Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Study Note
Study Note
The contrasting parallelism — 'the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord' — employs commercial and military imagery (wages/opsonia) alongside the vocabulary of grace (charisma, gift). Death (thanatos) in Paul encompasses both physical mortality and what 5:12-21 calls spiritual death as separation from God — the full consequence of sin's reign. The contrast between 'wages' (earned) and 'gift' (unearned) is deliberate: humanity earns its fate while God's offer comes without merit. The verse functions as one of the clearest summaries of Pauline soteriology and has been foundational in evangelistic contexts across Christian history.
Other Translations
For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
for the wages of the sin <FI>is<Fi> death, and the gift of God <FI>is<Fi> life age-during in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For the reward of sin is death; but what God freely gives is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Cross References
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the …
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it …
Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: …
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the …
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might …
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; …
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall …