Ever hear this one?
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:23 (KJV)
This verse always confused the zits out of me when I was young.
I wondered things like: What wages? Is that even proper English? Who’s getting paid?, or Who pays and who receives? What’s the currency here, sin or death? And so on …
Well, now that I’m all grown up and understand this statement, I thought I’d share my hard-earned insights with you good folks.
To really understand this verse, we need to go all the way back to the earliest time in earth’s history – the time when the first two humans disobeyed our Creator. You know the story, right? Adam and Eve are in the garden, enjoying all the plant and animal life that’s all around them. They’ve got all they need for a happy life: food, interesting new sights everywhere, no worries, no obligations, (no clothes) – it’s a teenagers-in-love paradise. But then they do the ONE THING that the Master told them not to.
Up until this point, mankind (the both of them) and God had a beautiful, perfect relationship. It was exactly what the Creator designed us for – a perfect relationship with Him. But when that disobedience happened, the relationship was ruined. No, really, it was no longer perfect (as God is perfect). You see, God is absolutely perfect and because of that He cannot have a perfect relationship with anyone else who is not also perfect.
So really, this thing that happened between God and mankind was a disaster for us all. At least, for us people it was a disaster because we would no longer be able to enjoy the good things that the Creator wanted to lavish on us. What good things, you may ask? Joy, peace, comfort, purpose, God’s unconditional love, etc…. Okay, okay, we can still experience these things, but not nearly on the level or for the duration that God intended. Some people who have a Near Death Experience (NDE) describe experiencing a love that was so pure and potent that it was like nothing they’ve ever experienced before. That kind of love. That kind of peace (and so on), for ever and ever and ever. On the flip side, God introduced death into the world because of man’s disobedience. Death is both a curse and a blessing for us. It’s a curse because it brings sorrow, separation, fear, pain… It’s a blessing because it makes it possible for God to rid us of our imperfect nature.
Imperfection is really the new enemy of our new (first two) people. Before they disobeyed God, they were perfect. After they disobeyed, they were imperfect. And that is the crux of the issue. And since God is perfect, requiring perfection from His best friends, we need to go back to being perfect. But how can this happen? How can we undo what has already been done? Short answer: we can’t. Honestly, there is nothing that mankind can do to reverse this inclusion of imperfection into our essence. In another post, I talk about how our fallen nature is like DNA. Once Adam and Eve disobeyed God they changed their very essence in a way that is transferable to their offspring. In fact, this transference has been occurring throughout the ages ever since their initial fall from perfection. Just like inheriting DNA from parent to child, imperfection has been transmitted throughout mankind into every single person ever conceived. This means that you and I can never get “right” with God by anything that we do. We need to depend upon Him to solve the problem. And solve the problem He did.
Before giving the solution to man’s inner pollution, let’s look at this from God’s perspective (as much as we can).
Because God is perfect and requires perfection from His friends (in order to have a perfect relationship), He knows that restitution needs to be made for man’s rebellion. As a completely righteous (good) Creator, He requires that all disobedience be dealt with. He knows that He needs to punish the guilty people of their crimes. This is the standard of justice for mankind: punishing evil so that good can prevail. When God introduced death into the world, that actually wasn’t the punishment for mankind; it was just the beginning of paving the way for the real punishment that was to come.
Today, all around the Globe, laws have been instituted for the betterment of society, and punishments exist for those who break these laws. In the story of Adam and Eve, God gave them just one law, which they promptly broke (I can relate, BTW). Even though the law consisted of just one thing, they still broke the law and needed to be punished.
Getting back to our verse (I know you probably think I forgot about it), we can see that God demands payment (penalty) for breaking His commands (His law). The “wages” means the “penalty”. “Sin” is what we call “evil” (that imperfect nature: disobedience, murder, theft, etc., anything that breaks God’s law). So we might better understand the verse if it reads “The penalty for breaking God’s law is death.” You disobey God – you die. But like I just said, the introduction of death into the world was only part of the equation. After all, there is a larger issue here that God needed to solve – restoring our relationship. You see, even if we get punished for doing wrong, we are still imperfect beings and thereby ineligible of that perfect relationship that God desires to have with us.
Now the Good News
When we read our verse above, there is more to it. I’ve only looked at the first part of the sentence (the confusing part). Now let’s look at the rest of it, which is the good news.
… but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Since we owe God a debt of payment due to our fallen, imperfect state that we cannot begin to pay, since we are separated from Him until this debt we cannot pay is finally paid, it is actually up to God to fix our problem for us.
Since our Creator is perfectly good, He doesn’t leave us hanging in a state of imperfection. He has provided a way for us to be made perfect again, and to restore our once perfect relationship with Him.
Here’s God’s solution: He paid the debt that we owe Him. Knowing that mankind is incapable of restoring the broken relationship with Him, He did what we cannot do – He paid that penalty that we could never pay.
You may ask the question, “Doesn’t our own death pay the penalty?” Short answer: no. Long answer: If we are to continue to have a relationship with God, we need to be able to get back up again after the punishment has been dealt. I mean, if we are destroyed because of our evil, then we are destroyed. How can that work out for us in having a perfect relationship with a perfect God? No, what we need is for Him to take the punishment for us. After all, God (in the form of Jesus Christ, the God-Man) is able to take His own punishment and get back up again (something we could never do).
For the payment that Jesus made to cover our debt to God to apply to you, here is what you need to understand:
- God’s demand for payment of penalty is a good thing. It’s the right thing to do.
- You are guilty before God of breaking His law (no matter how slight). This means that you need your debt to be paid. If nothing else, you have that inherited imperfection.
- You are incapable of paying the debt on your own; you need Jesus’ payment to count for you.
- Jesus’ payment on your behalf is sufficient in the eyes of God. (Just like a court doesn’t care who pays the fine, as long as it’s paid that’s all they care about.)
- This is the ONLY way to be made “right” with God.
If you can agree to these stipulations, then I recommend that you ask God to allow Jesus’ payment of your evil to count for you. It’s one thing for the penalty to be made to the court; it’s another thing for it to apply to your offense(s). Don’t let this one technicality come between you and a perfect relationship with your perfect Creator. And don’t try to pay your debt on your own – you can’t afford it.
Be blessed,
Gary
Also see my post, God’s Balancing Act, for more on this.
