Romans 6:23

“ For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. ”

On the one side, wages, something earned. The word ὀψώνιον strictly denotes payment in kind, then the payment in money which a general gives his soldiers. And so it is obvious that the complement τῆς ἁμαρτίας, of sin, is not here the genitive of the object: the wages paid for sin, but the genitive of the subject: the wages paid by sin. Sin is personified as man's natural master (Romans 6:12; Romans 6:14; Romans 6:22), and he is represented as paying his subjects with death. This term, according to the apostle, does not seem to denote the annihilation of the sinner. To pay any one is not to put him out of existence; it is rather to make him feel the painful consequences of his sin, to make him reap in the form of corruption what he has sowed in the form of sin (Galatians 6:7-8; 2 Corinthians 5:10).

In the second proposition the apostle does not speak of wages, but of a gift of grace (χάρισμα). This term is taken here in its most general sense; it comprehends the fulness of salvation. Everything in this work, from the initial justification to the final absolution, including sanctification and preparing for glory, is a free gift, an unmerited favor, like that Christ Himself who has been made unto us righteousness, holiness, and redemption. “Hell,” says Hodge, “is always earned; heaven, never. ” The apostle closes with the words: in Christ Jesus our Lord; for it is in Him that this entire communication of divine mercy to the faithful takes place. Here, again, for the δία, by, which was the preposition used in the preceding part (for example, Romans 5:1-2; Romans 5:11; Romans 5:17; Romans 5:21), Paul substitutes the ἐν, in, which is more in keeping with the mode of sanctification. After being justified by Him, we are sanctified in Him, in communion of life with Him.

It is commonly thought that this twenty-third verse, as well as the whole passage of which it is a summary, applies to the believer only from the view-point of the second alternative, that of eternal life, and that the unconverted only are referred to by the apostle when he speaks of the service of sin and of its fatal goal, death. But the tenor of Romans 6:15 proves how erroneous this view is. What is the aim of this passage? To reply to the question: “Shall we sin because we are under grace?” Now this question can only be put in reference to believers. It is to them, therefore, that the reply contained in this whole passage applies. Neither could Paul say in respect of unconverted sinners what we find in Romans 6:21: “those things whereof we are now ashamed.” It is therefore certain that he conceives the possibility of a return to the service of sin a return which would lead them to eternal death as certainly as other sinners. It follows, even from the relation between the question of Romans 6:15 and the answer, Romans 6:16-23, that such a relapse may arise from a single voluntary concession to the continual solicitations of the old master, sin. A single affirmative answer to the question: “Shall I commit an act of sin, since I am under grace?” might have the effect of placing the believer again on the inclined plane which leads to the abyss. A striking example of this fact occurs in our very Epistle. In chap. Romans 14:15; Romans 14:20, Paul declares to the man who induces a weak brother to commit an act of sin contrary to his conscience, that thereby he may cause that brother to perish for whom Christ died, and destroy in him the work of God. Such will infallibly be the result, if this sin, not being quickly blotted out by pardon and restoration, becomes consolidated, and remains permanently interposed between him and his God.