What is the difference between wages and a gift in Romans 6:23?
Romans 6:23 contrasts wages with a gift. Wages are what a person works for and deserves; sin’s wages are death, eternal death. A gift is something unearned and undeserved, and God’s gift is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, not earned by any work.
Les explains that Romans 6:23 has two halves. The first says the wages of sin are death. He points out that wages are something you work for and get in return for something you have done; wages are never a gift. The old Adamic nature we are born with has only one direction, death, eternal death, and everything that lost person does, good or bad, is piling up wages for eternal doom. The flip side says the gift of God is eternal life. Les contrasts this by saying wages are what you deserve, but a gift is something you do not deserve, and that is what salvation is all about. It is a gift, not something you can do one iota of work to earn. He encourages letting people read these verses in their own Bibles.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
More Questions
What are the wages that sin pays according to Romans 6:23?
The wages of sin are death—the second death, eternal doom—not mere physical death.