13 January 2021
Key Verse: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23.
We cannot actually do anything about our sin to stop death because we are sinners by nature. Even doing good or religious things cannot save us, but thankfully, that is not the end. For if we choose it, eternal life is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. The world is full of grey areas, whereas scripture is clear we are either righteous or unrighteous before God, that our final destination will either be heaven or hell and that we are either children of the light or the darkness. Probably the most common contrast in Scripture is between life and death a person is either dead or alive, and contrary to the many sci-fi and apocalyptic movies, there is no in-between. It is the same for our spiritual condition, we are either dead in our “trespasses and sins” or alive “together with Christ” Ephesians 2:1-5.
This key verse is divided neatly into two parts, death and life. I will to focus on the first part this week and then next time the latter part, because, when studied in its entirety, this is one of a few “gospel in a nutshell” type scriptures we see. Paul is writing to faithful followers of Jesus in Rome that he cared about, prayed for, and longed to be with because of their encouraging and exemplary faith, Romans 1:7-15. Because of the strength of their faith, he seems to dive into the deep end and speak about some of the mysteries of doctrine. We see Paul explaining that our belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is what frees us from our bondage to and penalty for our sins. In other words, because Jesus died, we do not have to die, and because Jesus lived again, we can live again. Then Paul lays out another comparison with freedom and slavery to explain that when we are “slaves of sin” we are “free from righteousness” and vice versa. All this leads to our key verse where Paul writes that the rewards or wages of our sin and unrighteousness is always death. Since the word sin literally means to miss the mark of God’s desires “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23, then whatever consequences come along with falling short are deserved and appropriate.
Sin brings physical death, God instructed Adam and Eve to eat from every tree in the garden of Eden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil telling them “that in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” Genesis 2:16-17. Instead, their choice to eat began a process of physical death that would claim their lives, their children’s lives, and the lives of everyone else from then on. Physical death began to ruin all of creation, in Genesis 3, we see that God had to kill an animal to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness. This was the first death in the Bible and a painful and graphic demonstration of the nature of sin as well as a revelation to the shedding of blood required to cover sins. This sacrifice also ultimately pointed to Jesus who would later offer himself to humanity on the cross.
Sin brings emotional death, when Adam and Eve sinned, they began to suffer and experience death and destruction many other ways not as obvious. Their closeness with God was gone, their communion severed. Today, every human experiences this in their lives because of the corruption of sin “If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one” Romans 5:17 and “If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh” Galatians 6:8. We lie, cheat, gossip, slander, hate, kill, lust, act immorally, think pridefully, and live in idolatry against God, Galatians 5:19 and Romans 1:18-31. John Calvin wrote that “none of the soul remains pure or untouched by that mortal disease.” when we leave this infection unchecked, it leads us all to destruction.
Sin brings spiritual death, while death in the body and soul are significant, spiritual death is ultimately more serious because it is eternal. Scripture calls this the “second death,” which must be granted to sinners because the holiness and justness of God demand John describes this everlasting punishment like this, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death” Revelation 21:8. All will stand before God Romans 14:9-12. We cannot actually do anything about our sin because we are sinners by nature. We do not become sinners from the things we do, our sin is inherited “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned” Romans 5:12.
Thankfully, that is not the end. God has provided a way to give us eternal life. From the key verse “…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. This is by far the best news we could ever be given and the only hope we have to escape the consequence of our sin “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many”
Romans 5:15