PAUL'S AMAZING TEACHINGS | ROMANS 6:23
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3179
PAUL'S AMAZING TEACHINGS
ROMANS 6:23
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
What does this famous passage penned by Paul really mean?
1. First off, any verse in the Bible must be read in context, from the perspective of what is written around it. In this case, we are reading the words of Paul to the church in Rome, and in chapter 6 he is addressing the contrasts between sin and grace, death, and life.
In this portion of Scripture, Paul is defining how when we find eternal life in Christ, we simultaneously become dead to sin.
Just as Christ died and was resurrected, we have the hope of a future, resurrected, the perfect state of life.
This is our hope in Jesus, and this is the hope Paul proclaims to the church in Rome.
2. When we dig deeper, we shall see that the God of infinite justice and fairness has decreed that the penalty for sin is SPIRITUAL DEATH.
Romans 6:23 is not speaking of physical death ( which is our first death ): it is referring to a spiritual death sentence of eternity in hell.
Revelation 21: 8 says: " ....they ( sinners ) will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death".
Thus the wages of sin is spiritual death in hell for all eternity.
No sinful human being could pay the penalty for another sinful human. Every person deserved that second death in hell for his or her own sin. So it took the death of the perfect, holy, sinless Son of God to pay the penalty for our sins. In God's paradigm, innocent blood had to be shed to cover the penalty. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that "cleanses us from sin" ( 1 John 1:7 ). Indeed God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God ( 2 Cor.5:21 ).
Abba Father, the epistle to the Romans expresses theology which still guides the church today. As the Message Bible paraphrases John 3:16 - You "didn't go to all the trouble of sending His Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in Him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust Him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to Him".
