deathis sin's due reward, and it must be paid. A master employs a man,
and it is due to that man that he should receive his wages. Now, ifsin did not
entail death and misery, it would be an injustice. It is necessaryfor the very
standing of the universe that sin should be punished. They that sow must reap.
The sin which hires you must pay you.
5. This wage ofsin is in part receivedby men now as soldiers receive their
rations, day by day. "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die" — such a life is a

continued dying. "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." The
wrath of God abideth on him that believeth not on the Son of God; it is there
already.
6. But then a Roman soldier did not enlist merely for his rations; his chief pay
often lay in the share of the booty which he receivedat the end of the war.
Deathis the ultimate wage ofsin. Sin will perpetuate itself, and so foreverkill
the soulto God, and goodness,and joy and hope. Being under the ever-
growing powerof sin, it will become more and more a hopeless thing that you
should escapefrom death which thus settles down upon you.
7. The misery of the misery of sin is that it is earned. If men in the world to
come could say, "This misery has come upon us arbitrarily, quite apart from
its just results," then they would derive some comfort. But when they will be
obliged to own that it was their ownchoice in choosing sin, this will scourge
them indeed. Their sin is their bell.
8. It will be the folly of follies to go on working for such a wage. Hitherto they
that have workedfor sin have found no profit in it (ver. 21). Why, then, will
you go further in sin?
9. It ought to be the grief of griefs to eachof us that we have sinned. Oh,
misery, to have wrought so long in a service which brings such terrible wages!
10. It must certainly be a miracle of miracles if any sinner here does not
remain foreverbeneath the powerof sin. Sin has this mischief about it, that it
strikes a man with spiritual paralysis, and how can such a palsied one ward
off a further blow? It makes the man dead; and to what purpose do we appeal
to him that is dead? What a miracle, then, when the Divine life comes

streaming down into the dead heart I What a blessednesswhenGod
interposes and finds a way by which the wage mostjustly due shall not be
paid!
II. ETERNALLIFE IS THE GIFT OF GOD.
1. Eternal life is imparted by grace through faith.(1) The dead cannot earn
life. Both goodworks and goodfeelings are the fruit of the heavenly life which
enters the heart, and make us conscious ofits entrance by working in us
repentance and faith in Christ.(2) Since we received eternallife we have gone
on to grow. Whence has this growth come? Is it not still a free gift?(3) Yes,
and when we get to heaven, and the eternal life shall there be developedas a
bud opens into a full-blown rose;then we shall confess that our life was all the
free gift of God in Christ.
2. Observe what a wonderful gift this is, "the gift of God."(1)It is called "life"
par excellence,emphatically"life," true life, real life, essentiallife. This does
not mean mere existence, but the existence of man as he ought to exist — in
union with God, and consequentlyin holiness, health, and happiness. Man, as
God intended him to be, is man enjoying life; man, as sin makes him, is man
abiding in death.(2) Moreover, we have life eternal, too, never ending.
3. It is life in Jesus. We are in everlasting union with the blessedpersonof the
Son of God, and therefore we live.Conclusion:
1. Let us come and receive this Divine life as a gift in Christ Jesus. If any of
you have been working for it, end the foolish labour. Believe and live. Receive
it as freely as your lungs take in the air you breathe.

2. If we have acceptedit let us abide in it. Let us never be tempted to try the
law of merit.
3. If we are now abiding in it, then let us live to its glory. Let us show by our
gratitude how greatly we prize this gift.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Deathand life
W. Conway, M. A.
The Word of God abounds with striking contrasts, which picture the opposite
characterand portion of the two great classes into which all mankind are
divided before God. Poverty and riches, slaveryand freedom, darkness and
light; but no contrastis so forcible as that betweendeath and life.
I. DEATH.
1. Its origin. It is the wages ofsin. The apostle sets before us what fallen man
loves, what he dreads, and the union betweenthe two. Fallen man loves sin
and dreads death. Yet the death he dreads is the inevitable consequence ofthe
sin he loves. Sin is discoveredunder two distinct aspects. It is —(1) Whatever
is not in accordancewith the characterof God. All deviations from truth and
holiness.(2)Whateveris not in accordancewith the law of God. All that goes
beyond, and all that falls short of this Divine standard, is sin.(3) Now death is
not, therefore, what men sometimes call it, the debt of nature. It is the
righteous recompense by which God shows His displeasure againstsin. He has
setsuch a mark upon it as compels every individual to feel and show in his
own person the guiltiness of this accursedthing.

2. Its nature. Death is separation. We call it dissolution.(1)Bodily death is the
separationof the soul from the body.(2) Spiritual death is the separationof
the soulfrom God, in whose favour is life.(3) Eternal death is the perpetual
separationof both body and soul from God's presence and favour. This is
calledin Scripture "the seconddeath" (Revelation20:14).
II. LIFE.
1. How is it procured?(1)At the first, life was the gift of God. It was solelyof
His goodness, andfor His glory. And, as at the first creation, so in the new.
Life is not the wages ofour obedience. It was forfeited by sin; it can never be
recoveredon the ground of our own merit. Deathis rendered to us in justice.
Life can only be restoredto us in grace. The very God whose honour we have
outragedby sin, comes forwardto "seek and save the lost."(2)It is a free gift
so far as we are concerned, but not so far as Christ was concerned. Before He
could obtain life for us, He must taste death for every man (Hebrews 2:9).(3)
Christ is also the fountain that contains this life. It is treasured up in Him for
all who will come to Him for it (1 John 5:12; John 10:14).
2. In what does it consist? It is in all respects the opposite to the death. It is the
antidote to spiritual death, for it brings us into union with God. It is the
destruction of bodily death; for it secures to the glorified body and soul an
everlasting home in God's presence, where is fulness of joy and pleasure for
evermore. "
(W. Conway, M. A.)
Hard work and bad pay; no work and rich reward
A. G. Brown.

I. HARD WORK AND BAD PAY.
1. Who are the servants who receive the pay?(1) All by nature. We are slaves
born upon the estate ofsin.(2) But we are servants also by voluntary choice.(3)
The servants of Satanare many. His workshopis the world. Go where you
please you find his liveried servants. Unlike other employers he never
diminishes the number of his hands, for if any are by grace persuadedto leave
his service it goes much againsthis grain. It matters not to him whether trade
be slack or otherwise, he can always find employment for all.(4) They belong
to all ages. Childrennot in their teens, and lads not out of them, are every day
through the medium of our police courts astonishing even a sinful world with
their proficiency in guilt; and side by side with them stands the criminal
whose locks have grownwhite in the service of the same relentless master.(5)
They belong to all grades of society. In the sight of God there is not much to
choose betweenBethnalGreenand Belgravia, Westbourne and Whitechapel.
Kings, princes, statesmen, and paupers are all equally his servants.
2. The work they have to perform. To be Satan's servant is no sinecure.(1)To
one he says, "Getrich": and at the word of command the poor wretch at once
begins to toil, and laborious toil it is. The miser is a lump of incarnate
misery.(2) To anotherhe gives an order summed up in the word drink, and
there is no slavedommore killing both to body and soul than slavedomto the
drink. He who enters a drunkard's grave has workedhard for the result.(3)
He sets another to obtain pleasure. Men will even in the most lawful pleasures
do that which if required of them in an ordinary day's work would be the
subject of much grumbling. Who does not know by experience that a day's
pleasuring is more tiring than an equal number of hours' work? And how
much more is this true with the gayman of the world. Possessedwith the evil
spirit, he goes hither and thither seeking restand finding none. The quiet of
the home he terms slow, so he launches into a whirlpool of dissipation, and
singing "Begone, dull care." The pleasure that once enchanted him by
frequent indulgence becomes insipid; something stronger, more vicious is
needed to stimulate his jaded spirits. He goes from bad to worse, until at last
every sinful pleasure has in its turn been tried, and in its turn growntame. Of

all the miserable sights on earth that of an agedroué is the most miserable.(4)
Satansets a fourth to actthe hypocrite, and for this service he pays the
highest wages, and right he should, for the work must be tremendous. How
greata strain to have always to remember the part he has to act. But
whateverthe work may be to which the sinner is set it is work without a
pause. Satanhas no old pensioners permitted to end their days in peaceful
idleness.
3. The wages paid them.(1) The death of the body is but the result of sin. For
six thousand years men have been receiving the wages ofdeath. But death
here is placed in contrastto "eternallife," and means eternal death.(2)Sin
pays some of its wagesonaccount, it gives sometimes an instalment of hell on
earth. The wretcheddebauchee often finds it so. Mark his haggard
countenance, his trembling gait, follow him to the hospital — nay, don't — let
his end remain secret;terrible are the wages he receives onaccount. And yet
after all this is nothing. Eternity is one long pay day, and the wages paidis
death.
II. NO WORKAND RICH REWARD.
1. The pivot word is "gift." God absolutelyrefuses to sell salvation. He will
give to any, but barter with none.
2. The blessing specified. "Eternal life"; and this the Lord permits His
children to enjoy on earth; for as part of the wages ofsin is paid on accountin
this life, so even in this life foretastesofthe gift of God are enjoyed by the
saints. Peace withGod, quiet trustfulness as to the future, beside a thousand
other joys, are some of the clusters of the grapes of Eschol, that refreshthe
weariedone on his journey to the land where the vine grows. And how about
the end, when the gift is receivedin full?

3. Forgetnot the channel through whom it flows;it is a gift to thee, because
thy Lord paid all.
(A. G. Brown.)
The wages question
S. E. Keeble.
Men are born to serve. The majority are materially. All are morally. Only a
choice of service opento us — the service of sin, or of righteousness. We are
keenon "the wages question" in matters material; much more ought we to be
in matters moral. Of these two services mark —
I. THE CONTRASTIN THEIR BEGINNINGS.
1. The service of sin is at first promising.(1) Its demands are easy. To serve
Satan, self, the world, is attractive to human nature. Like prospectuses
promising 30 per cent.(2)And it begins well. At first delightful. Pays dividends
at first.
2. The service of righteousness is at first unpromising.(1) Its demands are
high. The opposite of those of sin. Self-control, self-denial, self-sacrifice.
Service of virtue and truth. Hence it begins with sorrow, convictionof sin,
penitence.(2)And no wages canbe earnedtherein. An apparently hard
service, slow progress.Whendone all, unprofitable servants, (R.V.) "free
gift." All we getcomes undeserved.
II. THE CONTRAST IN THEIR ISSUES.

1. The service of sin ends badly.(1) It issues in death. "The wages ofsin is
death." "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Death, physical,
moral, eternal. Sinner like some decoyeddrudge workedto death. Yet the
service has a fatal fascinationfor many.(2) And death deserved. These wages
are earned. Had powerof choice, are responsible. Will be paid in full. But sin
pays them, not God. Hate it, not Him!
2. The service of righteousness ends blessedly.(1)It issues in eternal life. "Gift
of God is eternal life." A service which is its own reward, which ennobles,
which confers "glory, honour, immortality" upon its servants." The servantis
takeninto partnership, is lifted up to the throne, partakes ofthe King's life. It
has, if not wages,anexceeding greatreward, passing all possible desert.(2)
Which not only consummates, but accompanies it. It is through and "in Jesus
Christ our Lord," who supplies the working strength. Hence this hard service
becomes easy. Hence it does not weakenandwearus out like human and
sinful service, but we are renewedday by day. "In Him is life."
(S. E. Keeble.)
The wages ofsin inevitable
Canon Kingsley.
Escape is contrary to the laws of God and of God's universe. It is as
impossible as that fire should not burn, or waterrun up hill. Your sins are
killing you by inches;all day long they are sowing in you the seeds ofdisease
and death. There are three parts of you — body, mind, and spirit; and every
sin you commit helps to kill one of these three, and in many cases to kill all
three together. The bad habits, bad passions, bad methods of thought, in
which they have indulged in youth, remain more or less, and make them
worse men, sillier men, less useful men, less happy men, sometimes to their

lives' end; and they, if they be true Christians, know it, and repent of their
early sins, and not once for all only, but all their lives long, because they feel
that they have weakenedand worsenedthemselves thereby. It stands to
reasonthat it should be so. If a man loses his way and finds it again, he is so
much the less forward on his way, surely, by all the time he has spent in
getting back into the road. If a child has a violent illness it stops growing,
because the life and nourishment which ought to have gone towards its growth
are spent in curing the disease. And so, if a man has indulged in bad habits in
his youth, he is but too likely (let him do what he will) to be a less goodman
for it to his life's end, because the Spirit of God, which ought to have been
making him grow in grace, freelyand healthily to the stature of a perfect man,
to the fulness of the measure of Christ, is striving to conquer old habits and
cure old diseasesofcharacter, and the man, even though he does enter into
life, enters into life halt and maimed.
(Canon Kingsley.)
Sin and its wages
T. G. Horton.
We have to notice three words.
I. SIN. "Sin is the transgressionof the law." Its fundamental idea is deviation
from the law, as a standard of excellence oras a rule of conduct. Now, the law
supposes a lawgiver, and the possibility of God's law being disobeyed, i.e., that
it has to do with moral agents. Well, then, we have to think of them as failing
from some cause or other to do God's will, which is sin. Sin is setforth under
three aspects.
1. As a principle or law (Romans 8:2).(1) As sin is the rejection of God's
authority, the refusalto let Him reign over us, it follows that by it we set up
our own will in oppositionto His. See, then, what such autonomy involves.

(a)The basestingratitude, for who can deny that we owe all our powers and
happiness and our very being to God?
(b)An imputation upon God's character, viz., that He is unworthy to govern
us, that His will is unjust, His law unkind.
(c)RebellionagainstHim.
(d)Usurpation of His place;and hence idolatry and self-deification.(2)Why
should any creature throw off God's authority and governhimself? It must be
for some objectof self-gratificationincompatible with obedience to God. Now,
God's law seeks the greatestgoodofall; and therefore, to setit at nought for
the sake ofpersonalindulgence, is to violate the principle of benevolence.(3)
This selfishness may assume a greatvariety of forms. Many men have as
many different ways of enjoying themselves, yet all may be equally selfish.
Some are sensual, some are covetous, others ambitious, and not a few are fired
with the intellectualpassionfor fame.
2. As an act or acts. The law, though in principle always one, has nevertheless
many particular precepts, and is outragedby the violation of any of those
precepts. There are sins of deed, of speech, ofdeportment, of looks, ofmotive,
desire, imagination, thought, of negation, and omission. All these are the
outgrowth of that self-will and selfishness in which sin essentiallyconsists.
3. As state. Hence, we read of men being "born in sin," and remaining "dead
in trespassesand sins." Before we commit any acts of sin, and as the source of
all we do commit, we have a sinful nature — a bias to go and to do wrong. The
thoroughly sinful soul may be said to live in sin always. Sin is its element and
vital air. It lives without God.

II. DEATH.
1. Spiritual death. The soul is dead when destitute of holiness and happiness;
of the disposition to do well, and of the power to enjoy God. It admits of
degrees;the more it prevails, the more it grows, and the commissionof sin
inevitably paves the way for the perpetration of many more; and the final
stage is reachedwhen the conscienceis searedas with a hot iron, proof against
every appeal, and resolutely bent on his owneternal destruction.
2. Eternal death. Let us suppose a man, whose soulis dead through sin,
removed out of this world into the next, and what shall we behold concerning
him? His case is a million-fold more terrible than before. For —(1) It is
confirmed unalterably forever. Though countless ages rollover his head, he
that is unholy must be unholy still; he that is filthy must be filthy still.(2)
Besides, he is still the subject of the law of progress;and therefore, as the ages
of his immortality advance, eachwill leave him worse than it found him.(3)
This development of evil will be incalculably acceleratedand aggravatedby
the absence ofeverything enjoyed on earth, and which helped either to
restrain the malignity of the disposition or to relieve the wretchedness ofthe
feelings.(4)The positive infliction of punishment as a tokenof God's angerat
sin.
III. WAGES. This word denotes a relation of equity betweensin and death.
The sinner earns death as his rightful recompense. This connectionis —
1. Natural. You have only to study the human mind, its laws of associationand
of working, to be convincedthat sin, when it is finished, must bring forth
death.

2. Judicial. The wickedare turned into hell by a just and holy God; and the
same reasons whichsend them there must avail to keepthem there. They have
no power to make themselves good, and being immortally evil they must be
immortally shut out from heaven. Certainly God will not lay upon the wicked
more of these terrible "wages" thanthey individually deserve. But who shall
determine the full and adequate deserts of sin? Conclusion:
1. Christians should not live in sin, but utterly hate and discardit, and
earnestlystrive to perfectholiness in the fear of the Lord. They have done
with it as a state; let them have done with it as a law, and in its individual acts.
2. Here is a messageofwarning to the ungodly. See for what wages youare
working;part are being paid now, but immense arrears are being treasured
up in the future. You think you are working for pleasure, for gold, for honour,
but lo! it is for death.
(T. G. Horton.)
Deaththe wages ofsin
R. South, D. D.
I. WHAT SIN IS.
1. Original sin. Sin bears date with our very being, and indeed we were
sinners before we were born (Ephesians 2:3). There are some who deny this to
be properly sin at all, because nothing can be truly sin which is not voluntary.
But original corruption in every infant is voluntary, not indeed in his own
person, but in Adam his representative. Pelagians, indeed, tell us that the sons

of Adam came to be sinners only by imitation. But, then, what are those first
inclinations which dispose us to such bad imitations?
2. Actual sin may be considered —(1) According to the subject matter of it.(a)
The sin of our words (Matthew 12:37).(b) The sin of our external actions,
theft, murder, uncleanness;and to prove which to be sins, no more is required
but only to read over the law of God, and where the written letter of the law
comes not, men are "a law to themselves."(c)The sin of our desires. Desires
are sin, as it were, in its first formation. For as soonas the heart has once
conceivedthis fatal seed, it first quickens and begins to stir in desire; so that
the ground and the principal prohibition of the law is, "Thou shalt not covet."
Indeed, action is only a consummation of desire; and could we imagine an
outward action performable without it, it would be rather the shell and
outside of a sin than properly a Sin itself.(2) According to the measure of it;
and so also it is distinguished into severaldegrees, according to which it is
either enhanced or lessenedin its malignity.(a) As when a man is engagedin a
sinful course by surprise and infirmity.(b) When a man pursues a course of
sin againstthe reluctancies ofan awakened conscience;when salvationwaits
and knocks atthe door of his heart, and he both bolts it out and drives it
away;when he fights with the word, and struggles with the Spirit; and, as it
were, resolves to perish in spite of mercy itself, and of the means of grace
(Isaiah 1:5; John 9:41).(c)When a man sins in defiance of conscience;so
breaking all bonds, so trampling upon all convictions, that he becomes not
only untractable, but finally incorrigible. And this is the ne plus ultra of
impiety, which shuts the door of mercy and seals the decree ofdamnation,
Now this differs from original sin thus, that that is properly the seed, this the
harvest; that merits, this actually procures death. For although as soonas
ever the seedbe castin there is a design to reap; yet, for the most part, God
does not actually put in the sickle till continuance in sin has made the sinner
ripe for destruction.

II. WHAT IS INCLUDED IN DEATH WHICH IS HERE ALLOTTED FOR
THE SINNER'S WAGES?
1. Deathtemporal. We must not take it as the separationof the soul from the
body, for that is rather the consummation of death, the last blow given to the
falling tree.(1)Look upon those forerunners of death — diseases;they are but
some of the wages ofsin paid us beforehand. And to the diseasesofthe body
we may add the consuming cares and troubles of the mind, all made necessary
by the first sin of man, and which impair the vitals as much as the most visible
diseasescando.(2)To these we may subjoin the miseries which attend our
condition; as the shame which makes men a scornto others and a burden to
themselves;which takes off the gloss andair of all other enjoyments, and
damps the vigour and vivacity of the spirit. Also the miseries of poverty which
leave the necessities andthe conveniencesofnature unsupplied. Now all these
things are so many breaches made upon our happiness and well-being,
without which life is not life, but a thin, insipid existence.
2. Deatheternal, in comparisonof which the other can scarce be calleddeath,
but only a transient change;easilyborne, or at leastquickly past.(1) It
bereaves a man of all the pleasures and comforts which he enjoyed in this
world. How will the drunkard, the epicure, and the wanton bear the absence
of those things that alone used to please their fancy and to gratify their lust!(2)
It bereaves the soul of the beatific fruition of God (Psalm 16:11).(3)It fills
both body and soul with anguish (Luke 16:24).
III. IN WHAT RESPECT DEATHIS PROPERLYCALLED "THE WAGES
OF SIN."
1. Becausewagespresuppose service. And undoubtedly the service of sin is of
all others the most laborious. It will engross all a man's industry, drink up all

his time; it is a drudgery without intermission, a business without vacation.
Such as are the commands of sin, such must be also the service. But the
commands of sin are for their number continual, for their vehemence
importunate, and for their burden tyrannical.(1) Take the voluptuous,
debauched epicure. What hour of his life is vacant from the slavish
injunctions of his vice? Is he not continually spending both his time and his
subsistence to gratify his taste? And then, how uneasy are the consequences of
his luxury! when he is to grapple with surfeit and indigestion?(2)The
intemperate drinker; is not his life a continual toil? To be sitting up when
others sleep, and to go to bed when others rise; to be exposedto quarrels, to
have redness of eyes, a weakenedbody and a besottedmind?(3) The covetous,
scraping usurper: it is a question whether he gathers or keeps his pelf with
most anxiety.
2. Becausewagesdo always imply a merit in the work requiring such a
compensation. It is but equitable that he who sows shouldalso reap (Galatians
6:8).(1) But to this some make the objectionthat since our goodworks cannot
merit eternal life, neither can our sins merit eternal death. But to merit, it is
required that the actionbe not due; but every goodactionbeing commanded
by the law of God is thereby made due, and consequently cannotmerit;
whereas, a sinful actionbeing altogetherundue and not commanded, but
prohibited, it becomes properly meritorious; and, according to the malignity
of its nature, it merits eternal death.(2) But some further urge that a sinful
actionis but of a finite nature, and proceeds from a finite agent; and
consequentlythere is no proportion betweenthat and an eternal punishment.
But we answerthat the merit of sin is not to be rated either by the act or the
agent;but by the proportions of its object, and the greatness ofthe person
againstwhom it is done. Being committed againstan infinite majesty, it rises
to the height of an infinite demerit.(a) Sin is a direct stroke at God's
sovereignty. We read of the kingdom of Satan in contradistinction to the
kingdom of God, into which sin translates God's subjects. No wonder if God
punishes sin, which is treasonagainstthe King of kings, with death; for it pots
the question "Who shall reign?"(b) Sin strikes at God's very being (Psalm
14:1). Sin would step not only into God's throne, but also into His room.

Conclusion:Sin plays the bait of a little, contemptible, silly pleasure or profit;
but it hides that fatal hook by which that great catcherof souls shall drag
them down to his eternal execution. "Fools make a mock at sin." Fools they
are indeed for doing so. But is it possible for anything that wears the name of
reason, to be so much a fool as to mock at death too? In every sin which a man
deliberately commits, he takes down a draught of deadly poison. In every lust
which he cherishes, he embraces a daggerand opens his bosomto destruction,
he who likes the wages, lethim go about the work.
(R. South, D. D.)
Eternal life
J. Rigg.
I. ITS NATURE. A life of —
1. Perfectimmunity from all the sufferings and dangers to which we are here
exposed.
2. Preeminent intellectualenjoyment — "Here we know in part," etc.
3. Socialhappiness.
4. Unspotted holiness.
5. Incessantactivity.

6. Endless improvement.
II. THE FREENESS OF ITS DISPOSITION.
1. It cannotbe purchased.
2. It is not the reward of merit.
3. It is everything; leading to it is the gift of God.The promises by which the
believer is led to expectit — the greatchange by which he has become entitled
to it and qualified for its enjoyment — the Lord Jesus, by whose merit eternal
life was purchased— all these are gifts of God.
III. THE MEDIUM THROUGH WHICH IT FLOWS.
1. Forthis end — to put men in possessionofeternal life — the Redeemerwas
given; for this purpose He laboured, suffered, instituted His gospel, and sent
forth His ministers.
2. We should, however, do greatinjustice to this subject, were we not to
observe that Christ died —(1) To procure our pardon, in consequence of
which the sentence ofthe law is reversed, and believers freed from that death
to which their crimes had exposedthem.(2) To deliver us from a state of moral
death.(3) To secure our adoption into God's family, which entitles to this
eternal life.(4) To create in us that holiness of heart and life which makes us
"meetto be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light."(5)To
communicate that grace which enables us to lay hold on eternal life.

(J. Rigg.)
Eternal life
Prof. Herrick Johnson.
I. IS NOT WHOLLY IN THE FUTURE WORLD. This life begins here at the
moment of conversion, when the soul passes from death into life. He that hath
the Sonhath life. The righteous do enter into life, become heirs of life, enjoy
ante-pasts of the infinite fulness which is to be hereafterrevealed. These
foretastes involve freedom from condemnation, communion with God, and
growing likeness to Him. The soulis divested of the fear of death, and Christ
fills the believer with His joy, and that joy is full. Satisfactioncomesfrom
what we are, and not from what we get. I have seenhomes of princely wealth
which were but brilliantly garnishedsepulchres, their luxury a solemn
mockery;and I have seenhomes of poverty full of the joy of God, the peace of
the eternal life begun. It is false to conceive of the Christian life as a joyless
way of self-denial trod by us to purchase a bliss beyond.
II. IS THE SAME AND IS NOT THE SAME TO EVERY SAVED SOUL.
1. Heaven is not a sea of bliss in which eachof us is to float in equal content. In
heaven, as here, there is an infinite variety. What a vast transition from an
oysterto the leviathan! There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon,
another of the stars. The penitent thief is saved as truly as Paul; but one has
built on hay, wood, and stubble, and is "scarcelysaved";the other receives
"an entrance abundantly"; one gives the tag-end of a godless life to Christ and
is "savedso as by fire"; the other cansay, "I have fought a goodfight." The
riches, joys, and capabilities of the celestiallife are measured by the service
rendered; "to every man according to his works,""five cities," or"ten cities,"
as the case may be. Secularpapers often make merry about the statementthat

"scaffoldpenitents" are receivedto heaven. It is true that grace does save
such. But their heaven is not Paul's heaven.
2. In three respects heavenis the same to all.(1) In freedom from sin. Harlots
and murderers, washedin the cleansing blood, are as free from defilement as
angels. The malefactoris made as pure as a babe.(2)In freedom from physical
and mental pain and sorrow. There will be no anxiety, distrust; no pang or
grief.(3)No death. Perpetualfreedom from all these is a common blessing to
all.
3. It may be objectedthat if one is wholly happy, according to his capacity,
what matters it if there be those of largercapacities than his? A snail is happy,
I answer, so is a lark. Is there nothing to choose betweenthem? There is a
short radius to a child's circumference of happiness. A man has a thousand-
fold largerscope. Is there no preference? The earof one is satisfiedwith a
rude melody; another man is thrilled to the depths of his being by delicious
harmonies. Is there no preference? There is no room for question. What a
contrastbetweenone who is a single remove from a laughing idiot, and an
angelof God! We are to "seek forhonour and glory," even an entrance that
shall be "administered abundantly."
III. IS INCREASINGLYGLORIOUS FOREVER. Memoryshall lose
nothing, the mind pervert nothing, and the heart shall repel nothing. All that
God has shall be spread out and open to us foreverin riches of grace
inconceivable in their glory and infinitude. The possibilities of the soulare
beyond conception. Godreveals Himself to the righteous through the ages,
their capacities everenlarging and the reality foreverincreasing — joy,
power, blessedness, beyond all thought! These all are the gift of God, bought,
and given to believers,

(Prof. Herrick Johnson.)
Eternal life
T. G. Horton.
I. THE GIFT.
1. Life. Life, eternallife, and life everlasting, are very frequent designations of
the salvationof the gospel(John17:1, 2). This life consists of —(1) A right
state of affectionand feeling towardGod, the Fatherof our spirits, combined
with a happy consciousnessofHis love and favour toward us. Where this life
is, there is freedom from guilt.(2) A renewedstate of the affections and will:
the law of God is approved, and the love of God is establishedin the heart, as
its supreme and governing motive.(3) Honour and happiness, the enjoyment
of true pleasure, derived from the purest sources ofholiness, and love, and
fellowship with heaven.(4)A blessedactivity of the soul, engagedin the
worship and service of Jehovah. Where these exist, the soul lives, fulfils its
proper functions, answers the ends of its creation, and realises its most true
and noble bliss. We sometimes call this life integrity, which is wholeness or
soundness of being: sometimes rectitude, which is erectness andstrength: and
sometimes sanctity, which is separatednessfrom evil and devotedness to God.
2. The epithet, "eternal."(1)This word denotes everlastingnessofduration.(2)
But where this is, there must also be uncorruptedness or perfectionof
nature.(3) And where this perfection relates to a spiritual creature like man,
there must be incessancyof progress, ordevelopment.
II. ITS GRATUITOUS CHARACTER.
1. It is the gift of God, inasmuch as —(1) No man possessesit by nature.(2) No
man could procure it for himself.

2. We are to receive it as such, in simplicity of spirit and with grateful joy.
And let us learn not to look at anything in ourselves to justify our expectation
of it: and let us not, when we find nothing but demerit in ourselves, be
disheartened, but believe that when we were fit only for everlasting
punishment, God stepped forward to grant unto us eternal life. This He has
done from the impulse of His ownamazing generosityand love.
III. THE MEDIUM OF ITS BESTOWMENT.
1. God gives it to us through Jesus Christ, not in an arbitrary manner, but on
the ground of what He has done and suffered in our stead.
2. So, we acceptit through Christ (1 John 5:11). Indeed, we may say that Jesus
is our eternallife. It is by being found in Him that we have pardon and
holiness, happiness and heaven. When we reachthe celestialworld, we shall
find that there as well as here, Christ is "all in all."
(T. G. Horton.)
Eternal life a gift
R. S. Storrs, D. D.
1. Men are so accustomedto the exchange of equivalents, that any other
course comes with an element of surprise. If the reward be not in the grosser
form of money, or in that which money can purchase, still it is true that one
earns his wages. Thesemay be the wages thatimproved faculties would add
— the reward of an approving conscience, ofa sense ofusefulness — perhaps
a sense ofincreasedinfluence for good, by reasonof that which has been

faithfully and unselfishly done; or in the very highest possible service of
philosophic endeavour or Christian duty. In all these there is that feeling of
reward expected, because it has been earned. The idea of a gift coming to one
suddenly and undeserved he does not entertain, exceptas a fiction, such as
may amuse him as a daydream. And more than all is one surprised to find
that he is the recipient of such a gift from one unknown, or one to whom he
has stoodin the relation of neglect, perhaps of hostility.
2. At the same time it is true that men are receiving gifts from another, where
they cannot make any return whatever. Everything that comes to us from the
past is a gift. Individual minds have toiled and studied, and we reap the fruits
of their patience, skill, and success. We make the lightning to run on our
errands, and we take the vapour that lifts the lid of the kettle to propel the
mammoth ship acrossthe sea, orthe carwhich carries us overmountains, or
sets in motion thousands of factories allover our land. This we receivedfrom
those to whom it came as an inspiration of Providence, and an operationof
intelligent, unwearied power. The institution of societycomes to us a grant
from the past. We pay for our primary schooling;but for the greatthoughts
of men who have lived, what returns canwe make? What to any of the great
philosophers who brought us the laws and principles we possess?How shall
we compensate the artist whose gifts quicken our minds to higher perceptions
of beauty, or the poet who sings us into the Elysium of thought? There are still
higher endowments that come to us from those whom we only know by those
impressions made upon us by their chivalric career, and to whom we can
make no more return than we by lighting matches can add to the splendour of
the distant, brilliant sun. So, if a man should say, "I expectonly that which I
have earned, and demand only that which I have deservedand have properly
acquired," and should that prayer be answered, he would, today, be a
beggaredsavage. Thus we see how many of the things which we enjoy have
come to us as gifts. And it is the desire of every noble, unselfish mind to carry
on to the future their beneficentinfluence that the coming generationmay
surpass the present,

3. Turn now to the things which come from God. For these many make no
acknowledgments whatever;while He continues to showerHis gifts upon
them. He gives life through Christ. The life of the present is an undeserved
gift. It is not the reward of our deserts. The faculties of mind, all opportunities
for enjoyment, and all inspirations of thought and effort — these are not
earned by us. No man can stand up and say, "I have done so and so, and God
owes me that." God gives the sunshine and the shower. Theycome, not
because we deserve them. They come sometimes in the face of protest. He
gives the greatinspirations of thought to man, and greatdeliverance to
nations from impending calamity. He gives to the individual soul all he
possesses,and to societyall it has. This argument as to the right of the race to
eternal life lies at the basis of our thought this morning. The parallel in
natural life is the same. No man has a right to exist in infancy. It is the gift of
God; and no man has earned the right to happiness in the present, and to hops
in the future. It is the gift of God. Eternal life, however, is the best gift of God.
But it is a gift that comes only on certain conditions. Sunshine requires the
open eye, but a man may refuse to open his eye; still it is God's gift. So we do
not receive inspiration from any greatmind, exceptas we bring our mind into
responsivenessto it. So we do not receive eternallife unless the conditions are
acceptedwith which Godinvests His gift — humble penitence for sin and faith
in Christ. Sin earns wages, but eternal life is the gift of God, as personallife is
a bestowment:it crowns and glorifies all others. Here is —
I. A SECRETOF THE CHRISTIAN'S UNREST. Life is not something to be
earned. The soul of the Christian who thus views it grows restless and
troubled, like Galilee's waves, till the feetof the Lord brought them to a level.
It is dark, as was the mount, until the Lord rose, in the luminous majesty of
His presence, above it.
II. THE SECRET OF PEACE, in simply accepting this Divine gift from the
source of infinite compassionand grace. Sometimes this peace may come
suddenly, filling the soul with glory; sometimes it may come after long, weary

searching for it; sometimes at the end of life; when the light of life has almost
gone out, as it flickers in the socketandspeechfalters, I say, "I cando
nothing; I take the gift of God!" Then comes "the peace which passethall
understanding."
III. THE BURDEN WHICH RESTS ON HIM WHO REJECTSETERNAL
LIFE. When one comes to us with a greatthought or a rare opportunity, and
we turn away to a trivial theme, we grieve him. Let us not thus treat God.
Here is the gift of eternallife. Shall I put it aside as if it were the merest
summer breeze which by my hand I could arrest and push back into the air? I
may, as I may put aside sunshine itself, by shutting my eyes to it. The
responsibility is mine.
IV. THE IMPULSE OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE. Freedomand gladness come
from other gifts, but here is the supreme one of all. When receivedby us, what
service is too hard, what sacrifice too vast, what worship too exultant! If this
consciousness comesinto our soul, then no sword or stake canfright us, for
our life is interlockedwith heaven. The realisationof it dispels our sorrows
and forbids our tears.
V. THE SWEETNESSOF HEAVEN. Gratitude for God's gift impels every
touch of the heavenly harp. It gives the melody to every song, and joy to all
the work of heaven.
(R. S. Storrs, D. D.)
Life in Christ
T. De Witt Talmage.

A new convert said, "I could not sleep, thinking over that passage,
'Whosoeverbelievethon the Son hath life;' and so I got up, and lighted a
candle, and found my Bible, and read it over, 'Whosoeverbelieveth on the Son
hath life.'" "Why," says someone, "didn't you know that was in the Bible
before?" "Oh, yes," he replied, "I knew it was in the Bible, but I wantedto
see it with my own eyes, and then I rested."
(T. De Witt Talmage.)
The gift of God
I was out on the Pacific coast, in California, two or three years ago, and I was
the guestof a man that had a large vineyard and a large orchard. One day he
said to me, "Moody, whilst you are my guest, I want you to make yourself
perfectly happy, and if there is anything in the orchard or in the vineyard you
would like, help yourself." Well, when I wantedan orange, I did not go to an
orange tree and pray the oranges to fall into my pocket, but I walkedup to a
tree, reachedout my hand, and took the oranges. He said, "Take,"and I took.
God says, "Take,"and you do it. God says, "There is My Son." "The wagesof
sin is death; the gift of Godis eternallife." Who will take it now?
Eternal life the gift of God
J. Bate.
A man may as well think of buying light from the sun, or air from the
atmosphere, or waterfrom the well spring, or minerals from the earth, or fish
from the sea, etc., as think of buying salvationfrom God with any kind of
price. The sun gives his light, the atmosphere its air, the well spring its water,
the earth its minerals, the sea its fish; all man has to do is to take them and use
them. So God has given salvationto man. All he has to do is to use it, in the
use of means, and enjoy it.
(J. Bate.).

COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(23) The gift of God.—The natural antithesis would be “wages;” but this
would here be inappropriate, and therefore the Apostle substitutes “the free
gift.” In spite of your sanctificationas Christians, still you will not have
earned eternallife; it is the gift of God’s grace.
BensonCommentary
Romans 6:23. Forthe wages ofsin is death — “The word οψωνια, rendered
wages,properly signifies the food and pay which generals give to their soldiers
for their service. Byusing this term, the apostle shows whatsort of pay the
usurper, sin, gives to those who serve under his banners. Further, as the sin
here spokenof is that which men commit personally, and which they continue
in, the death which is the wages ofthis kind of sin must be death eternal. It is
observable, that although in Scripture the expression, eternallife, is often to
be met with, we nowhere find eternal joined with death. Yet the punishment
of the wickedis saidto be eternal. Matthew 25:46;” (Macknight;) as also in
many other passages. Butthe gift of God — Greek, χαρισμα, the free gift, or
gift of grace;is eternal life — Or, eternal life is the free gift of God. “The
apostle does not call everlasting life οψωνια, the wageswhichGod gives to his
servants, because they do not merit it by their services, as the slaves ofsin
merit death by theirs: but he calls it a free gift, or gift of grace;or, as Estius
would render the expression, a donative; because, being freely bestowed, it
may be compared to the donatives which the Roman generals, oftheir own
good-will, bestowedontheir soldiers as a mark of their favour.” We may now
see the apostle’s method thus far: — 1st, Bondage to sin, Romans 3:9. 2d, The
knowledge ofsin by the law, a sense ofGod’s wrath, inward death, Romans
3:20. 3d, The revelation of the righteousness ofGodin Christ, through the
gospel, Romans 3:21. 4th, The centre of all faith, embracing that

righteousness, Romans 3:22. 5th, Justification, whereby God forgives all past
sin, and freely accepts the sinner, Romans 3:24. 6th, The gift of the Holy
Ghost, a sense ofGod’s love, new inward life, Romans 5:5; Romans 6:4. 7th,
The free service ofrighteousness, Romans 6:23.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
6:21-23 The pleasure and profit of sin do not deserve to be calledfruit.
Sinners are but ploughing iniquity, sowing vanity, and reaping the same.
Shame came into the world with sin, and is still the certaineffect of it. The end
of sin is death. Though the way may seempleasantand inviting, yet it will be
bitterness in the latter end. From this condemnation the believer is set at
liberty, when made free from sin. If the fruit is unto holiness, if there is an
active principle of true and growing grace, the end will be everlasting life; a
very happy end! Though the way is up-hill, though it is narrow, thorny, and
beset, yet everlasting life at the end of it is sure. The gift of God is eternal life.
And this gift is through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ purchased it, prepared
it, prepares us for it, preserves us to it; he is the All in all in our salvation.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
For the wages ofsin - The word translated here "wages" ὀψώνια opsōnia
properly denotes what is purchased to be eatenwith bread, as fish, flesh,
vegetables, etc. (Schleusner);and thence, it means the pay of the Roman
soldier, because formerly it was the custom to pay the soldier in these things.
It means hence, what a man earns or deserves;what is his proper pay, or what
he merits. As applied to sin, it means that death is what sin deserves;what will
be its proper reward. Deathis thus called the wages ofsin, not because it is an
arbitrary, undeserved appointment, but
(1) Because it is its proper desert. Nota pain will be inflicted on the sinner
which he does not deserve. Not a sinner will die who ought not to die. Sinners
even in hell will be treated just as they deserve to be treated; and there is not
to man a more fearful and terrible considerationthan this. No man can
conceive a more dreadful doom than for himself to be treatedforever just as
he deserves to be. But,

(2) This is the wages ofsin, because, like the pay of the soldier, it is just what
was threatened, Ezekiel18:4, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Godwill not
inflict anything more than was threatened, and therefore it is just.
Is death - This stands opposedhere to eternal life, and proves that one is just
as enduring as the other.
But the gift of God - Not the wages ofman; not what is due to him; but the
mere gift and mercy of God. The apostle is careful to distinguish, and to
specify thai this is not what man deserves, but what is gratuitously conferred
on him; Note, Romans 6:15.
Eternal life - The same words which in Romans 6:22 are rendered
"everlasting life." The phrase is opposedto death; and proves incontestably
that that means eternal death. We may remark, therefore,
(1) That the one will be as long as the other.
(2) as there is no doubt about the duration of life, so there canbe none about
the duration of death. The one will be rich, blessed, everlasting;the other sad,
gloomy, lingering, awful, eternal.
(3) if the sinner is lost, he will deserve to die. He will have his reward. He will
suffer only what shall be the just due of sin. He will not be a martyr in the
cause ofinjured innocence. He will not have the compassionofthe universe in
his favor. He will have no one to take his part againstGod. He will suffer just
as much, and just as long, as he ought to suffer. He will suffer as the culprit

pines in the dungeon, or as the murderer dies on the gibbet, because this is the
proper rewardof sin.
(4) they who are savedwill be raised to heaven, not because they merit it, but
by the rich and sovereigngraceofGod. All their salvationwill be ascribedto
him; and they will celebrate his mercy and grace forever.
(5) it becomes us, therefore, to flee from the wrath to come. No man is so
foolish and so wickedas he who is willing to reap the proper wages ofsin.
None so blessedas he who has part in the mercy of God, and who lays hold on
eternal life.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
23. For the wages ofsin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through—
"in"
Jesus Christ our Lord—This concluding verse—as pointed as it is brief—
contains the marrow, the most fine gold, of the Gospel. As the laborer is
worthy of his hire, and feels it to be his due—his own of right—so is death the
due of sin, the wagesthe sinner has well wrought for, his own. But "eternal
life" is in no sense ordegree the wages ofour righteousness;we do nothing
whateverto earn or become entitled to it, and never can: it is therefore, in the
most absolute sense, "THE GIFT OF God." Grace reigns in the bestowalofit
in every case, and that "in Jesus Christ our Lord," as the righteous Channel
of it. In view of this, who that hath tastedthat the Lord is gracious canrefrain
from saying, "Unto Him that loved us, and washedus from our sins in His
own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, to
Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen!" (Re 1:5, 6).

Note, (1) As the most effectualrefutation of the oft-repeatedcalumny, that the
doctrine of Salvation by grace encouragesto continue in sin, is the holy life of
those who profess it, let such ever feelthat the highest service they can render
to that Grace which is all their hope, is to "yield themselves unto God, as those
that are alive from the dead, and their members instruments of righteousness
unto God" (Ro 6:12, 13). By so doing they will "put to silence the ignorance of
foolish men," secure their own peace, carryout the end of their calling, and
give substantial glory to Him that loved them. (2) The fundamental principle
of Gospelobedience is as original as it is divinely rational; that "we are set
free from the law in order to keepit, and are brought graciouslyunder
servitude to the law in order to be free" (Ro 6:14, 15, 18). So long as we know
no principle of obedience but the terrors of the law, which condemns all the
breakers ofit, and knows nothing whatever of grace, eitherto pardon the
guilty or to purify the stained, we are shut up under a moral impossibility of
genuine and acceptable obedience:whereas whenGrace lifts us out of this
state, and through union to a righteous Surety, brings us into a state of
conscious reconciliation, andloving surrender of heart to a God of salvation,
we immediately feelthe glorious liberty to be holy, and the assurance that
"Sin shall not have dominion over us" is as sweetto our renewedtastes and
aspirations as the ground of it is felt to be firm, "becausewe are not under the
Law, but under Grace."(3) As this most momentous of all transitions in the
history of a man is wholly of God's free grace, the change should never be
thought, spoken, orwritten of but with lively thanksgiving to Him who so
loved us (Ro 6:17). (4) Christians, in the service ofGod, should emulate their
former selves in the zeal and steadiness with which they served sin, and the
length to which they went in it (Ro 6:19). (5) To stimulate this holy rivalry, let
us often "look back to the rock whence we were hewn, the hole of the pit
whence we were digged," in searchof the enduring advantages and
permanent satisfactionswhichthe service of Sin yielded; and when we find to
our "shame" only gall and wormwood, let us follow a godless life to its proper
"end," until, finding ourselves in the territories of "death," we are fain to
hasten back to survey the service of Righteousness, thatnew Masterof all
believers, and find Him leading us sweetlyinto abiding "holiness," and
landing us at length in "everlasting life" (Ro 6:20-22). (6) Deathand life are
before all men who hear the Gospel:the one, the natural issue and proper

reward of sin; the other, the absolutelyfree "GIFT OF God" to sinners, "in
Jesus Christ our Lord." And as the one is the conscioussense ofthe hopeless
loss of all blissful existence, so the other is the consciouspossessionand
enjoyment of all that constitutes a rational creature's highest"life" for
evermore (Ro 6:23). Ye that read or hear these words, "I call heavenand
earth to record this day againstyou, that I have set before you life and death,
blessing and cursing, therefore chooselife, that both thou and thy seedmay
live!" (De 30:19).
Matthew Poole's Commentary
q.d. Now therefore compare the office of both these services together, and you
shall easilysee which master is best to serve and obey; the wagesthat sin will
pay you, in the end is death; but the rewardthat God will freely bestow upon
you (if you be his servants)
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Wages;the word properly signifies victuals. The Romans of old paid their
soldiers with provision and victuals in recompence oftheir service;afterward
they gave them money, but still the old term was retained, and now it is used
to signify any rewardor stipend whatsoever.
Is death: by death here we must understand not only temporal, but also and
more especiallyeternaldeath, as appears by the opposition it hath to eternal
life: this is the just and true hire of sin.
The gift of God is eternallife; he doth not say that eternallife is the wages of
righteousness, but that it is the gracious orfree gift of God. He varies the
phrase on purpose, to show that we attain not eternal life by our own merits,

our own works or worthiness, but by the gift or grace of God; for which cause
he also addeth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. See Aug. lib. de Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, c.
9. Let the papists (if they can) reconcile this text to their distinction of mortal
and venial sins, and to their doctrine of the meritoriousness ofgoodworks.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
For the wages ofsin is death,.... By sin, is meant every sin, original sin, actual
sin, every kind of sin, lesserand greater:the "death" which sin deserves, is a
corporealdeath; which is not owing to the original nature and constitution of
men; nor merely to the divine appointment; but to sin, and the decree ofGod,
on accountof it; which is inflicted on Christless sinners, as a punishment for
sin, though not on believers as such, because Christhas took awaythe sting
and curse of it: a death of diseasesand afflictions also follows upon sin, as its
proper demerit; which are properly punishments to wickedmen, and are
occasionedby sin in believers:there is a death of the soul, which comes by sin,
which lies in an alienationfrom God, in a loss of the image of God, and in a
servitude to sin; and there is an eternaldeath, the just wagesofsin, which lies
in a separationof soul and body from God, and in a sense ofdivine wrath to
all eternity; and which is here meant, as is clearfrom its antithesis, "eternal
life", in the next clause. Now this is "the wages"ofsin; sin does in its own
nature produce it, and excludes from life; it is the natural issue of it; sin is
committed againstan infinite God, and righteously deserves sucha death; it is
its just wages by law. The Greek word signifies soldiers'wages;see Luke 3:14
and in
"At which time Simon rose up, and fought for his nation, and spent much of
his ownsubstance, and armed the valiant men of his nation and gave them
wages,''(1 Maccabees14:32)
Sin is representedas a king, a mighty monarch, a tyrannical prince; sinners
are his subjects and vassals, his servants and soldiers, who fight under him,

and for him, and all the wages they must expectfrom him is death. So the
word is interpreted in the Glossary, , "soldiers'wages";and so it is used by
the Jewishwriters, being adopted into their language;of a king, they say (a),
that he should not multiply to himself goldand silver more than to pay which
they (b) interpret by , "the hire of armies", or the wages ofsoldiers for a
whole year, who go in and out with him all the year; so that it denotes wages
due, and paid after a campaign is ended, and service is over; and, as here
used, suggests, thatwhen men have been all their days in the service of sin,
and have fought under the banners of it, the wages theywill earn, and the
reward that will be given them, will be death: and it is frequently observedby
the Jewishdoctors (c), that , "there is no death without sin": sin is the cause of
death, and death the fruit and effect of sin:
but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. These words,
at first sight, look as if the sense ofthem was, that eternal life is the gift of God
through Christ, which is a greatand glorious truth of the Gospel;but their
standing in opposition to the preceding words require another sense, namely,
that God's gift of grace issues in eternal life, through Christ: wherefore by
"the gift of God" is not meant eternal life, but either the gift of a justifying
righteousness, orthe grace of Godin regenerationand sanctification, orboth,
which issue in eternallife; the one is the saints' right and title, the other their
meetness for it: so that as death is the wages ofsin, and is what that issues in,
and brings unto, eternal life is the effectof grace, orwhat the grace of God in
justifying and sanctifying his people issues in; even a life free from all sorrow
and imperfection; a life of the utmost perfection and pleasure, and which will
last for ever: and as the grace ofGod, which justifies and sanctifies them, is
"through Christ", so is the eternal life itself which it brings unto: this is in
Christ, comes through his righteousness, sufferings, anddeath; is bestowedby
him, and will greatly consistin the enjoyment of him. All grace is the gift of
God, and is freely given, or otherwise it would not be grace;particularly the
justifying righteousness ofChrist is the gift of God; and the rather this may be
meant here, since the apostle had been treating of it so largelybefore, and had
so often, in the preceding chapter, calledit the gift of righteousness,the free
gift, and gift by grace, and justification by it, the justification of life, because it

entitles to eternal life, as here: it may be saidto issue in it; for between
justification and glorificationthere is a sure and close connection;they that
are justified by the righteousnessofChrist, are certainly glorified, or enjoy
eternal life; and though this may be principally intended here, yet is not to be
understood to the exclusionof other gifts of grace, whichhave the same
connectionand issue:thus, for instance, faith is the gift of God, and not of a
man's self, and he that has it, has eternallife, and shall, Or everpossess it;
repentance is a free grace gift, it is a grant from the Lord, and it is unto life
and salvation;and on whomsoeverthe grace of God is bestowed, so as to
believe in Christ for righteousness,and truly repent of sin, these shall partake
of eternal glory. It may be observed, that there is a just proportion between
sin, and the wagesofit, yet there is none betweeneternallife, and the
obedience of men; and therefore though the apostle had been pressing so
much obedience to God, and to righteousness,he does not make eternal life to
be the fruit and effectof obedience, but of the gift of the grace of God.
(a) Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 2. sect. 4. (b) Jarchi& Bartenora in ib. Vid. Cohen de
Lara, Ir. David, p. 17. (c) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 55. 1. Vajikra Rabba, parash.
37. fol. 176. 3. Midrash Kohelet, fol. 70. 4. Zohar in Gen. fol. 44. 4. Tzeror
Hammor, fol. 115. 1.
Geneva Study Bible
{11} For the wages ofsin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
(11) Deathis the punishment due to sin, but we are sanctifiedfreely, to
everlasting life.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary

Romans 6:23. Τὰ ὀψώνια]the wages.Comp 1 Corinthians 9:7; Luke 3:14.
ὈΨΏΝΙΟΝ ΚΥΡΊΩς ΛΈΓΕΤΑΙΤῸ ΤΟῖς ΣΤΡΑΤΙΏΤΑΙς ΠΑΡᾺ ΤΟῦ
ΒΑΣΙΛΈΩς ΔΕΔΟΜΈΝΟΝ ΣΙΤΗΡΈΣΙΟΝ,Theophylact. CompPhotius,
367. See Lobeck, a[1500]Phryn. p. 420. The plural, more usual than the
singular, is explained by the various elements that constituted the original
natural payments, and by the coins used in the later money wages.
The wages whichsin gives stands in reference to Romans 6:13, where the
ἁμαρτία is presented as a ruler, to whom the subjects tender their members as
weapons, forwhich they receive their allowance!
θάνατος]as in Romans 6:22.
ΤῸ ΔῈ ΧΆΡΙΣΜΑ Τ. ΘΕΟῦ]Paul does not sayΤᾺ ὈΨΏΝΙΑhere also (“vile
verbum,” Erasmus), but characterizeswhatGod gives for wagesas what it is
in its specific nature—a gift of grace, whichis no ἀντιταλαντεύεσθαι
(Theodoret). To the Apostle, in the connectionof his systemof faith and
doctrine, this was very natural, even without the supposition of any special
design (in order—it has been suggested—to affordno encouragementto pride
of virtue or to confiding in one’s own merit).
ἘΝ ΧΡΙΣΤῷ Κ.Τ.Λ[1501]]In Christ is the causalbasis, that the χάρισμα τ.
Θεοῦ is eternal life; a triumphant conclusionas in Romans 5:21; comp
Romans 8:39.
[1500]d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the
particular passage.

[1501].τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.
Expositor's Greek Testament
Romans 6:23. The γὰρ introduces the generaltruth of which what has been
said of the Romans in Romans 6:21 f. is an illustration. “All this is normal and
natural, for the wagesofsin is death,” etc. ὀψώνια 1Ma 3:28; 1Ma 14:32. The
idea of a warfare (see ὅπλα, Romans 6:13) is continued. The soldier’s pay who
enlists in the service of sin is death. τὸ δὲ χάρισμα:but the free gift, etc. The
end in God’s service is not of debt, but of grace. Tertullian (quoted in S. and
H.) renders χάρισμα here donativum (the largess givenby the emperor to
soldiers on a New Year’s Day or birthday), keeping on the military
association;but Paul could hardly use what is almost a technicalexpression
with himself in a technicalsense quite remote from his own. On ζωὴ αἰώνιος
ἐν Χ. Ἰ. τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, see onRomans 5:21.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
23. For] The “for” refers to the last statement. The verse may be paraphrased,
“Forwhereas the wagesofsin is death, the gift of God is, as we have now said,
eternal life.”
wages]The Gr. is same word as Luke 3:14; 1 Corinthians 9:7; 2 Corinthians
11:8. It strictly denotes pay for military service;and the metaphor here
therefore points not to slaveryso much as to the warfare of Romans 6:13
(where see note on weapons). The word is full of pregnant truth. Death, in its
most awful sense, is no more than the reward and result of sin; and sin is
nothing less than a conflictagainstGod.
gift] The Gr. is same word as free gift, ch. Romans 5:15.—This wordhere is,
so to speak, a paradox. We should have expectedone which would have
representedlife eternalas the issue of holiness, to balance the truth that death
is the issue of sin. And in respectof holiness being the necessarypreliminary
to the future bliss, this would have been entirely true. But St Paulhere all the

more forcibly presses the thought that salvationis a gift wholly apart from
human merit. The eternal Design, the meritorious Sacrifice, the life-giving and
love-imparting Spirit, all alike are a Gift absolutelyfree. The works ofsin are
the procuring cause of Death;the course of sanctificationis not the procuring
cause ofLife Eternal, but only the training for the enjoyment of what is
essentiallya Divine gift “in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
through] Lit., and better, in. The “life eternal” is to be found only “in Him,”
by those who “come to Him.” His work is the one meritorious cause;and in
His hands also is the actualgift. (John 17:2-3).
Bengel's Gnomen
Romans 6:23. Τὰ, τὸ) The mark of the subject.—ὀψώνια—χάρισμα, wages—
gift) Bad works earntheir own proper pay; not so, goodworks;for the former
obtain wages, the latter a gift: ὀψώνια, wages,in the plural: χάρισμα, a gift, in
the singular, with a strongerforce.
Vincent's Word Studies
Wages (ὀψώνια)
From ὄψον cookedmeat, and later, generally, provisions. At Athens especially
fish. Hence ὀψώνιονis primarily provision-money, and is used of supplies for
an army, see 1 Corinthians 9:7. The figure of Romans 6:13 is carriedout: Sin,
as a Lord to whom they tender weapons andwho pays wages.
Death
"Sin pays its serfs by punishing them. Its wagesis death, and the death for
which its counters are available is the destruction of the wealof the soul"
(Morison).

Gift (χάρισμα)
Rev., rightly, free gift (compare Romans 5:15). In sharp contrastwith wages.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
BRUCE HURT MD
Romans 6:23 For the wages ofsin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NASB: Lockman)
Greek:ta gar opsonia tes hamartias thanatos to de charisma tou theou zoe
aionios en Christo Iesouto kurio hemon.
Amplified: Forthe wages whichsin pays is death, but the [bountiful] free gift
of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Amplified Bible - Lockman)
NET:For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
Phillips: Sin pays its servants:the wage is death. But God gives to those who
serve him: his free gift is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Phillips:
Touchstone)

Wuest: But the free gift of God is life eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Eerdmans)
Young's Literal: for the wages ofthe sin is death, and the gift of God is life
age-during in Christ Jesus ourLord.
FOR THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH: ta garopsonia tes hamartias
thanatos:
Ro 5:12; Ge 2:17; 3:19; Isa 3:11; Ezekiel18:4,20;1Cor6:9,10;Gal 3:10; Gal
6:7,8; Jas 1:15; Rev21:8
For - Introduces an explanation and refers us back to Paul's last statement in
Ro 6:22.
Denney - Forintroduces the generaltruth of which what has been said of the
Romans in Ro 6:21ff is an illustration. "All this is normal and natural, for the
wages ofsin is death." (The Expositor's Greek Testament)
The ReformationStudy Bible notes that "The triple contrastof wages, sin,
and death, with gift, God, and eternal life, brings Paul’s argument to a
memorable focus. (Whitlock, L. G., Sproul, R. C., Waltke, B. K., & Silva, M.
ReformationStudy Bible. 1995. Thomas Nelson)
MacDonaldexpress this truth slightly different observing that...

The apostle summarizes the subject by presenting these vivid contrasts:
Two masters—sinand God.
Two methods—wagesandfree gift.
Two aftermaths—deathand eternallife.
Notice that eternal life is in a Person, and that Personis Christ Jesus our
Lord. All who are in Christ have eternallife. It’s as simple as that! (Believer's
Bible Commentary (Bolding added)
Wages (3800)(opsonionfrom ópson= cookedmeat+ onéomai = buy)
whateveris bought to be eatenwith bread. It meant rations for a soldierand
so his stipend or pay. At Athens it meant "fish." It came to mean the
"provision-money" which Rome gave its soldiers.
The wages paidby sin. Deathcan be "earned". Eternallife is God’s gift.
Some see this allusion to wagesas a continuation of the metaphor of warfare
(Ro 6:13) for Roman soldiers receivedwages forserving their Emperor.
Christian's have an "Emperor" to Whom we owe our allegiance andfrom
Whom we receive gifts by virtue of His grace, not our merit.
As the Roman soldierreceivedprovision-money with which to sustainlife so
that he could fight and die for Caesar, so the unsaved receive provision-money

from sin, spiritual death, so that they can serve it, then physical death, and
final banishment from the presence ofGod for all eternity.
Moule - The Greek is same word as Luke 3:14; 1Co 9:7; 2Co 11:8. It strictly
denotes pay for military service;and the metaphor here therefore points not
to slavery so much as to the warfare of Ro 6:13. The word is full of pregnant
truth. Death, in its most awful sense, is no more than the reward and result of
sin; and sin is nothing less than a conflict againstGod. (The Epistle of Paul the
Apostle to the Romans)
Wages -Baker's EvangelicalDictionaryofBiblical Theology
Wages -Holman Bible Dictionary
Wages -Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
Wages -Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words
Wages -International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Opsonionis found 4x in 4v in the NAS...
Luke 3:14 And some soldiers were questioning him, saying, "And what about
us, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Do not take money from anyone
by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages."
Comment: Luke uses opsonionwith its literal meaning as a military technical
term for what is appointed to soldiers to buy food commonly known as ration
(money), allowance,ormore generally as subsistence pay, wages, expense
money . Thayer adds that opsonionreferred to "grain, meat, fruits, salt, (that)
were given to soldiers instead of pay (Caesarb. g. 1, 23, 1; Polybius 1, 66f; 3,
13, 8), opsonionbegan to signify: 1. universally, a soldier's pay, allowance
(Polybius 6, 39, 12; Dionysius Halicarnassus, Antiquities 9, 36)"

Romans 6:23 For the wages ofsin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Corinthians 9:7 Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense?
Who plants a vineyard, and does not eatthe fruit of it? Or who tends a flock
and does not use the milk of the flock?
2 Corinthians 11:8 I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to serve
you;
Thayer adds that wages(opsonion)in Paul's day referred to "whateveris
bought to be eatenwith bread, as fish, flesh. Corn, meat, fruits, salt, were
given the soldiers insteadof pay. That part of a soldier’s support given him in
place of pay (i.e., rations) and the money in which he is paid
Wuest adds that "Paul used a military term hopla (see word study), the
weapons ofa Greek foot soldier, translated “instruments” (see note Romans
6:13). Now, he uses the illustration of a soldier’s wages. The battle is between
Satan’s hosts of wickednessand the people of God. The wage that Satandoles
out is death. (Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament:
Eerdmans)
The IVP BackgroundCommentary has an interesting note on wages
explaining that "Slaves couldand often did receive some “wages.”Although
the slave’s ownerlegallyowned the slave’s possessions, the slave could use this
property or money (called a peculium), sometimes evento purchase freedom.
That such wages were normally a positive symbol makes Paul’s words here all

the more striking. (Keener, Craig:The IVP Bible BackgroundCommentary:
New Testament. 1994.IVP)
Warren Wiersbe makes an excellentpoint - "We quote this verse as we
witness to the lost, and rightly so; but Paul wrote it originally to believers.
Although God forgives the sins of His children, He may not stop the painful
consequencesofsin. The pleasures ofsin are never compensatedfor by the
wages ofsin. Sinning is not worth it! (Wiersbe, W. W. With the Word : The
Chapter-by-Chapter Bible Handbook Nashville:Thomas Nelson)
William Newellexplains that "Death, as we read in Romans 6:23, is the wages
of sin. Men. speak of it lightly. But it is indeed "the king of terrors" for the
natural man (Job 18:14). A well-knownwriter says: "Manfinds in Death an
end to every hope, to every project, to all his thoughts and plans. The busy
scene in which his whole life has been, knows him no more. His nature has
given way, powerless to resistthis master (death) to which it belongs, and who
now asserts his dreadful rights. But this is far from being all. Man indeed, as
man alive in this world, sinks down into nothing. But why? Sin has come in;
with sin, conscience;with sin, Satan's power; still more with sin, God's
judgment. Death is the expressionand witness of all this. It is the wages ofsin,
terror to the conscience, Satan's poweroverus, for he has the powerof death
(See notes Hebrews 2:14; Hebrews 2:15). Can God help here? Alas, it is His
own judgment on sin. Deathseems but as the proof that sin does not pass
unnoticed, and is the terror and plague of the conscience, as witness ofGod's
judgment, the officerof justice to the criminal, and the proof of his guilt in the
presence ofcoming judgment. How can it but be terrible? It is the sealupon
the fall and ruin and condemnationof the first Adam. And he has nothing but
this old nature. (Romans 6)

BUT THE FREE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNALLIFE IN CHRIST JESUS
OUR LORD: to de charisma tou theou zoe aionios en Christo Iesou to kurio
hemon:
Ro 2:7; 5:17,21;Jn 3:14, 15, 16, 17,36;4:14; 5:24,39,40;6:27,32,33,40,50, 51,
52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58; Jn 6:68; 10:28; 17:2; Titus 1:2; 1Pet1:3,4;1Jn 2:25;
5:11,12)
H C G Moule - “Is life worth living?” Yes, infinitely well worth, for the living
man who has surrendered to “the Lord that bought him.” Outside that
ennobling captivity, that invigorating while most genuine bond service, the life
of man is at bestcomplicatedand tired with a bewildered quest, and gives
results at best abortive, matched with the ideal purposes of such a being. We
“presentourselves to God,” for His ends, as implements, vassals, willing
bondmen; and lo, our own end is attained. Our life has settled, after its long
friction, into gear. Our root, after hopeless explorations in the dust, has struck
at last the stratum where the immortal watermakes all things live, and grow,
and put forth fruit for heaven. The heart, once dissipated betweenitself and
the world, is now “united” to the will, to the love, of God; and understands
itself, and the world, as never before;and is able to deny self and to serve
others in a new and surprising freedom. The man, made willing to be nothing
but the tool and bondman of God, “has his fruit” at last; bears the true
product of his now recreatedbeing, pleasantto the Master’s eye, and fostered
by His air and sun. And this “fruit” issues, as acts issue in habit, in the glad
experience of a life really sanctified, really separatedin ever deeperinward
reality, to a holy will. And the “end” of the whole glad possession, is “life
eternal.”
Those greatwords here signify, surely, the coming bliss of the sons of the
resurrection, when at last in their whole perfectedbeing they will “live” all
through, with a joy and energy as inexhaustible as its Fountain, and
unencumbered at last and forever by the conditions of our mortality. To that
vast future, vast in its scope yet all concentratedround the fact that “we shall

be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is,” the Apostle here looks onward. He
will saymore of it, and more largely, later, in the eighth chapter. But as with
other themes so with this, he preludes with a few glorious chords the great
strain soonto come. He takes the Lord’s slave by the hand, amidst his present
tasks and burdens, (dear tasks and burdens, because the Master’s, but still
full of the conditions of earth,) and he points upward — not to a coming
manumission in glory; the man would be dismayed to foresee that; he wants to
“serve forever”; — but to a scene ofservice in which the last remainders of
hindrance to its action will be gone, and a perfectedbeing will forever,
perfectly, be not its own, and so will perfectly live in God. And this, so he says
to his fellow servant, to you and to me, is “the gift of God”;a grant as free, as
generous, as everKing gave vassalhere below. And it is to be enjoyed as such,
by a being which, living wholly for Him, will freely and purely exult to live
wholly on Him, in the heavenly places.
Yet surely the bearing of the sentences is not wholly upon heaven. Life eternal,
so to be developedhereafter that Scripture speaks ofit often as it began
hereafter, really begins here, and develops here, and is already “more
abundant” (John 10:10) here. It is, as to its secretand also its experience, to
know and to enjoy God, to be possessedby Him, and used for His will. In this
respectit is “the end,” the issue and the goal, now and perpetually, of the
surrender of the soul. The Mastermeets that attitude with more and yet more
of Himself, known, enjoyed, possessed, possessing.And so He gives, evermore
gives, out of His sovereignbounty, life eternalto the bondservant who has
embracedthe fact that he is nothing, and has nothing, outside his Master. Not
at the outsetof the regenerate life only, and not only when it issues into the
heavenly ocean, but all along the course, the life eternal is still “the free gift of
God.” Let us now, today, tomorrow, and always, open the lips of surrendering
and obedient faith, and drink it in, abundantly, and yet more abundantly.
And let us use it for the Giver. We are already, here on earth, at its very
springs; so the Apostle reminds us. Forit is “in Jesus Christ our Lord”; and
we, believing, are in Him, “savedin His life.” It is in Him; nay, it is He. “I am
the Life”; “He that hath the Son, hath the life.” Abiding in Christ, we live
“because He liveth.” It is not to be “attained”;it is given, it is our own. In

Christ, it is given, in its divine fulness, as to covenantprovision, here, now,
from the first, to every Christian. In Christ, it is supplied, as to its fulness and
fitness for eacharising need, as the Christian asks, receives, and uses for his
Lord. So from, or rather in, our holy bond service the Apostle has brought us
to our inexhaustible life, and its resourcesfor willing holiness. (Commentary
on Romans)
But (term of contrast)Introduces the gracious, glorious contrast.
Free gift (5486)(charisma [word study] from charis = grace + the ending -ma
which indicates the result of something, in this case the result of grace)means
a “gift of grace” or“free gift,” and in sixteenof its seventeenNew Testament
uses is connectedto God as the Giver. Charisma emphasizes the freeness of
the gift.
James Denney- Tertullian renders charisma here donativum (Latin for "the
largess givenby the emperor to soldiers on a New Year's Day or birthday"),
keeping on the military association.
You can work for Sin ( the Sin principle or propensity inherited from Adam)
but it is a cruel master. When it pays you off, its wage is death—separation
from God forever. In stark contrast, Goddoes not pay wages. He has a free
gift to offer—eternallife. There is nothing that one cando to earn this gift. If
one could earn it, it would not be a gift; it would be wages.Eternallife is just
that—eternal—it never ceases.
Moule writes that "free gift" "is same word as free gift, Ro 5:15.—This word
here is, so to speak, a paradox. We should have expectedone which would
have representedlife eternalas the issue of holiness, to balance the truth. that

Jesus was the gift of eternal life

Jesus was the gift of eternal life

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Jesus was the gift of eternal life