Let's read it together. Romans
chapter 6 and verse 23. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let's pray. Father, thank you for your gift.
We confess what we are and we know what we deserve in some
part, but really we are both ashamed and afraid to fully grasp
what we've done against you, against your goodness. So we
pray, Lord, that you would help us to flee to the Lord Jesus
Christ and to find all of our salvation in Him and trust you
through Him. And we pray, Lord, that you would
consider him only for us, and that you would give to us what
you give to your people in all grace and all blessings for his
sake. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In Romans 6, 23, I think this
is one of those verses that everybody who has a Bible has probably
memorized. Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin
is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now this verse is really
just a summation of the gospel, isn't it? What we earned by our
sinning against God is death. But what God has given to us
without any consideration of what we could earn or do, a free
gift, is eternal life. And this is through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. That's the gospel. What Christ has done has earned
for us a great gift from God. It was undeserved, and we cannot
earn it, but God has given it freely. It's eternal life. In this verse, we hear the truth
about sin, and we hear the truth about grace. And so I've entitled
this message, The Truth About Sin and Grace. In our own experience,
we feel something about our need. We feel something about the guilt
of our sin. When we sin against God, if God
is gracious to us, our conscience will afflict us. But not until
God's word comes to us in the power of the spirit of God in
the gospel are we able or enabled to look to the Lord Jesus Christ
and trust him in coming to God. And that's called mercy. That's
what we need, is mercy. We feel our guilt, we have some
sense of it before God, and it causes us great shame as we reflect
on what we've done. And it causes us great grief
when we realize that what we've done is simply an expression
of who we are in our nature, and we know that what we have
done, for which we are ashamed in the past, is things we do
now, even now, in the present, and things we will yet do in
the future because we are what we are. We're sinners by nature.
And this inward corruption that we have causes us great grief
of mind as well as the guilt. So we feel the guilt, we have
a sense of that, and a sense of our own shamefulness and our
corruptions. And we realize that only God
can help us. We're helpless to change ourselves,
helpless to remove our guilt. So we're helpless before God,
and therefore we are in need of great mercy. Right? It's a felt need. Now, we, as
a result of this need, when God teaches us that there's mercy,
there's forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared, what
do we do? Well, we cry to God. He's the
only one with whom there is forgiveness. We've sinned only against him.
He's the one who must forgive us, and it's his initiative,
his design and plan to justify sinners, not for what they are
or have done. but to justify them for the Lord
Jesus Christ's sake. For that we cry, we ask for him
to save us and we trust Christ alone. We come to his throne
as needy sinners for all grace, don't we? That's the result of
God's work in us through the gospel. But this verse says,
it contrasts two things, sin and grace. The wages of sin also
is contrasted, death, with the gift of God, which is eternal
life. And our work, which produces
our sin, is contrasted with Christ's work, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So you see these things contrasted. Sin is contrasted, that's what
we do, with what Christ has done. Death, what we earned, is contrasted
with what God has given freely, eternal life. And our merit,
our demerit, actually is contrasted with God's gift of grace. So
here we have the contrast between life and death. These are extremes,
aren't they? The greatest extremes are held
in contrast to us. In the most extreme case, we
have earned something from God, death, an eternal death. Here's what we did, we sinned.
And that's contrasted with the other extreme, which is the greatest
blessing God can give any creature to be the sons of God and given
eternal life. And that gift, that great gift
of God is contrasted with our works because it's all God's
work in the Lord Jesus Christ, pure grace by the work of Jesus
Christ. Sin is, for us, it's a slavery,
it's a work. We work as someone who would
go to work. When I was a young child, not
that young, but fairly young, I worked in order to earn money.
I would rake leaves or mow lawns or deliver papers or do something
to try to get people to give me something so I could have
money to spend and buy things I wanted. So I labored. and they
paid me. But as people, and all have sinned,
so this is true of all of us as people, we do a service. And that service is in our life,
in our thoughts, what we think, what we say with our words, and
what we do with our actions. It's all under God's jurisdiction. It's all under God's view. God
has created us, we're His, we owe our life to Him, and we're
accountable to Him. So all that we do is a service,
and because our service is in sin, then God is going to pay
us. for what we've done. He's going
to reward us. He's going to give us what we
have earned from Him. Now, when I was young and tried
to do things for people in order to earn money, a lot of what
they gave me was just gratuitous because I didn't really earn
that much, but they would give me something anyway. So in a
lot of ways, it was just mercy handed out because I couldn't
really do much. I was only 10 or 11 or 12 years
old. But in God's case, he rewards us directly in proportion to
what we have earned from him. And we know it's bad because
death is the reward. Death is the worst thing that
we can receive. Death. In this life, the worst
thing we can receive is death. And in the life to come, the
worst that we can receive is death. Death is the worst thing
we can receive, and that's the payment we're due. That's what
we've earned by what we do, by what we are. And so we see here
that sin is our service, and God rewards us with this eternal
misery of death. What we do earns from God. And as death is the greatest
evil in this world, so the future punishment of the wicked is called
death in this way. It's called the second death. And scripture frequently speaks
of this, when the Lord Jesus Christ said, whoever believes
on me shall never die. He's talking about that death
that our sin earns. Whoever believes on Christ, who
is the resurrection and the life, shall never die. They will not
receive the reward for their sin. That is grace, isn't it? Now we have all sinned, and our
sin is against God, and therefore the God against whom we have
sinned will pay us, and that payment is death. Ezekiel chapter
18 says, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. That's the principle. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And then Romans 3, 23, all have sinned. All have sinned. None of us have escaped this.
While we're eating our dinner and looking at our brother and
sister, or our mom and our dad, while we're talking, when we
get up in the morning, no matter what we do, there's sin involved
with all that we do. And then there are these deliberate
sins that we do. We know it's wrong and we do
it anyway. We do what we know is wrong. And we fail to do what
we know is right. We'd rather serve ourselves than
serve God. That's all called sin. And some
sins are worse than other sins. And some punishment that God
gives will be worse than other punishments. Jesus said that
those of the cities of Tyre and Sidon will not be punished as
much as those who heard him speak when he was on earth. And Sodom
and Gomorrah won't be punished as much as those who heard Christ
speak and rejected him. So there are degrees of punishment
and sin, but all sin against God is sin, and it all earns
death. In the very beginning, in the
creation of God, the Lord said to Adam, in the day that thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. There's the promise of God
that sin brings death. These two things are joined together.
Death is the consequence of our sin against God because life
is what God gives us and God takes it away when we sin against
Him. The serpent lied. The devil lied. What did the devil say? Thou
shalt not surely die. What a lie. Right? What a lie. When Adam and Eve
ate of that tree that God said do not eat, when you eat you
shall surely die, what happened? They immediately knew they were
naked before God. And nakedness brought shame,
shame brought hiding, and hiding and shame brought the fear of
God's punishment. And they knew they stood before
God who held their life in their hands and whose word could not
fail when he said, in the day you eat, you shall surely die.
And in their soul, then they died. And their body began to
die then. The devil lied. Here, God says
the wages of sin is death, and this whole world wants to reject
that as unfair. They have a prejudice against
God in their own mind that says God would not hold me responsible
for eternity for what I did in my life in time. Oh yes, he will. Thou shalt surely die. The wages of sin is death. And death is the reward from
God that's due to us for our sin. Since all have sinned, all
are due this payment. And it is a just payment because
God is holy and just. We earned it. Sin is against
God, God is holy, and God is infinite, and sin is our fault,
not His, and therefore death is our due, and the death God
pays is an eternal death. We cannot endure an infinite
punishment, because we're not infinite, but we can, with the
justice of God upholding our being, we can live in a way that
God can inflict us for eternity. That's the wages of sin and eternal
death. God's justice giving us an existence
under which we can feel the outpouring of that wrath that we deserve.
That tells us something about the great evil of our sin and
the corruption of our nature that we've earned such a punishment
from God. And so we cannot endure that
infinite pain. And God has to give us an existence
out of his justice under which we can receive this payment because
he will pay it. God will pay. We shall endure
the punishment for our sins unless we receive what the next part
of the verse says, the gift of God, the gift of God. In contrast
to what we have earned, in contrast to what we are due, in great
mercy that only God could have given. Only God can give this
because we sinned against Him. Therefore, He has to decide. He has to determine to give this
mercy. He has given us what we did not
earn, which is eternal life. freely given without anything
on our part. In fact, in spite of all that
we deserve, God has given to us eternal life, and it's called
the gift of God. Now, the gift of God is not measured
by what we can comprehend. Eye has not seen nor ear heard,
neither has entered into the heart of man the things that
God has prepared for them that love him. And he says in Ephesians
chapter 3 that he is able to do exceedingly above all that
we ask or think. So God's gift is not in comparison
to what we can comprehend, it's certainly not in comparison to
what we can earn, but it's in comparison to what God has designed,
to his infinite goodness and his wisdom. He has given a gift
so great that it's a gift of God, not a gift that man can
devise. It's eternal life. Now that's
something to think about, isn't it? This gift of God is so great
because the basis on which He gives this life is so great. The measure of the gift is the
measure of God's grace. And the measure of the gift is
the measure of Christ's obedience and his gift of himself in life
and in death for his people who did not deserve anything but
death. That's the measure of the gift
of God. The grace of God, the gift of Christ in giving himself
for us, these are all the reasons for which God has given such
a gift that's so great as this gift of eternal life. God bestows
nothing less than eternal life on all of his people, on all
of them. They all receive eternal life.
Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they
follow me and I give unto them eternal life. He prayed in John
17 verse 2, he says, as thou has given him, me, he's talking
about himself, as thou has given him power over all flesh, that
he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him.
So the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who gives it, and he gives
it to all of his sheep, all of his people, all those who were
given to him by the Father. None of them fall short of eternal
life. All of them are given the same
gift. They're all sons of God, all heirs of God, joint heirs
with Jesus Christ and given eternal life. What a blessing that is. You can see how it is completely
without any consideration of our sin or any consideration
of our obedience. This has to be based on something
completely outside of ourselves. based on, in fact, the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Now, this is the gospel that
God gives eternal life freely by His grace, not because of
what we provide, but because of what He provided. Not because
of what He considers of us, but by what He considers of His Son
alone. He gave his son, he considers
his son, he received his son, and in consideration of him,
because he devised this by his grace out of an everlasting love
that flowed out of himself and not from us in any way, God has
given to us eternal life on the basis of what Christ has done. That's the gospel. God does not
give me anything in regards to righteousness or life, but that
he gives it only in consideration of Christ. Not for what he finds
in me, but for what he finds in his son. This is the gospel.
I have to myself, as you, undoubtedly, I have to be reminded of this.
I have to return to this in my prayers, in my meditations, in
my life, or I would be despondent and in despair. If any part of
my salvation or my eternal life depended upon what God thought
of me and myself, I would have reason for great concern and
fear and doubt, and so I would not have any peace, no joy. But
because all depends on Christ and it is in proportion to Christ,
therefore I can actually conceive of the fact that God would give
me eternal life because that life is given out of His grace
on the basis of Christ alone. It's through Jesus Christ our
Lord. It's the gift of God, not the
gift of a man. not the gift of a man, and not
the gift earned by us, but the gift of God, the gift of His
Son, the gift of Christ's own self, in obedience and in sacrifice
of Himself in blood, and the gift that God gives because of
Him, because He gave that gift. Eternal life is the greatest
enjoyment a man can know. because eternal life is to know
God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Eternal life is knowing
the living God and knowing him in Jesus Christ. Now, when we
look at somebody, we think that person has a lot of character. We might notice that they're
brave, or we might notice that they're kind, or we might notice
that they're angry. We might notice some characteristic
of a person. We might note that they're patient. We might notice that they're
consistent. Maybe they're content all the
time. Whatever it is that happens to bring our attention to that
person, it draws our attention to them because we see it in
them in some measure. But really, we can't know that
person in their complete character, can we? We can only know a part
of it. Now, the fullness, I want you
to grasp this. Scripture says that the fullness
of the Godhead dwells in Jesus Christ bodily. There is nothing
short of God in all of his fullness in the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so that knowing Jesus Christ,
we know God. Now in this life, we're limited. Sin is always going to be an
impediment. It's always going to be somewhat of a barrier that
keeps us from fully comprehending who Jesus Christ is and fully
enjoying him. But eternal life now is not only
our possession, but by faith we enjoy it in measure limited
by our unbelief and limited by our body, our sinful body, which
is, as the scripture says, the body is dead because of sin.
And yet in our soul, we have a measure of the experience of
knowing God in Jesus Christ. And that gives us an enjoyment,
a joy, doesn't it? And it says in Romans 15, 13,
that there's joy and peace in believing. But eternal life in
its full realization will not occur until this body of sin
dies and we are resurrected so that in our new body, which will
be made like His glorious body, Christ's glorious body, we will
be able in our body and our soul to know the fullness of joy in
knowing God as He is in His fullness in Jesus Christ. And think about
this, we will know God's eternal love for us and towards us without
an impediment, uninhibited by our unbelief, uninhibited by
our sin. All that will be removed. We
will see then that by Jesus Christ we have been made the very children
of God and we won't have any doubt about it, a full assurance. We will, in his very presence,
we will be accepted by God with the eternal love of God. That's eternal life. To know
Thee and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. To know not only His
love, but His mercy, His grace, His wisdom that contrived this
plan. His goodness, that purpose to
bring it into fruition and bring it to its fulfillment and give
it to us freely by His grace. Freely by His grace. Just as
we adore the works of a man, and yet much more when we think
about it in a clarity of thought, it's not the man's works, it's
the man himself. If the man built a house, how
much greater must the man be than the house? And so we look
at creation, and what does creation scream? The greatness of the
creator. And we look at God's work and
salvation, and what does it scream? the greatness of our Savior.
And so in these things we begin to know and experience that by
faith eternal life now and we possess it. Jesus said, whoever
hears my words and believes on him who sent me has eternal life
and he shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life. Amazing grace, now we possess
it, now we know it, but then in its fullness. And so he says
the gift of God is eternal life. It's a reward God gives to every
one of his elect, and because it's based on Christ's merits
and Christ's works, it's a reward that's in proportion to him,
not us. This eternal life, if every one
of God's people is clothed in the very righteousness of Christ,
then every one of God's people have the same life, the same
eternal life. They are all sons of God, all
His sheep, all His that He loved from everlasting, and therefore
the life they receive is the same, is eternal, and is joy
and is fullness in the presence of God without any spot or wrinkle
or any such thing. We're dressed in Christ's own
righteousness, His own beauty. God gives everything that we
have, but to know God, to know His love, to know His grace and
mercy, this is the gift. This is the gift of gifts, isn't
it? To have eternal life, because
to have eternal life is to have Christ Himself. God told Abraham
in Genesis 15, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. The Lord Jesus Christ is himself
eternal life. We have him. In John chapter
14, when the Lord Jesus is about to depart from this world and
he's comforting his disciples, he says these words of the greatest
intimacy. Let me read this to you in John
14. And they're true of all of God's people. He says this. In
John chapter 14, I will not leave you comfortless. In verse 18,
I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you yet a little
while, and the world seeth me no more. But you see me. Because
I live, you shall live also. You see how it's based on Christ?
It's not based on us. Because I live. The eternal life
that we have is the eternal life that is Christ himself in us,
Christ for us. It's all in him. And then in
verse 20, at that day you shall know that I am in my father,
and you in me, and I in you. Can anything be more intimate
than that? I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you. This is something that we cannot
really appreciate. We can't really comprehend it,
can we? We can only see it in types,
like the relation between a husband and wife, and that union between
them physically, and yet we see this spiritual union that Christ
speaks of with great delight and reverence and joy that he
has, that he is in the Father. We are in him and he is in us
because he is ours. I am my beloved's and he is mine
and I am his. Here we have this, the greatest
contrast that could be given here, eternal death and eternal
life, our sin, Christ's obedience, our earning by what our sin deserved,
and God's grace that gives us this freely. Jesus spoke of eternal
damnation in Mark chapter 9. He says three times, their worm
dieth not and the fire is not quenched. What could be more
terrifying? What could be more intimidating
than those words? When a person dies, their body
decays and the worm that feeds on them dies with it, but not
in hell. The worm doesn't die. In a fire,
the fire stops burning when the fuel is gone, but not in hell.
There's always fuel there. This is what Christ himself has
said. These shall go away into everlasting or eternal punishment,
but the righteous shall enter into life eternal. The two are
set in contrast in scripture. It's not like there's not a death,
not like Satan said, you shall not surely die. No, there is.
And this huge contrast tells us and teaches us the great span
that God had to bridge through his grace, through Christ's merits,
and the exceeding greatness of our salvation that he would save
us from so great a death. When we begin to think about
just the first words, the wages of sin is death, what's your
immediate reaction? Oh man. That was really stupid
of me. Why did I do that? How could
I be so callous and hard-hearted to rebel against God, my maker? And then we realized, yeah, that's
me. That's my corruption of nature.
And then we began to tremble because we cannot We can't do
away with those past sins. We can't fix the nature that
produced them in the present sense. And we know that future
sins are inevitable because of what we are. And so we're helpless
then in our sin. And we look in the word of God
and we see the great gulf, the great, the pit of destruction
that God in all of his holiness will cast us into. And when we
think of those things, we find ourselves in great trembling
in fear. And then God's word comes to
us. But the gift of God is eternal life. And immediately our hearts
are drawn out to consider the fact that God doesn't look upon
me. He can't because I deserve his
wrath. But he looks on another. He considers
the work of another. And suddenly we find cause for
hope and trust in the very God we've offended. And this is what
the gospel does. There is forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be feared. And so we go on in our lives,
we consider how far God has saved us, what he's saved us from,
the greatness of our salvation. Right? And it's all because someone
gave himself for us as a ransom. I came not to be served, but
to serve and to give my life a ransom for many, not a few,
many. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's how great this salvation is. And when it comes to mind,
these things come to mind and we feel despair for our past
sins and our present sins and future judgment and our helplessness
against them, we're immediately drawn to the next promise. but the gift of God is eternal
life. Don't you read these and don't
you find them to be the gems, the jewels in God's word that
you constantly pull out of your music box, the hymns of Christ
and him crucified, and you want to hold them and look at these
jewels again, don't you, because you've come to God by his precious
blood. In Romans chapter 5 and verse
21, the same thing is reiterated there. He said, as sin has reigned
unto death, there it is, sin and death, even so might grace
reign like a king, a triumphant king reigning over this tyrant. this fiend of hell, our sin. He says that grace reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. There
it is. It's outside of your ability
to contribute, outside of your ability to do anything except
observe it, hear it, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You
see? What a great thing this is. God
has been so gracious to us who believe on him. And if you're
here and you wonder, how can I possibly escape the thing I
deserve, the wage, the due reward of my sins? How can I possibly
escape this? Take this word, these are God's
words, and take them and say, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
God has given this gift of eternal life. Lord, I stand in need of
that mercy. As Jesus prayed, we read before
the service in Psalm 22, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? He stood in need of mercy and
of salvation and of deliverance from his enemies and of resurrection
from the dead. And he depended in full trust
upon his father to do that. So we, as sinners, hear God's
gracious words here through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And we, in
ourselves, find ourselves expressing this, my God, my God. Have you
forsaken me? Will you consider Christ for
me?" And we come to God in the same way, trusting the same God
and Father as the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we realize that
this grace has been given to us now. We see that God receives
us not for what we are, but for Christ's sake. Not for what we've
done, but in consideration of his precious blood. And we come
to him and we find ourselves overwhelmed with great peace
and joy, knowing that God can and would. And so we ask him
to do this and depend upon him for it. We come to God at all
times throughout our life. It's a continuous coming. It's
an unending coming. And we find ourselves deviating
at times to the left and the right and sliding backwards and
being brought back again to trust Christ and to worship God because
of him, because of his great grace and his justice and wisdom
that he would give us so much in Christ to deliver us from
our own stupid sin, our own wickedness, Now, as I think about these things,
I pray that by God's grace, he would be glorified in our salvation. Don't you? Lord, glorify yourself
in my salvation. And these words were made precious
to me recently as I thought about these things. The apostle Paul
says, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Remember
those words as you go through life, not I, but Christ. But first understand this, you
can't make it happen. You can't make your life be not
I, but Christ. In the very words and expression,
not I, but Christ, you know what you find? An inability. to perform what you would have
done, not I, but Christ. And that tells you the meaning
of the words themselves, doesn't it? Not I. I can't perform this. The Lord Jesus Christ has to
make For me, he has to make himself all, not me, but you, Lord. The
apostle Paul said, I labored more than they all, yet not I,
but Christ, but by his grace labored in me. So not my merit,
but Christ's merit. Not my work, but his work. Not my will, but his will. That's what we want, don't we?
Do you want anything more than what God is pleased with? Even
though it causes us pain, wouldn't you rather have what God in His
wisdom and in His goodness determines for you than what you determine? Not my will, but His will. Not
my worthiness, but Christ alone who is worthy. Not my tears,
I don't think of my tears when I seek for comfort, but His sorrows,
Christ's sorrows and His tears. Not my prayers, but his prayers. Isn't that what you're hoping?
That the Lord Jesus Christ is both my advocate and my intercessor. The one who interposed himself
as my surety. Not my prayers, but his in everything. Not my obedience, but his righteousness. Not my answer to God, but Christ's
answer at Calvary. And now in my conscience and
himself for me at judgment. When he stands for me and says
he's mine. Not my honor, but his glory. Not even my faith. But in all
things, not I, but Christ. We can't make it happen. That's
why we say, Lord, not me, but you. What a Savior, that he would
make himself all to us, and we would be all in him. And he would
tell us and persuade us that he is all sufficient, and that
we do not need to look for another. God is holy to give eternal life
to sinners, isn't he? Because all that God does is
holy, and Jesus Christ therefore had to come before God for those
he gives eternal life, stand in their place, and he had to
make up and restore what they took away by their sinning. So
he says in Psalm 69, I restored that which I took not away. Let's
pray. Father, we thank you for your
Word that we have to stand upon. The foundation of all of our
peace and joy is your Word that says that though we have sinned
and earned death by our sinning, the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we find in our hearts this
running out, this fleeing to find, to be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ, take refuge in Him. and to ask you that on the
basis of, in consideration of Him alone, in His death, in His
giving of Himself, you would give to us this great gift of
eternal life, to know you, to live uh... with christ living
in us his life our life and to live to you live by you and to
uh... shed this body of sin and death
and to be raised again that we might worship you without sin
in soul and body and lord help us to live our lives waiting
and trusting you in all things in life, that we would serve
you and not serve ourselves and not serve our sin, but give honor
and praise and glory to him who loved us and gave himself for
us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.