Romans 6:23 (ESV) … “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
There are a lot of discussions today about wages. Today people argue about what a living wage should look like. One group declares that companies and individual employers should be forced to pay a living wage. Another group argues that the free market itself should set the wage agreement between workers and employees.
Whichever side of that national debate you might take, everyone would agree that no one is going to work for nothing. In other words, if you do a job, you can expect to receive wages.
This most famous of passages in the bible teaches us that sin pays wages – DEATH! The Bible declares that sin never pays a living wage, only a death wage. That is the wage that Satan gives us when we give in to his temptations to sin against a Holy God.
Conversely, God also pays a wage. God’s wage rate is LIFE! God gives holiness and everlastingness to His wage. In our old life of sin, we produce the fruit of shame and guilt. In our new life with Christ, we produce the fruit that gives glory to God and brings joy into our lives.
While most of us will read and apply Romans 6:23 to those who are lost, and it certainly does apply; the full truth of this passage is a warning also for those who are saved. Sin always brings death. A lost person indeed experiences the fullness of that wage, but even a Christian can suffer the death that sin brings in our daily living. Samson is a great example. Samson, a believer and a child of God experienced dying as he went further and further into sin. Ultimately, he went so far into sin that it cost him his earthly life, yet his heavenly life was secure by his faith in God.
Dr. Warren Wiersbe says, “three instructions need to be heeded each day that we live. KNOW that you have been crucified with Christ and are dead to sin. RECKON this fact to be true in your own life. YIELD your body to the Lord to be used for His glory.” [1]
If we KNOW these truths, RECKON them to be right in our life, and then YIELD ourselves to God, then we can expect to receive a living wage from God. One that brings holiness and joy as we give God the glory He deserves.
[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 533–534). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.