William Burkitt's Expository Notes

Romans 6:23

The apostle having all along throughout this chapter exhorted us to die daily unto sin, and to live unto God, concludes with. motive drawn from the different rewards and punishments in another world; eternal death will be the punishment of sin and sinners, and eternal life the reward of holiness and holy persons.

Observe, 1. The punishment of sin and sinners; The wages of sin is death.

Where note, The offence committed, sin; the punishment inflicted, death; the justice and proportion between the sin and the punishment, it is. stipend, or wages. metaphor taken from soldiers, who at the end of their service receive their pay and stipend.

Learn hence, That death is the punishment of sin, though not the end of the worker.

Quest. What death is that which is the punishment of sin?

Ans. Both temporal and eternal: The former consists in the separation of the soul and body from the presence of God, and in an imprisonment with devils and damned to all eternity.

Quest. What sin is that which is punished with death?

Ans. Consider sin in its demerit and desert, and so death is the punishment of every sin; consider it in its issue and event, and so it is the punishment only of that sin which is aggravated with impenitency: All sins are venial with respect to the mercy of God, and the repentance of. sinner; but the wages of every sin that reigns in us, and is not forsaken by us, is eternal death.

Observe, 2. The reward promised to holiness, and insured to holy persons; The gift of God is eternal life.

Here note, The happiness of holy persons:

1. In the Lord or Master whom they serve, God or Christ Jesus.

2. Happy in the reward of their services, eternal life.

3. Happy in the manner of their reward,

it is. free gift, not wages;. metaphor taken from kings, who bestow upon such soldiers as have signalized themselves, over and above their stipend, coronets and laurels, as badges of their favour; unto which our apostle alludes, calling eternal life. donative,. freely dispensed favour, which may be considered in our eternal destination thereunto before all time, in our conversion and sanctification in time, which we may call the embryo of eternal life; and in our coronation and glorification, when at the end of time full possession of eternal life shall be given to us: In all which instances heaven appears to be. free gift, not procured by any merit of ours, but by the mediation of Christ our Lord; The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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William Burkitt's Expository Notes

Romans 6:23

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