The text for the sermon, again, is Romans chapter 6, verse 23. Romans 6, verse 23, where the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the text we consider this morning is a climax to a discussion on sanctification. It follows on the first five chapters where the message clearly is we are saved by grace not by works. And the theme that has come out and summarized in chapter 5 verse 1 is that we have been justified by faith not by works. Chapter 6 begins then Shall we, what shall we say then, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And the answer, of course, is God forbid that we would ever think that, that we'd ever have that attitude. And then he goes on to say, we cannot, we cannot, because we are dead to sin, dead to sin. We are baptized into Jesus Christ, and when we are baptized into Jesus Christ, first of all, we are baptized into his death. And the death of Jesus Christ is the death of sin. It's the death of our old man of sin. We are dead to sin. That means that sin is no longer the master that it once was. We are born dead in sin and sin is our master, but that's not true any longer. We are dead to sin. And then not only that, but as we are baptized into Jesus Christ, we are baptized into his life. We are raised again unto newness of life. And that life cannot sin. It cannot sin. We were dead in sin so that we were a slave to sin. Now we are alive unto righteousness. We are a servant of God. It goes on to contrast, this chapter does, the two states then of those who, what we were, dead in sin, to what we are now, alive unto righteousness. And he does that by showing the differences in the fruit of both of those states. In verse 21, what fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? Not a good fruit, because the end of those things, the end of walking in sin, is death. But he contrasts that with what we are now. Now being free, in verse 22, from sin and become servants of God, you have a different kind of fruit. And the fruit is unto holiness, and the end of that is eternal life. The text then is a brief, pointed summary, climax really, of this truth that Paul has been setting forth through this chapter. It's something so simple that the children can understand it. The wages of sin, what sin gets you, is death. The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God, the unmerited gracious gift of God, is eternal life. And is that not what the Lord's Supper exactly is setting forth for us? That we, dead in sin as we were born, deserve death, eternal death. That's what we've earned. But the gift of God in Jesus Christ, through His suffering and death, is life, eternal life. So let's consider this text under the theme, God's gift of eternal life. Now to understand that, there are three contrasts that the text set forth under that theme, the gift of God, eternal life. The first is a payment or a debt. A payment or a debt. The wages or a gift. I'm sorry, not a debt, a gift. A payment or a gift. payment or a gift. Secondly, death or life. Those are contrasted in the text. Death or life. And then thirdly, the implied contrast is in yourself or in Jesus. God's gift of eternal life. To understand it, first of all, we look at the contrast then between payment and a gift. The payment is the word wages in the text, wages. Wages are a payment earned for work that is performed. A payment earned for work that is performed. Every laborer works with the expectation that he will be paid for his work. You could ask a man who is on the job, whether it's in a factory or an office or on a construction site or in a classroom, how much are you getting paid for this? And he'll be able to tell you immediately. I'm getting paid $10 an hour or $15 an hour or I get paid a salary. He knows how much he gets paid for the work that he does. That's the first thing a person wants to know when he's hired. How much will you pay me? Only a fool would go off to work and have no idea what he's going to get for what he is doing. Ideally, the wages correspond to the work that is done, so that a man who works hard gets paid more than someone who doesn't work at all, or that a man who produces a product that is of great value would get more money for the product that he has produced. The work and the wages should be something that are comparable. The text speaks of the wages of sin, the wages of sin. Sin here is the common word for sin in the New Testament, missing of the mark. It's used in the ancient days of a man who would be, say, a javelin thrower or an archer who would be aiming for a target, but he misses the mark. He doesn't hit the target. That's the idea of sin. God sets before us a certain mark. The mark is His glory. And He gives us the law to show us, this is the way that you aim for my glory. This is what I expect of you. This is how your life ought to be run. Your words, your activities, even your thoughts are to be governed by the law which I give you. Aim for that with the whole of your life, with the whole of your being, with all your possessions. Aim for that mark of my glory. Sin misses that mark. It is not an inadvertent missing. It is a deliberate rebellion against God. It is turning away from the mark that God has set up and going in the opposite direction. not seeking to do God's will, but doing something contrary to the will of God. Sin is a deliberate, rebellious, turning away from God and aiming in the opposite direction, a missing of the mark. But then are the wages of sin, the wages of rebelling against God and going in the opposite direction. Every sin has a corresponding recompense or payment, if you will. There are consequences. There is a judgment for every sin ever committed. Every sin has a payment required. That it earns, so to speak. God determines what the exact payment is, but every man goes into a sin knowing that there is a judgment. Even if he doesn't know exactly what it is, he knows there is a payment, a recompense for every sin that he commits. This wage of sin is fair. It is exactly equal to the value of the product that a man produces in his sin. Today, it seems almost everyone is eager to complain that he's not getting paid enough. When he looks at what the owner gets for the labors and looks what he gets, he says, I'm not really getting paid enough. A few people will say, I'm getting paid way more than what I really deserve here. They may boast of how they're getting paid more, but the wages of sin are neither. It's not too little, it's not too much. Exactly what the sin is earns the exact, the precise payment that that sin deserves. In reality, then, this is what all men are working for. All men are born into this world, dead in sin, and they are earning to themselves the wages that which sin pays as a result. That's one part of the text, the wages of sin. That is contrasted with the gift of God. A gift is entirely different from wages. And the notable thing about a gift in comparison to wages is the gift is not earned. It's not earned. A gift is given without any work being performed. If in any way it is earned, then it is no longer a gift. Then it's something that you have worked for, something you deserve to have. Your paycheck is not a gift. It's something you work for, but a gift is entirely unearned. A gift may be given for different reasons, but ideally a gift is given out of love. It's because a person loves another that he gives. Love always seeks to give. give good and ideally then there is in the attitude of the giver an attitude of favor. He has, he looks upon the other individual with love and favor and he desires to give a gift, something good to that person. The word that is used for gift in the text emphasizes the fact that it is not only unearned, it is something totally undeserved. Because the word gift is not the ordinary word for gift in the New Testament, although it's found and translated sometimes as gift, but embedded in the word gift is the word grace. So really, if you wanted to translate this more literally, you would translate the word gift as a grace gift, grace hyphen gift. That's what it is. It's a grace gift, which emphasizes the fact that this is not only something not earned, it's something not deserved. Something that has been forfeited. Anyone who gets this in no way deserves to receive the gift that he receives. This is a gracious gift of God. God is the giver of this gift. And therefore the giving of the gift is a sovereign work of God. All his activities are a sovereign work. And it begins with this, that God determines who will receive this gift. He doesn't have to give it to anyone. But if he does decide to give it to someone, it's a free choice that he has determined to give to this individual. It's a gift of God's grace then that arises out of love. It's because he loves the people that he gives this to that he is determined to give them this gracious gift. Only those who are in Jesus Christ are the people that he loves. They are the only ones who receive this gift, the ones who are loved by him in Jesus Christ. The gift, therefore, is not given to everyone. God sovereignly, eternally determined those to whom he would give this gift. Because it is a sovereign gift of God, it cannot be rejected. There are lots of free things in this world that we pass by. You can go on the internet and look for free gifts, and I'm sure there would be thousands of websites that would pop up saying, you can have this free, you can have this free. There's always a string attached, and usually the gift is not all that valuable. But it's something you can say, no, I don't want that. You can walk through a home show or whatever, and people along the way are saying, you can have this, you can have this, and you can accept the gift, or you can say, no, I don't want the gift. The gift of God is not something that you can say, no, I don't want that. The way you can say, no, I don't want that gift. I don't want that car. I don't want that refrigerator. I don't want that. You can reject it. The gift of God cannot be because it's a sovereign gift from God himself. And that's also because it isn't a package that you have to hold out your hands to receive, but it's a gift that God works in his people, in them. That's why it cannot be rejected. These are spiritual gifts worked in his people. This word, grace gift, is used in other places where it speaks of the fact that God gives to certain men, the Holy Spirit gives to certain men the gift of prophecy. And he gives to elders the gift of ruling, of government. And he gives to deacons the gift of of merciful spirit. And he gives to the apostle the gift to be an apostle. And God doesn't come to an elder and say, now, do you want the gift of being able to rule? He doesn't go to a deacon and say, do you want to have this gift of a merciful spirit? He didn't come to Paul and say, Paul, do you want the gift of being an apostle? He simply gives it. He works it in them. That's the kind of gift that this is. Sovereignly determined who will receive it and sovereignly worked in the individual. This is the gift of God. Contrasted with a wage that is earned is the gift sovereignly given by God without any earning whatsoever. But either way, you receive something. Whether you work and receive the wage, you receive something. Or God graciously gives it, you receive something. And the difference between what you receive is very stark. It's death or life. That's the second contrast in the text. The wages of sin is death. What is death? Death is, first of all, separation from any and all favor of God. the absolute absence of any favor of God, and then, because you don't live in a vacuum, no one lives in a vacuum, if you do not have the favor of God, then what you have is God's terrifying wrath. That's what we sing. What is death? To live apart from God is death. to live apart from God is death. The psalmist says, cast me not away from thy presence. Terrifying to be cast away from the presence of God. This is real. Death is something that is experienced. It is experienced already in this life. Those who have been who have earned the wage of death know that they are in it. There are consequences for absolutely every sin, and God visits those consequences upon man. There is misery, there is sorrow, and there is physical death awaiting them, and they know it. But the horribleness of it is far worse when you consider eternity. Eternal death is hell. There is a real place called hell. And Jesus describes it as being a place of torment, first of all by saying that it's like having a worm gnawing away at the inside. That there is a terrible torment from the inside of man's soul. But then it's described as a lake of fire where you are plunged into it. And the whole of you is consumed with fire, but never consumed, never consumed away. And there is a horrible physical suffering to it as well. Absolute misery in the depths of hell. And the smoke of their torment, says the Bible, goes on forever and ever and ever. That's death, cast away from God into outer darkness and enduring his fiery wrath. These are the wages of sin. This is what God said would be the wages of sin. When he formed Adam to be his friend's servant, and he gave Adam the requirement, live unto me, And as you live unto me, there are things that you must not do. There are things that I will say you may not do that, and you must obey me. Live unto me and you will live. Disobey me and you will die. In the day that thou eatest of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will die. That's God's will. It's a good will. Man is but a creature. He must live according to the will of his creator. And that will of God is not onerous. That will of God is not a burden. That will of God is not something evil. It's a goodwill. And when man lives according to the will of God, he is happy. He is blessed by God. This is his life. But if you violate that law, that will of God, you die. That's God's Punishment. That's the wage of disobedience. You say, is that a fair wage? That you sin against God? That you sin against God by lying or stealing or even if you would murder and then spend an eternity in hell? Have an infinite amount of wrath that is poured out upon you forever and ever and ever? Is that a commiserate wage? Does that correspond to the sin that you have an eternity of wrath? Yes, it is. Because again, of the one against whom you are sinning. You sin against your neighbor, threaten your neighbor's life, and you'll spend some time in prison. You threaten the President of the United States, and the punishment goes way up. You sinned against God, the infinite majesty of God, and there is no limit to the punishment. You have sinned against God. So as the Catechism says, we deserve severe punishment in body and soul, in time and eternity, because we have sinned against the majesty Almighty God. It is a fair wage. It is an appropriate payment for the wages, of the wages rather, of sin. There are judgments in time and in eternity. We need to face that because there are people that seem to get away with it. It seems like they sin and then they can enjoy the fruits of their sin. They steal and then they get to enjoy the money that they stole. Yes, there are times like that where the judgment of God is not seen immediately from an external point of view, though there is a judgment in their soul. There are many other things that God clearly demonstrate the wages of sin. A man who becomes a drunkard or a man who is addicted to drugs is addicted. It rules his life. It destroys his life. That's a judgment of God. The wages of his sin are clearly manifest in him. Those who live in sexual promiscuity, God visits them with all sorts of Diseases that come upon them. There is a judgment, a wage for their sin. There are wages for those who do not live in harmony with husband or wife and they leave the marriage and have divorce and there are all sorts of horrible consequences that are visited upon them. Misery in their lives and the lives of their children. God visits judgment upon people by enslaving them to their sin. We saw with alcohol and drugs, but this can be true of anything. If sports becomes the God, then they become enslaved to that. They can't live without it. Materialism becomes their God, and they cannot stop pursuing the things of this world. There is always that consequence that as one gives himself to sin, sin becomes his master. It rules him and it corrupts him and he becomes more and more vile. He is set in slippery places down to the pit of eternal destruction. Wages of sin is real. There is a wage for sin and it is death. But the gift of God is eternal life. Everything that we said about death, eternal life is the opposite of that. It's not being cast away from God, it's being brought into the very presence of God. It is not being cast into utter darkness where there is no fellowship, but is being brought into life, fellowship with God. It is not being the object of God's eternal hatred, but it is being the object of God's eternal love. This is eternal life, life with God. Life is activity. Life is talking. Life is moving and loving and enjoying things. This is what life is with God. It's enjoying life with Him. You have a little foretaste of the kind of thing that we're talking about here in a happy covenant home. In times when there is joy in our homes and when love is being displayed and we can enjoy fellowship together, you have a little picture of what God is talking about. I give you eternal life. You have a bit of a picture of that in the Lord's Supper as Jesus Christ calls us to his supper. In many ways, it would be much nicer if we would all come up to the table. Come up to the table. Because the table is where you have fellowship. But that's what Jesus is doing. He's calling us to His table and then He's giving us Himself. And He's giving us the blessings of salvation. Eternal life. He's bestowing that upon us. And enjoying fellowship with Him. at his table. That's what the Lord's Supper is about. This is what God gives to us eternally. Eternal life. It will never end. It's eternal. One of the disappointments of this life is that no matter what kind of joy you have, someday That will end. It will end. There's joy when a baby is born into the world. It isn't so terrible long before that baby is a two-year-old saying no, or a 15-year-old refusing to obey. There isn't nearly as much joy there. There is joy in friendship. But friendships wane and friendships crumble. And even in the best marriage in this world, it will end. There will be a dissolving of that marriage bond. Everything with joy in it in this life ends. But in heaven, never. That will never happen. And the life that you have now, your fellowship with God now, will never end and it will never wane it will only get better as every day you will learn more about God love him more and be able to serve him better every day of eternity it will only grow your life with God we will bask in the love of our God. We will have eternal life. But how does that happen? How does that happen that those, you and me, in all God's people, who have sinned and earned the wages of sin, because we have, we have earned the wage of sin, which is death, How is it that we instead get eternal life? Something totally different. And the answer is, God forgives. One of the words for forgiveness in the Bible is to send away. That's what God does. He sends the sins away from you. They're not on your account. And in fact, instead of those sins being on your account, He gives you righteousness. He imputes righteousness to you. That's what Romans is all about, the imputation of righteousness. Without that perfect robe of righteousness, as Jesus puts it in one of the parables, a man who is not clothed there with that robe is cast out. He has no business being at the wedding feast of the lamb and of the bride. He's thrown out. The sins have to be forgiven and we have to be clothed with the perfect righteousness in order for us to be in heaven. That has to happen. And then not only does God give us a perfect righteousness, but He sanctifies. That's what this chapter is emphasizing. We're sanctified The Holy Spirit cleanses us. Without holiness, no man will see the Lord. And that too is part of the gift of God. That holiness that enables us to enter into the presence of God is also a gift. It's only those who are given eternal life, who are free from the wages of sin. That's not there because the sins are removed. They're forgiven. And so the final contrast then is in self or in Jesus. In self means you trust yourself. You depend on yourself. You take the future in your hands and you say I will determine my eternal destiny. I will set my own course. Man imagines that he can find a way out of his misery, that he can escape the wages of death that he has earned for himself. The Pharisees tried it. By living according to the law, no. By living, they thought, beyond what the law required. They would be earning for themselves a righteousness such that when they would stand before God, there is no way God could refuse them entrance into heaven. We've lived beyond the law. We've kept it not only perfectly, but gone beyond what is required. If fasting was required once a month, I did it once a week. So they thought they could earn a righteousness, and Jesus said, If that's your righteousness, if your righteousness doesn't exceed their righteousness, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. That will never work. The heathen turn to another God. They ignore the God who is displayed in the creation. They say, I'll serve this God. He will save me. Whether it's an idol made out of a stone or a tree, or whether it's an animal or the sun, that God will save me. modern man says I will save myself through my technology through my ingenuity through the combined power of the race of human man of a man we can save ourselves but it cannot be done it cannot be done because every man is earning for himself the wage of death and it will be paid The wages will be paid. It doesn't matter what he's doing, whether he's painting a beautiful picture, he's earning wages. He's sinning. Building a hospital, if he's an unbeliever, it doesn't make any difference. Or if he's murdering his neighbor, in all those instances he is earning the wages of sin. He's sinning. And the wages our death, eternal death. So if man depends on himself, he will die in his sins, he will receive the wage, which is hell. The only other possibility then is Jesus. He is our hope, he's our only hope. The text says that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, literally in him, The life is in Him. That's the source of our life. That's the one who earned the life. It's in Jesus Christ. There's no other way to get it. It's not in you. It's not in me. It's not in our works. It's not in somebody else who can give it to you. It's only in Him. His name is Jesus. What did the angel say? "'to Joseph about him, thou shalt call his name Jesus, "'for he shall save his people from their sins.'" From their sins. He's Jesus Christ, Christ is his official name. And that reminds us that he's high priest. And as the high priest, he said, I will offer a sacrifice that will truly pay for sin. I will offer a sacrifice and the sacrifice will be myself. Jesus said, I will offer myself as the perfect lamb, taking the sins of my people from them on myself and making the payment death. I will take their wages. They will not. Jesus accomplished that, and he's our Lord. He purchased us. We belong to him. He saves us from death. He preserves us in life. It's a sure gift. Jesus did not offer himself with the thought that maybe this will be enough. Maybe this will be enough to deliver my people from their death. and give them life. No, it's a finished work. He has died. He has atoned for our sins. He has risen again. He has eternal life. And then John writes in John 3, 36, that he that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life. We already have it. We have it. by faith in Jesus. That's what we celebrate in the Lord's Supper. That's why it's so important to come to the Lord's Supper in faith, believing in Jesus, believing that he accomplished by his sacrifice the whole of our salvation. By grace then, partaking of the gift, Jesus himself, and receiving eternal life. Not because we've earned it. Not because we've earned even the right to come to the table. If we come with that attitude that somehow, somewhere along the line, I've earned something here that gives me the right or gives me the gift, then it isn't a gift anymore, is it? We don't earn a thing. It's all a gift. And so we come and we are fed and nourished with the very real body of Jesus Christ.