What happens to the works of a lost person, whether good or bad?
Everything a lost person does, whether good or bad, piles up wages for eternal doom. Because the old Adamic nature is directed only toward death, even good deeds cannot earn salvation. Wages are what one works for, while eternal life is God’s gift through Jesus Christ, not earned by any work.
Les teaches from Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death. He explains that wages are something you work for and are never a gift; they are what you get in return for something you have done. The old Adamic nature we are born with has only one direction, and that is death, eternal death. Therefore, everything that lost person does, be it good or bad, is piling up wages for his eternal doom. By contrast, the last half of the verse says the gift of God is eternal life. Les points out the difference between wages and gift: 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.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.