The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
Paul's summary of two economies — and why the gift outshines the wage.
The episode in a glance.
- 01'Wages' means earned payment — sin pays what it owes.
- 02'Gift' means unearned — eternal life is grace, not salary.
- 03The contrast is between what you earn and what you receive.
- 04'In Christ Jesus our Lord' — the gift is in a person.
Read along.
Romans 6:23 is the most famous summary verse in Paul's letters: 'For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.'
Wages are what you earn. If you work, you get paid. Sin works like that too — it pays death. Not because God is cruel, but because sin destroys. Death is the natural outcome of a life turned away from the source of life.
But then the contrast: 'the free gift of God.' Gift means unearned. Not a wage. Not a reward. Something given entirely because of the giver's generosity, not the recipient's merit.
And the gift is eternal life — not just a long afterlife, but the kind of life that God has, shared with you. It's life without end and life without decay.
The phrase 'in Christ Jesus our Lord' is the location of the gift. You don't get eternal life as a standalone package. You get it in him. The life is his, and he shares it with those united to him.