What did I just say? The wages of sin
is no longer death? Wont you ask; am I sure? Oh Yes, I am. How come? Let us
find out.
It is best to see the whole truth
that a scripture conveys before we draw conclusions on one part. I always look
at this verse and wonder. “The wages of sin is death”. Yes, to contradict my
earlier statement, this is very true. A wage is a reward we get for achieving
something. When you work you need to be paid a waage. In this sense, we can say
that “sin” is a work that is done to deserve a wage, and the only wage that is
paid to sin is death. This again means that if you sin or if you are a sinner,
you have a debt to be paid. Your debt being that wage is death. This is
serious. Who will do a work only to die as a result? BUT let us see!
Looking critically at this verse, I realise that we normally cut this verse short. To get the full meaning of a sentence, you need to read and grab the whole sentence not just part of it. We have many types of sentences. The two I will like to mention is the simple sentence and the compound sentence. The simple sentence normally contains a single verb that conveys a single idea. It has no conjunctions. In order words, it is just one individual sentence that portrays one main idea. I am not here to teach English, but to really understand this; we need to be aware of this information.What then is a compound sentence?
The compound sentence contains two verbs, two main ideas and a coordinating conjunction. In English, a coordinating conjunction joins two sentences of equal ranking. This means that when a coordinating conjunction joins two sentences in order to make them one, both sentences are considered to be at the same level of importance. Okay, why am I saying all this; we need to look at this verse once again to see its nature. If it is a simple sentence, we need to get one main idea from it, but if it is a compound sentence, we need to get two main ideas. The kind of coordinator that joins the sentences also matter because each has their own peculiar functions. The coordinators in English include “for”, “and”, “nor”, “but”, “or”, “yet”, and “so” (FANBOYS). “And”, “but”, and “or” are considered the major coordinators. Alright, enough of this: and so what?
I earlier on said we need to take a
look at that scripture so let us do so.
Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”.
What now, what type of sentence is this? This is a compound sentence. You do not believe this? Let us try to make this read as “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life”. The prepositional phrase “through Jesus Christ” is not that important in this case, but very important to know where the life is coming from.
Alright, so this means this scripture must contain two ideas and mind you, the coordinator is “but”. Before that, have you noticed that “for”, one of the coordinators we mentioned begin the whole verse? Anyway, we would not consider this as a coordinator because it does not seem to join two sentences, but rather begin the sentence. In this case, we call it a discourse marker. This, however, means that this sentence is said in response to an earlier sentence. We also need to take a look at that. What are the two main ideas revealed in this scripture then? The ideas are first “If you sin, your wage is death”, and for that matter, every sinner will die. The second idea is “the gift of God is eternal life”. In explaining this scripture, these two ideas must reflect. Let us now take a look at the coordinator that connects them. That coordinator is “but”. “But” performs many functions, and the major function it performs is to render null and void the first simple sentence it comes after although it says they are both of equal importance. In this case, both sentences carry the same level of importance, but the first is made of no effect with the coordinator “but”. Let us take a look at this. In this compound sentence, “I wish to slap you, but I have forgiven you”, we can see the ideas of slapping and forgiving. The coordinator “but” nullifies the idea of slapping and upholds the idea of forgiving although they both are of equal importance. We can say it also as “I wish to slap you, but I will no longer slap you because I have forgiven you”. I hope this is clear. In another sentence “The mango is ripe, but they ate them all” conveys the existence of a mango and the eating of a mango. The whole sentence re-states that “the mango no longer exists because it has been eaten by them”. This also shows that most a times when “but” comes between two sentences to join them together; the first sentence is always made null and void. Anyway if not in all cases, these very case works. Can we carry this idea to this verse?
“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life”. Does this not mean that the wages of sin is no longer death because God has given us a gift of eternal life? Will both life and death reign in one person with one not overcoming? Surely, life must overcome death.
But wait; let us see this more clearly. We realise that God decides to pay a wage to every sinner. That wage is death, but he re-decides to cancel that first appointment by giving us the gift of life. You realise that the first is a wage, payment made for a work done (which is sin), but the second that stands is a gift of eternal life; something you do not work for.
Let us say more clearly that truly “The wages of sin is death”. This is true in the life of every unbeliever because the gift of life comes only through Jesus Christ. For this matter, if you do not believe and accept Jesus as your lord and personal saviour, you are still living in sin because it is only Jesus who can wash away your sins and make you righteous. Without Jesus, the “but” side of this verse will not apply and work for you. That is why we say, both sentences are equally ranked and therefore equally important.
Now, why then is the wages of sin no longer death? It is no longer death because sin no longer reigns in the life of a believer because he or she is born of God. Take a look at this verse in 1John 3:9 which states that “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Have you seen that it says he cannot sin not because he has a good lifestyle, but because he is born of God and therefore the seed of God remains in him. This is another topic of discussion anyway, but I hope your faith take this word as it comes. Don’t try to limit it to your own understanding because our understanding is always limited to the understanding of God who inspires this message.
For this cause, there is no sin in the life of the believer for which the wage of death will be paid for. It is only the unbeliever who has sin deserving of the wage of death.
We can, therefore, conclude that the
wages of sin is death in the life of the unbeliever, but in the life of the
believer, the wages of sin is no longer death. The believer only has the gift
of an everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord and saviour.
One other thing worthy of note is the sentence to which “For” serves as a discourse marker to in the verse “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”.
To see the impact, we need to take a critical look at that whole verse. This is how it reads from Romans 6:22 which states that “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”.
You see that verse 22 states clearly that we are being made free from sin. Once free from sin, we can no longer have a wage for sin. All that we live in now is the fruit of the righteousness that God has predestined for us to walk in even before the foundations of the world were set according to Ephesians 2:10 which states that “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them”.
Wow, so far, I believe it is so good. I pray that the Lord open the eyes of our understandings in order to understand this.
See how vital it is to believe and confess Jesus? According to Romans 10:9 which reads “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”; the moment you believe and confess Jesus, you will be escalated to this noble grace of the wages of sin no longer being death for you.
Thank you for reading. Remain blessed as you like and share this message with your friends and families. Leave a comment or your views if you care. Thank you.
Post a Comment