“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
(Romans 6:23)
The contrasting truths Paul shares in Romans 6 between death and life are made so clear because they are so essential for us to understand. Death is wages, the payment one earns from a life of sin. Death is the just return of an unregenerate sin nature. Eternal life, however, cannot be earned. It is not a payment for obedience. Eternal life comes freely from God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And it must be so, because even the best obedience remains imperfect. No work performed by a sinner can place God in debt. The believer’s hope rests somewhere else entirely: in the perfect obedience of Christ. He fulfilled all righteousness, failed in no command, and rendered to God an obedience without defect.[1]
That obedience is infinitely precious because the One who rendered it is both God and man. His is the only righteousness with sufficient merit for God to accept for the justification of sinners. By faith, the believer receives Christ and is clothed in what he could never produce for himself. What the law required, Christ fulfilled. What fallen man could not accomplish, the Surety accomplished in his place.
This work of Christ includes both His active obedience and His suffering under the penalty of the law. Divine justice required not only perfect righteousness but satisfaction for guilt. Christ willingly stood in the place of His people, bearing their sins by imputation and enduring the curse due to them. Their guilt was reckoned to Him; His righteousness is reckoned to them. This is indeed a wonderful exchange.
Here mercy and justice meet. God does not save by setting aside righteousness. He saves in a way that magnifies it. The debt has not been ignored; it has been paid. The law has not been weakened; it has been fulfilled. The believer is not pardoned because justice no longer mattered, but because justice has received full satisfaction in our Surety.
Christ is worthy because He obeyed perfectly, suffered fully, satisfied justice completely, and secured eternal life for His people. The gift is free to the believer only because it was purchased at infinite cost by the Savior.
Contemplations:
- The One Who Earned What I Could Never Deserve. I adore You because Your obedience was complete where mine is stained and partial. You became the righteous Surety whose obedience is accepted by God on behalf of sinners. Let the perfection of what You have done ever cause me to wonder at the sufficiency of Your work.
- The Holy Exchange I Could Never Devise. You took what was mine by guilt and gave what was Yours by righteousness. My sin was imputed to You, and Your righteousness is reckoned to those who believe. I adore You for this wisdom and grace. Nothing in me could have devised such a salvation, much less accomplished it.
- Where Justice Smiles Upon the Redeemed. Your justice does not stand in opposition to my salvation when I am in Christ because You have received full satisfaction from the Surety and do not demand payment twice. Righteousness and peace meet together in the salvation You provide. The very justice that would condemn me apart from Christ now bears witness to the completeness of His payment. Let that truth ever deepen my faith.
- Eternal Life as Gift, Not Wage. Death is what sin earns; life is what You give. I adore You for this difference. You have made eternal blessedness a gift through Jesus Christ rather than the uncertain reward of human merit. I bring no claim, no independent righteousness, no completed obedience of my own. I receive. You give. Christ purchased what I could never deserve. Let the freeness of the gift make me more grateful, more obedient, and more fixed upon the glory of the Giver.
Prayer (Adoration):
Lord Jesus Christ, I adore You as the One whose obedience is perfect, whose blood is sufficient, and whose merit secures eternal life for Your people.
You fulfilled what I could never fulfill. Every demand of the law found complete obedience in You. Every claim of justice against the sins of Your people was answered in Your sufferings.
I worship You for the righteousness that is imputed to all who believe. You took guilt that was not Your own and gave righteousness that was not ours.
I adore the harmony of Your salvation. In Your work mercy and justice meet without conflict. The holy God remains just while justifying the ungodly through faith in You.
Let me never build upon the sand of imperfect obedience. Fix my hope entirely on Your merit, Your blood, Your finished work, and Your perfect righteousness.
Make me increasingly amazed that eternal life is given freely to me because it was purchased so fully by You.
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Further Scripture References:
Rom. 5:12; Rom. 5:21; Gal. 6:8; James 1:15
[1] Increase Mather, Meditations on the Glory of the Heavenly World, Early American Imprints, 1639-1800; No. 1516 (Boston in N.E. printed: Sold by Benjamin Eliot, at his shop in King Street, 1711), 196-201.
