Sin's Penalty

So, we have learned about God's nature, the He is righteous in all His ways.  And we have learned that we all of us have sinned and fallen short of God's standard of righteousness.  As a result, there must be a righteous and just penalty for our sins.

Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

Anyone who has ever had a job understands what a wage is.  After you complete your work, you are paid whatever is owed you, what has been contractually agreed upon beforehand when you were hired.  It is not a gift, it is an obligation by the employer to pay you what you deserve.  This illustrates the concept revealed in Romans 6:23.  The consequences of sin is death.  In a sense, we have "earned" death as a consequence of falling short of God's standard of perfection. 

The structure of this verse is A-B:A-B, i.e., the "wages of sin" contrasts with the "free gift of God"; and "death" contrasts with "eternal life in Christ."  The wages of sin are through works.  But, eternal life is a free gift.  How could eternal life, that which has infinite value, be offered freely?  The word "in" is derived from a dative case, which could be interpreted as "through the agency of".  Christ Jesus offers life freely on the basis of His substitutionary death.  The debt owed for the "wages of sin" was paid.  With the debt fully paid, He could offer life, and life eternal as a free gift.  Only if someone rejects His offer of eternal life and insists upon going their own way could they be subject to the penalty rejecting the payment for their sins.  How tragic indeed would it be should someone to reject an offer of eternal life.  Yet, many choose exactly that, and experience eternal death, that is, separation from the life that is offered through the agency of Christ.

Some claim that they will get a second chance, that they may die but return to work things out in a second, third, or a string of lives.  But, Hebrews 9:27 says, "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,..."  This tells us that we all have an appointment with physical death, and after physical death, we have an appointment with God where we will be judged, whether we accepted Christ's offer of eternal life through faith in Him, or whether we will be separated from that life forever.