What Do You Deserve? Romans 6:23 Explained

What Do the Wages of Sin Mean?

But he actually owes you that money. You’ve worked for it. You’ve earned it. You deserve it. I know we live in a society where we think we deserve a whole lot of things, wonderful things, amazing things. At least one thing that we actually do deserve is our wages. We do deserve that.

And our verse says here, for you and for me, that what we actually deserve because of our sins is death.

Wages for Our Labour

Just as you would work for an employer and labour, we have laboured. We could say we have done things before God that are sinful. Our brother has talked about the law, and how we transgress it. God says, “Don’t lie.” He doesn’t say, “Just don’t lie a lot,” or “Don’t tell big lies.” He says you shall not lie. When we do lie, we commit sin. And sin has consequences.

There is a wage, a salary if you will, associated with our sins, with your sins, with my sins. And God says very clearly that the wages of sin is death.

What God Does Not Owe Us

Contrary to what people think, we sometimes imagine that God owes us many things. We think, “Well, God owes me heaven because I’m just a wonderful person, an outstanding citizen, a perfect neighbour. I’m perfect, and I expect people to see me as such.” We think we deserve much. But what God really owes us is the wages of our sins, which is death.

That includes physical death. That’s why people die, if you were wondering. I know accidents happen, but even someone who lives a healthy life will eventually die. That is a testament to the fact that you and I have committed sin against God. Physical death: the wages of sin is death. And the Bible speaks of a second death.

Would God Be Just to Judge Our Sin?

Do you believe that God would be just? Do you believe that God would be fair in giving you your wages? When you get to the end of life’s journey and you meet God, the God who says the wages of your sin is death, would He be just? Would He be in the right to give you your wages, death?

That’s the point we need to come to and accept.

Different Words for Salvation

I have a little worry that perhaps there are some in our gathering who would like to be saved. And by the way, let me make a little parenthesis here. When you hear the gospel, you hear words such as being saved, being justified, being redeemed, having forgiveness of sins, salvation, and so on.

Think of a diamond from the jewellery store. Maybe you only take it out to look at it, because they’re quite expensive. You have a diamond in your hand, and it has been cut with many faces. You can look at it from this face, then turn it around and look from another cut, and from all the different cuts: all different perspectives of the very same diamond. In the same way, when we speak about being born again, or being saved, it all speaks of the same thing. I can use the expression “salvation package.” So whatever term you’re familiar with, it’s the same gift.

Perhaps there are some here who would like to be saved. You’d like to have your sins forgiven. You’d like to be in heaven when you die. Maybe you’re struggling with doubts. Maybe you’re seeking assurance, and you just can’t seem to quite get it. You’re searching. You want peace, and it’s not coming.

Recognizing What We Deserve

I wonder at times whether it’s because you’ve never truly come to the conclusion and realization of what you actually deserve.

Time and time again, testimonies have made clear that people who are trying to be saved are sometimes just seconds away from actually being saved. You know what they do? They give up. They come to the conclusion: “I can’t get it. It seems I’ll just have to perish.” That is coming to the realization that I do deserve what God says I deserve. The wages of sin, of my sin, is death.

It’s futile to try to believe, to try to trust, if we’ve never first realized what we truly deserve. If we don’t agree with God on this first point, that the wages of sin is death, then the remainder of our verse, which is really tremendous and really beautiful, that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, will mean very little to us. It will have no significance to us.

God saves people who are lost. Totally lost. He saves people who realize what they do deserve.

Why Eternal Life Is an Undeserved Gift

Thankfully, God doesn’t want to give you what you deserve. God wants you to be in heaven. Whether or not you’re willing tonight to accept it honestly before God, what you do deserve is the wages of sin, which is death. But what you don’t deserve is a gift.

I don’t think we ever deserve gifts. Sometimes we think we’re entitled. Perhaps things get muffled in our minds. Because of pride, we think we deserve a gift, and so perhaps we think God’s salvation, which God says is a gift, is something we deserve. In our society it’s so common to feel entitled: “Oh, thanks for this gift. I kind of deserved it, because I’m a good person.”

Make no mistake, my friend: God’s gift, as great as it is, as free as it is, as eternal as it is, and as accessible as it is to you tonight, you don’t deserve. Yet you can have it. The gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Christ Bore What We Deserve

Marvel of marvels: though the wages of sin is death, Christ died for our sins. The Lord Jesus, there upon the cross (we sang about Calvary, the place where He suffered). He endured what He did not deserve, that you may receive what you do not deserve.

See that there upon the cross He actually endured the wages of sin. Think about this. The wages of sin is death, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who we saw last night knew no sin and had never committed sin, suffered there what you deserved. The wages of sin, in order that you may not get what you deserve. God doesn’t want you to get the wages. He wants you to take the gift.

Two Halves of One Verse

As I mentioned earlier, there’s an order of things here. First, accepting the wages that I deserve, and then believing the gift of God and taking it for myself. I believe God: “His gift is free. I don’t deserve it, but by His grace I can have it.”

The second part of our verse, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, comes as a result of the first part. If it weren’t true that the wages of sin is death, there would have been no need for the Lord Jesus to come and provide salvation for you. There would have been no need for a gift from God, which is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So tonight, what is it that you deserve? Are you willing to take God at His word?

Why Our Efforts Cannot Earn Heaven

The first part of the verse concerns us and what we have done. What we have done, the works of our labours, the result of our efforts, does not get us to heaven. The second part tells us everything the Lord Jesus accomplished there at the cross. It’s a work that was completed. It’s actually His work, His labour, if you will, that saves. It doesn’t come from you at all.

There’s nothing that God requires of you. There’s no way that man could ever impress God or earn heaven. Impossible. There the Lord finished a work on your behalf. God raised Him from the dead, proving that God is satisfied. And God extends to you, for free, the gift you do not deserve. Yet the marvel is that you can have it.

A Personal Testimony

I deserve hell. I didn’t always believe that. Thank God there came a time when I realized the gravity of my sin before God. Though I deserved judgment, and I still do today, and I will always deserve judgment, yet I will never ever see judgment, because I have received the gift of God. I don’t deserve it, but once I received it, it was mine forever. It’s still mine today, ten years later. Forever it will be mine.

What about you? What about you?

Between You and God

In the gospel there is something that makes our responsibility a little bit easier. I hope you’ll understand today that it’s not between you and me. Don’t take it that personally. It is personal, but it’s between you and God. Between you and God tonight.

I hope nothing will come between you and God tonight. If God is striving with you tonight, we plead with you not to put it off. Don’t wait a little longer. Seize the opportunity tonight. Accept the Lord Jesus as your own, between you and God.

God says to you tonight, in words plain and true:

“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”