If you closed your Bibles, would you open them again to Romans chapter six and verse 23. Here again, the Apostle Paul writes, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. It was probably more than 20 years ago when I first preached this text. And I did so at a funeral. We had a dear godly lady in our church who went to be with the Lord. She and her husband had served the Lord for many, many years. And the family asked me to do the funeral. And so I did and promised to do the funeral. And before I could get started on a sermon, one of the family members came and said, would you mind if I made a suggestion as to a text to be preached at mom's funeral? And I said, no, that'd be fine. And he said, I'd like you to preach Romans 6, 23. And I looked at the text and I thought to myself, itself, that seems a kind of strange text to preach at a Christian funeral. The second half, not so much, but the first half, maybe so. Well, cooler heads prevailed, and I looked at the text again, and I thought, this is an excellent text, not only to preach at a funeral, but it's an excellent text to preach any time even multiple times. In many ways, it gathers up all that the Bible teaches about sin and grace. It gathers up its comprehensive, its conclusive, and it really deals with virtually everything that needs to be dealt with in our salvation. Now, Paul finishes chapter six with this verse, having developed the doctrine of union with Christ throughout the chapter, that's really the theme of the chapter, our union, saving union with Jesus Christ. And then as he comes to this last verse, he gathers up pretty much everything that is important and significant for the Christian believer. And it's certainly a gospel text for the unbeliever as well. Spurgeon put it this way when he said, whilst he is driving at this argument, Our apostle incidentally lets fall the text which may be regarded as a Christian proverb, a golden sentence, a divine statement of truth worthy to be written across the sky. Wheresoever the gospel is preached, there shall this golden sentence, which the apostle has let fall, be repeated as a proof of his clearness in the faith. Here you have both the essence of the gospel and a statement of that misery from which the gospel delivers all who believe. There's something satisfying in finishing the reading of a book, if you like the book, of course, or in coming to the end of a symphony as it's played out. And it's like that with Romans chapter six and verse 23, a concluding, conclusive statement. It clarifies the chapter, if there's any question at all about what union with Christ is. It completes the whole chapter. It's comparable to a triumphant conclusion. It condenses the contrast between sin and grace, between Adam and Christ, and it concerns or contrasts, I should say, the difference between wages and free gift. In addition to that, I think it's important to say here is a text that is a corrective to all false notions of the gospel. Here you have in a very real sense what we might call the gospel in a nutshell. And it condenses, it contrasts, and it condemns all false views of the gospel. And so it's a comparison. And that's the title that I had given to the sermon this morning, A Study in Contrast. It contrasts two different things. contrasts sin, wages, death, with free gift, life, and the means of the source of that life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And so two abiding principles, unchanging principles, You've probably heard the phrase, like the laws of the Medes and the Persians, nothing ever changed. Well, here's the law of the Medes and the Persians as it were. Here are two truths set in contrast with one another and they're unchanging. So it's rather simple to outline the text as two points. Probably we'll finish on time, something we often don't do because all of the points that I have, but the end result is that here are two points, two different principles. First of all, the principle of remuneration or payment. You'll notice that Paul says that the wages of sin is death. This is what men and women, boys and girls earn. And notice what is hinted at in this verse. Death is abnormal. Death is the result of something. It's the wages of sin. Now death is normal and we have experienced it at least by extension even in our own church within the last couple of weeks through two of our members. But we've seen death as well interrupt our church life multiple occasions in recent years. You know, there's a modern myth that says that death is natural. It's just a natural part of things, and it's part of the natural process of things. You know, we're born into the world. And we live and we like to think that we'll live a very long time, live a very long life, and then we'll die, perhaps with our family all around us. And the idea is this is just sort of the natural order of things. But the Bible is very clear that while death is normal now, it was not original. It was not original. Moses in Genesis reminds us that in the day that you eat of the fruit of a particular tree, you shall die, which means that death did not exist before that. If you read the book of Genesis, you discover that God created, and he created in the space of six 24-hour days, and on the last day of creation, he created man, and he breathed into him the breath of life, and he gave unto him a law. It's called the covenant of works, but he gave unto him a law to obey. Now, Adam was created to work, which is interesting, given our culture, isn't it? That we were created workers. And by the way, Adam was a worker before he had a family. He was a family man, second, but called to work first of all. He tended the garden. And I really don't know what that means. I've sort of thrown this around a number of times as I was trying to go to sleep at night and I didn't, I wasn't very successful. What did Adam do to tend the garden? Well, it's not unreasonable to think there were no weeds to pull. And did he have to trim shrubs? What was it that he actually did in tending the garden? I don't know, and I don't know that it's important that we do know, except that he was created to work in the garden. But in the cool of the evening, remember, that God came, and the two of them walked together in the cool of the evening. And undoubtedly, God spoke. What did he say? Well, we don't know. except we can imagine that he was telling Adam about himself and about the world that he had just made and what Adam's responsibility was in the world. It's not hard to speculate the good things that God would have said to Adam. And then Adam disobeyed him and he sinned. and he brought sin upon the whole human race as the federal head of everyone. Romans chapter five takes us into that subject. So death is not the debt of nature, just sort of the normal ordinary set of circumstances, but it's the wages of sin. So death is abnormal, not original. Death is consequential. Sin is transgression of the law. Death is the consequence of sin. It's the wages paid by sin not the wages earned or paid for sin. It's the wages that sin pays. That's the sense of the text. Sin pays a wage, and the wage is death. Now, you know what a wage is. Most of us work most of our lives. And some of us start very young. I think I was 13 when I had my first job or something like that. So I've been working all of my life. And I received payment, payment which enabled me to support a family eventually and ultimately, and contribute to the advance of the gospel as well. Wages are earned or paid out in the service of sin. This word wage is a word that was used in the ancient world for a soldier's pay. He was paid daily and he would be given a wage. Sin pays out in our service to it. Death is abnormal. Death is consequential. And death is constitutional. It involves the whole man, the entire person. We're likely to think in three categories, and if you think of death this way, you'd be right, because I think this is how the Bible presents it. But death means essentially separation. And it's found in these three areas or three categories. It's physical. Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body, of the immaterial from the material. Death is also spiritual. And it is the separation of the sinner from God. We're born into this world separated from God because of Adamic sin. And then eternal death. Those who do not repent and do not come to faith in Jesus Christ will die eternally, that is eternally separated from God. Again, Adam is told, the scriptures tell us in Genesis, that in the sweat of thy face, thou shalt eat bread till they return to the ground, for out of it thou wast taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Now, I think Paul has, in particular here, physical death in view. The reason I say that is that there are significant passages in Romans where Paul says that our physical humanity is the instrument whereby sin expresses itself. The human frame is the instrument of sin or of righteousness. The body is not the prison house of the soul. In fact, we were body before we became a living soul. The body is not sinful in and of itself, or even the source of sin, but it is its servant. So I think given what Paul says in Romans 6, for example, verse 6, verses 12 through 14, And again, verse 19, that the human frame is the instrument whereby sin registers itself. And so death is not original, it's abnormal, consequential, constitutional, and again, it's spiritual. Death has a spiritual element to it. It's separation from God's favor. Death represents the break in a vital relationship between God, our maker, and ourselves. Death is judicial. It's a fair wage. Now when you go to work and you apply for a job and somebody hires you, you want to know what the wage is. Is it gonna be a fair wage? Or is the owner of the business or the manager of the business trying to take advantage of you or some such thing? But here's a fair wage. If there ever was a fair wage, it's this wage. It's what man deserves in sin's service. It is the divinely appointed punishment for disobedience. It's no arbitrary sentence. William G.T. Shedd said, consequently, sin is absolute demerit or guilt. and its recompense is wages in the strictest sense. The sinner, if he pleased, could demand eternal death as his due upon the principles of exact justice. Now, no sinner's going to do that, but he could do that. We could command or demand death because that's a fair wage that we have earned. Charles Hodge wrote, this is the same obligation in justice that sin should be followed by death as that the laborer should receive his wages. As it would be unjust and therefore wrong to defraud the laborer of his stipulated reward, so it would be unjust to allow sin to go unpunished. Those therefore who hope for pardon without an atonement Hope that God will, in the end, prove unjust. Sometimes you hear this caveat or this qualification or this statement, well, that's not fair. And people will say that. It's not fair that God punish the sinner. It's not fair. But I submit to you, nothing is Fair, more fair, whatever the word is, nothing is more just than what the sinner receives. Sixthly, death is penal. It's punishment for the broken covenant of works. The precept of law was embedded in God's command to Adam and his posterity. And man is still bound to obey. Still bound to obey, not in Eden, but here. It can't be done, of course, but that's the point. that perfection is required and commanded of man. And again, it's absolute perfection that is demanded. Obedience was for Adam and for us to be personal to be perpetual, personal, perpetual, and perfect. That's the word I was looking for. And since that can't be done, and the reverse is sin, The wages of sin is death. Seventhly, we might say that death is gradual. Now, when we die physically, we may linger and then die, but that's not my point. What I'm saying is that death is gradual in the sense that it pervades life, casting a shadow, a pall over our experience. It is destructive, dissipating, and discouraging. Here is a debt that is paid out. Notice it's the wages of sin is death, not the wage of sin. And so the rations are paid out repeatedly. Witsias wrote, by death is here understood all that lasting and hard labor by which life ceases to be life and which are the sad harbingers of death. To these things man is condemned. I've often quoted that line from the hymn, Death and Decay in All Around I See. And that's actually the case. And death is impartial. It is equitable. It is for all sin and every sin. Rome has the categories of venal sin and mortal sin. There are some sins that are little more than mistakes, easily forgiven, and then there are mortal sins. But Paul doesn't make that distinction. Sin is sin, whether it's a venal sin or a mortal sin. This is true, Matthew Henry says, of every sin. There is no sin in its own nature venal. Death is the wages of the least sin. All that sins servants, all that are sin servants and do sins work must expect to be thus paid. And then ninthly and finally, we might say, Death is awful. Death is awful. And we can't speak of going off into that good night or something like that as the unbeliever might. It's an awful thing because it's eternal. And there's no recovery from it except for the means that God himself has appointed through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's eternal and there is absolutely no recovery. It is payment from the cruelest of masters and there are no benefits. The pay is miserable. One writer has said, death is not a cessation of existence, but a severance of the natural relations of life. Life and death are not opposed to each other as existence and non-existence, but are opposites only as different modes of existence. The Heidelberg Catechism says, our death is not a satisfaction for our sins, but only a dying to sins and entering into eternal life. Now there you have all that Paul says and assumes to be true from other places in the scripture. There's the principle of payment, of remuneration. Well, now we have another principle and it's the second half of the verse. It's the principle of donation or endowment. The Apostle Paul says in the latter half of this verse, But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is a method in this endowment. And it's interesting that the word that is used here is not just the word gift, the gift of God is. But it's right to call it a free gift because the word is not charis, but charisma. It's a related word, and it's fair to add the word to make it understood free gift. It's God's free gift. By that, it's not something, the contrast here is not something that is earned. but it's given, but not just given, but freely given. The same word is used in reference to spiritual gifts. The emphasis is upon freeness, the freeness that God has in the bestowing of grace. The giver is under no obligation. God was under no obligation to give this gift. It was given freely. There's a method here. There's also a master, if you will. It is God himself. It is the king of kings. It is the true and the real monarch. God himself is the source of this free gift. and therefore it's the securest of gifts. Nothing is more secure than this gift, free gift of life. So there's a method here, there's a master, God himself, and there is magnitude or greatness. It's eternal life that is freely given. richness or greatness is stamped upon this gift. The emphasis here is upon bounty, upon quality, upon longevity, upon destiny. You know, Paul doesn't go on and define eternal life. And the rest of the scriptures certainly describe it Its life as God intended recovered, expanded the knowledge of God and fellowship with God. It's interesting that a great many people think of heaven and even in funerals. They're often a time of sharing where people say, I'm so glad that so-and-so is in heaven. Now they've rejoined family and relatives. And it's like there's dancing in the streets in heaven or something like that. But that isn't the point, is it? Eternal life, in fact, Jesus said elsewhere, eternal life, first of all, is knowing God. And in heaven, we will know him in the fullest possible sense. And it's in my notes here later, I think it's somewhere, but I think it's later, is that older writers used to talk about the beatific vision, the beatific vision of seeing God and therefore knowing Him fully. Life perfect. There's merit in this endowment. It's in Jesus Christ, our Lord. There's merit. It's through the merit of Christ. Through the demerit of Adam, we lost life. Through the merit of Christ, we gain life. And this is Paul's favorite expression, in Christ Jesus. And that's what Romans 6 is all about, union with Jesus Christ. Here, Christ displays his glory better than if all had gone well with Adam. What we have in Christ is vastly superior. He is both just and the justifier of the ungodly. Here is one who reconciles both vindictive justice and condescending mercy, says Herman Witzius. the merit of Christ. Even as Paul says in Romans 5.21, that is, sin reigned in death, even so grace reigned through righteousness unto eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Here's the merit of Christ. It is Christ who prepared it. It is Christ who purchased it. It is Christ who prepares us for it. And it is Christ that preserves us to do it. All that is in our salvation comes in or through Jesus Christ. And for whom? Well, for all of God's people. Notice our Lord Jesus Christ. Not just Paul's, not just a few, but rather all who are a part of that universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew Henry wrote, the death is the wages of sin. It comes by desert. But the life is a gift, it comes by favor. Sinners merit hell, but saints do not merit heaven. That's an important statement. Sinners merit hell, but saints do not merit heaven. There is no proportion between the glory of heaven and our obedience. We must thank God and not ourselves if we ever get to heaven. And the Puritan Thomas Manton said, though we should serve God a thousand years, we cannot merit to be one half day in heaven. That's good, isn't it? Though we should serve God a thousand years, we cannot merit to be one half day in heaven. Again, Herman Witsius, leader in the Continental Reformed movement of what we would call the Dutch or German Puritan period, but was called the Second Reformation. He said, the covenant of grace is not the abolition, but the confirmation of the covenant of works. Insofar as the mediator has fulfilled all the conditions of that covenant, so that all believers may be justified and saved according to the covenant of works, to which satisfaction was made by the mediator. The very law of the covenant which gave up the human sinner to sin, when his condition is once changed by union with Christ, the surety does now, without any abolition, abrogation, or any other change whatsoever, absolve the man from the guilt and dominion of sin, and bestow on him sanctification and glorification, which are gradually bought to that perfection, which he shall obtain at the resurrection of the dead as being constrained to bear witness to the justification of the covenant of grace. All the change is in the state of the man now in the law of the covenant according to which man in whatever state he is is judged. And so We say, but not publicly, because it's confusing, but think about it for a moment. Salvation is according to works. Someone must work, and it's Christ who worked, not us. And so he fulfills the covenant of works. It is through our Lord Jesus Christ. So that as we come to the end of this text and think by way of some conclusion, remember, first of all, that all the penal sufferings of the wicked are deserved. God is fair, or putting it better, just. The death of the disobedient is deserved. They receive only the fruit of their doings. Here is the law of retribution, recompense, and reward. The sinner cannot justly complain that he's being treated unfairly. The sinner has a right only to death. It is the wages of sin. And so the other half of the equation then is, as we've been laboring to teach, all the glory of our good belongs to God and his government. The gospel does not proceed from natural causes or from a natural process. It is not nice people who receive eternal life. which seems to be the impression of the world in which we live. He was nice. So obviously he or she is in heaven, but it's not how it works. It's not how it works. Salvation in the service of sin is impossible. so that all the glory for our good belongs to God and his government. Salvation is not through sociology, psychology, but rather a biblical theology. One writer has said, the life and death and forevermore Be it my joy to acknowledge that there can be no wages mine, but the wages of sin, which is death, and all the Lord bestows, even eternal life, with all its preliminaries, can only be the free, sovereign, the unmerited gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. And I can't think of a better way to close this than by quoting William S. Plummer. He says, what a wonderful person is Jesus Christ our Lord. Can't be said any better than that, can it? What a wonderful Lord is Jesus Christ our Lord. By him the worlds were made, by him all things consist, all the angels worship him, all the virgins love him. If our sins are washed away, it is by his blood. If we are accepted, it is in the beloved. If we have sore comforts here and yet come off conquerors, it is because his grace is sufficient for us. He is all and in all the first and the last, the author and finisher of our lives. So, the verse teaches us a number of things. But essentially, what it says about God is that God is both righteous judge and gracious father. See that in the two halves of the verse. God is faithful to what's called the covenant of works, and he's also faithful to the covenant of grace. Remember, as John Brown wrote, if you will not have the gift, you must have the wages. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we do reject and turn away from every notion that our merit will serve to satisfy a just God. but rather we claim once again our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, believing that it is in union with Him that we have eternal life. May these words, this concept, cheer us even as we draw closer to him and he to us in the supper in just a few moments. For we pray this in Jesus name, amen.