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I. THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH. "Wages" here means "the rations" supplied as pay to a soldier. If sin is your commander, you will have "death" to eat as your pay. "Sin" is treated as a person, even as "God" is, and the more we treat it as a living enemy, the more we are likely to fight against it manfully. "Death" may be defined as separation. Spiritual death is a present separation from God. Physical death is a separation of body and soul, and the separation of both from this world. Eternal death is final, total separation of body and soul from heaven, and from God forever. Now we are prepared to unravel the sentence.

1. God treats "sin" as a master. "Whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin," and "his servants ye are to whom ye obey." Now sin is any violation of God's will which a man does with his eyes open. We can make no scale of sin. The only measure of the sin is the light which it darkens, and the grace which it resists. Bad temper at home — pride and unkindness — want of truth — self-indulgence and sloth — lust and uncleanness — meanness — "covetousness, which is idolatry" — a cherished scepticism — and all the negatives — no prayer, no love to God, no usefulness — all, and many else, are equally "sin."

2. Every "sin" has its "wage"; and the devil is the paymaster.

(1) He promises, indeed, very different "wages" from what he gives. He promises the gay, and the affectionate, and the satisfying. But God has drawn up the compact, and He has shown it to you, "The wages of sin is death."(2) Now the expression implies that there is a deliberate engagement — a title. You have a right to your "wages." A servant can claim his "wages," and the master must give them: for whosoever "sins" is doing his employer's work.

(3) Let me tell you what it is. First, to destroy your own soul; then to spread a contagion, and hurt others' souls, so to increase your master's kingdom, and give him another and another victim! Is that all? No. To insult God — to grieve the Holy Ghost — to rob Christ of a jewel — that is the work which everyone who "sins" is doing for his employer.

(4) And often it is very hard work. How hard a man of the world is working; and how little he knows of the employer he is working for. And shall not the wages be a proportionate wages? — the more work, the more pay.

(5) The "wages" generally given are to be paid soon; not all at once, they accumulate. Happy are you if you at once recognise it as your "wages," and determine that you will earn no more of them! Happy if you resolve, "I will quit the service!" For, if not, the "wages" will go on being paid. Little by little, the separation from the good and the pure will widen. The Bible will be put further and further aside. Gulfs will come in between you and God. And out at that distance, the soul will have got very cold; heavenly things will wither! But there is a great deal unpaid yet. Perhaps there will come a separation unmitigated by any real hope of a reunion: to go out — where? To a land of darkness! No voice in the valley! no arm in the crossing! And, then, separation forever! Separation from that father of yours, that mother, that husband, that wife, that child, that saint, that church, that happy fellowship, that God!

II. "THE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE." Here, too, is service — real, severe, lifelong. And "wages"? Yes; certain wages — wages in a most just degree. But it would not be right to call them so. "Wages" do not precede the work. But here the "wages" do precede the work. You do not work to get your "wages," but you work because you have them. But they are infinitely disproportioned to the work; rather, all the work is so bad, that it wants to be forgiven, and a part of the wages is that God does forgive. But were it "wages," and deserved, it would not be half so happy as now — to be an unearned thing — a gift of the love of God! What would heaven be, were it not a gift? Nevertheless, it is "wages." God is just to give it, because deserved by "Jesus Christ our Lord."

(J. Vaughan, M. A.)

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KJV: For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

WEB: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.