Topic: The Wages of Sin is Death
Reading: Romans 6:15-23
Introduction and Overview
Jesus came for the purpose of defeating sin in this world, and to enable us to overcome sin in our lives. Sin is the enemy and all sin offers is death. That is why we see in this section of scripture that the wages of sin is death.
What Jesus offers us is freedom from sin. And not just past sins, but also all future sin as well. If He did not offer freedom from future sin, then His death would apply only to those who lived in His time. But as it is we know He died for ALL mankind and so His sacrifice continues to cleanse those who turn to Him today, some two thousand years after His death.
These few verses are very powerful in their explanation of the freedom from sin we have in Christ. They explain what this is and how we are to receive and understand it. So. Let us delve into the words hre to improve our understanding of these scriptures.
Key points from reading:
- You are slaves or servants of the one whom you obey
- Being set free from the law is not a licence to sin
- Do what is right and live your faith to please God
- The wages of sin is death
Discussion:
- Scripture: Romans 6:15
- There is an important point in these words. Just because you have been set free from law, does not give you a licence to continue walking in sinful ways. The removal of the law does not mean you are free to break the law.
- God has removed the law and set us free from the law so that we will not be condemned by it. The constant condemnation of the law keeps us under the power of sin, and the law is the power of sin (Read: 1 Corinthians 15:55-57) It is the law that condemns us as sinners. So, if the law is removed, we can no longer break the law and be convicted of sin.
- But the propensity to sin is not just because of the law. Sin comes from within us as our human desires and passions drive us to evil thoughts and then sinful practises. The removal of the law does not change those things, and it does not give us the right to continue to live lives driven by lusts and passions of the flesh.
- God removed the law to take away the power of sin, so that He could help us to overcome the desires of the flesh that lead to sin. Remember, it is sin that stands between man and God and He will not help us if we continue to live lives of sin. But if we are seeking to live lives under the power of His grace and to do what is right, He helps us to overcome the fleshly passions that are killing us, since the wages of sin is death.
- Scripture: Romans 6:16
- We are controlled and overcome by the things we serve. We are slaves to the things we seek out and serve.
- If we seek the pleasures of the passions in this life, then we are enslaved to those things. We will remain in slavery to the passions, lusts and desires of the human nature while we continue to seek out the things of the flesh. Greed, lust, adultery, hedonism, desire for wealth, covetousness, and so on, are all the desires of the flesh. And while we continue to seek out these things, we remain enslaved to those things. The outcome of those things is death because the wages of sin is death.
- By contrast, when we come to God through Jesus Christ, if we seek to reject those things of our former life and put them to death in our lives, then we are yielding ourselves to God. When we seek to serve God, we are seeking righteousness, truth, love, joy, peace, compassion, and so on. We then become “slaves” of God, (servants is a better word), and the promise of these things is life, given as a free gift.
- The key in these things is that you are a slave/servant of the one you serve, either of sin which leads to death, or righteousness which leads to life.
- Scripture: Romans 6:17-19
- In these words we see another key to rejecting the slavery of sin and seeking the service of God. Obedience is the key. It is through listening to the words of Jesus, studying them, and doing what they say that we turn our lives around. There is power in the word of God, and it is the power of life. Just as sin is the power of death, righteousness through obedience to Christ Jesus is the power of life.
- This requires a deep and abiding commitment. Christianity and following Jesus is not what you do one day a week. It is about what you do every day of the week. When you go to church, or as you study God’s word you should be learning the truth. But it is what you do every other time that you apply His words to your life and so grow into the slaves/servants of righteousness.
- You have been set free from sin in Christ Jesus. I cannot stress how important that point is. There are many Christians today who read the words in Romans 6, and yet still believe they are sinners. God has set you free from sin through accepting and entering the death of Jesus Christ in baptism. You are no longer a sinner, and you MUST consider yourself free from sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ.
- Now that you are free from sin, then do the works of righteousness in your life. No longer be led by human passions and desires, but reject those thought when they arise in your mind, and instead find the ways of righteousness. When you suffer negative feelings or evil desires and wrong thoughts, stop and pray. Read the Bible, or meditate on a favourite scripture, or listen to and sing along with some favourite gospel music. Do these things to capture and kill the evil thoughts and change your thinking to focus on God rather than evil passions.
- Scripture: Romans 6:20-22
- These verses clarify the comparison between being a slave to sin versus a slave/servant of God.
- When you were enslaved to sin with no hope of being set free, as the rest of the world are if they do not come to Christ, then you could do whatever you liked. You could follow the passions of the flesh and do all manner of evil. But what did you get out of it? A momentary and fleeting pleasure? And probably a burden of guilt with it? And as these words show us, living that life leads only to death. There is no life in sin and there is no future in it. The future for those who choose to continue in lives of sin is a cold, hard grave and a fiery judgement when God judges the whole world according to what they have done.
- By contrast, we see that those who reject the ways of sin that lead to death and seek the ways of God, will find life. They will find peace rather than guilt, joy rather than sadness, love rather than hate and resentment, friendship rather than enmity. The will find the family of God, and His love that leads to eternity with blessings that we are told no human can even begin to comprehend. In fact just trying to comprehend eternity is inconceivable. What will you do for the first million or billion years? And then to know that you have another billion years, and another after that to do anything and everything you choose, and you will have the presence of the Lord and God the Father and all of the holy angels with you as family and friends. It is utterly incomprehensible to the human mind what this means as we are limited to just a handful of decades in this life, in a dog eat dog world, filled with sin and evil people who are seeking whatever they can claw away from everyone else.
- No, this life in the world in this age offers nothing of value. We see the life that will be ours as we learn and obey the word of God, as taught by Jesus, and follow His commands. The return we get in this life is death, but the return we gain from seeking Christ is sanctification, which is holiness, and eternal life.
- Scripture: Romans 6:23
- There is an interesting conundrum in this verse that says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
- Death is earned. When you go to work in your job, you are not paid as a gift. You earn the money and deserve the payment you receive. In the same way, we earn death and receive the payment of death because we earn it through living sinful lives. That is why “the wages of sin is death.” You earn it because you have sinned and death is the penalty we pay for living in sin.
- But the second part of this verse tells us that the “free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Life is given to those who come to God in Jesus Christ as a free gift. You do not earn eternal life, it is a GIFT. In fact you cannot earn eternal life because there is nothing we could do to earn it. It doesn’t matter how many good works a person might do in their life, they cannot and do not earn life.
- God gives eternal life to those who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that God raised Him from the dead. (Read: Romans 10:9). This is the basis of salvation. That is all it takes to be saved and receive the gift of eternal life.
- You may wonder then what the rest of the Bible is for if that is all we need to be saved. The purpose of the rest of the teachings of Christ and the New Testament is to learn HOW to live when we do receive this gift. It is so that we are ready to go into eternal life with Christ and God the Father after all is completed in this time. We must be perfect as God the Father is perfect (Read: Matthew 5:48). We cannot go into eternal life as sinners, still enslaved to human passions. And that is the point and purpose of the rest of the teachings of the gospel and the New Covenant: to bring us to perfection in Christ Jesus.
- So, remember at all times that you are seeking life. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God in Christ Jesus is life. All we do now should be aimed at the transformation of our lives into the image of Jesus Christ. And this is not our work alone, it is the reason why God gives us His Holy Spirit. The work of transformation is the work of the Spirit in us (Read: 2 Corinthians 3:18).
Key Takeaways:
- In Christ Jesus we are no longer slaves of sin, but servants of God seeking to do His will and follow in His ways.
- There is nothing for us in this world but death and sin which leads to death. Our lives are hidden in Christ Jesus with God.
- We earn death through living sinful lives, but God is willing to give us eternal life as a free gift by seeking Him and following the words of Jesus Christ.
Prayer Points
- Pray for the understanding of these things and how you can be fully set free from sin. And if you believe you are still a sinner after being baptised and believing in Christ Jesus, ask God to help you understand and realise that you are no longer a sinner.
- Pray and confess that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Saviour and that you do believe deeply in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead.
- Pray for the power of God to overcome the passions and desires of the flesh, and ask the Father to give you the gift of the Holy Spirit so that the Spirit can do the work of transformation in you as you reject sin and seek righteousness.