What does “wages of sin is death” mean?

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The punishment for sin is eternal death (going to hell). This is the death that is found in Revelation 21:8 below.

Revelation 21:8 “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

This article examines the seriousness of sin and why God punishes sin so heavily.

Sin Is Violating God’s Law

Sin is breaking God’s law, not man’s moral law. The reason why many people think that they are not sinners is that they think they haven’t broken the law in their minds, in their standards.

1 John 3:4 “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”

When we break just one, it makes us guilty of all the law. Not just one and it’s minor, but when we break one thing of the law, we break the entire law.

That’s how serious God is about sin.

James 2:10-11 “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.”

Human beings do not really understand that so let’s take an example: There’s this little boy who took out his pellet gun and shot a window. Now there’s a little hole in the window and the boy wanted to pay to fix the small hole but surprisingly the boy finds out that he doesn’t pay for that small hole but has to pay for the whole window.

Sin is so hurtful that no matter how small the sin is, it can ruin the whole picture, the whole character of holiness.

That’s why we cannot keep the whole law for our salvation, we can keep the law as best as we can but let’s be honest, we cannot 100% keep the law perfectly. Just keeping the law 99.9% isn’t enough, it makes us guilty as a sinner.

That’s why no one can keep the law for their salvation, only by faith in Jesus Christ is our salvation.

Acts 15:5-11 ” But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.”

Sin Is Committed By Everyone

If we skip church, is that 100% righteous? If we skip prayer, is that 100% righteous? No. That’s unrighteous. So that automatically makes us a sinner.

1 John 5:17 “All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.”

If we know something that is good but we don’t do it, God automatically counts that as a sin.

James 4:17 “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

Just by lusting after a person, we automatically commit adultery in our hearts. Not outwardly, but inwardly in our hearts.

Matthew 5:28 “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

Have you ever hated someone before? That’s considered murder and we’ve committed sin.

1 John 3:15 “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”

If we say that we have not sinned, we’re automatically counted as a liar. Revelation 21:8 says that all liars go to hell.

1 John 1:10 “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

Sin Is Coming Short Of God’s Standard

If we are not 100% holy then we’re short of God’s holiness and that makes us a wicked sinner.

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

For example, a prestigious university allows a minimum CGPA of 3.8 for transfer students to enter. Now they don’t care how many more A’s or B’s we’ve made compared to our C’s. If we don’t meet the minimum CGPA of 3.8, we still cannot enter that prestigious university.
It’s the same thing as God’s standard: we have to be holy in order to enter heaven, it doesn’t matter how many good things we’ve made compared to the bad. If we don’t meet God’s standard of holiness, then we cannot enter.

There’s a very clear issue here: everyone falls short of God’s righteousness.

Psalms 71:19 “Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee!”

No matter how good our righteousness is, can we shorten the gap with God’s righteousness? Can you come close to God’s righteousness? No. That’s why no matter how good our righteousness is, it’s still filthy compared to God’s.

Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

Once we start to look at the gap between us and God, and once we start to look through God’s eyes instead of our own human eyes’ standard of sin, then we will realize that this passage fits us, that is definitely me.

Romans 3:10-18 ” As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Sin Is Heavily Punished By God, Causing Spiritual Death

These two people in the verses below did not commit a very serious sin like murder or adultery, they committed a ‘minor’ sin that people think, just lying. But what did God do? He killed them, they got a physical death.

Acts 5:1-10 ” But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.”

Why did God kill Uzzah? Because it was forbidden for anyone to touch the ark of God, only the people from the tribes of Levites were allowed (Numbers 4:15).

2 Samuel 6:1-11 ” Again, David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. And David arose, and went with all the people that were with him from Baale of Judah, to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the LORD of hosts that dwelleth between the cherubims. And they set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah: and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drave the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was at Gibeah, accompanying the ark of God: and Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the house of Israel played before the LORD on all manner of instruments made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals. And when they came to Nachon’s threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God. And David was displeased, because the LORD had made a breach upon Uzzah: and he called the name of the place Perezuzzah to this day. And David was afraid of the LORD that day, and said, How shall the ark of the LORD come to me? So David would not remove the ark of the LORD unto him into the city of David: but David carried it aside into the house of Obededom the Gittite. And the ark of the LORD continued in the house of Obededom the Gittite three months: and the LORD blessed Obededom, and all his household.”

David committed a sin against God, he numbered Israel. God didn’t just punish David, He killed 70,000 people from his country.

1 Chronicles 21:1-14 ” And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it. And Joab answered, The LORD make his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? why then doth my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword. But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king’s word was abominable to Joab. And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel. And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. And the LORD spake unto Gad, David’s seer, saying, Go and tell David, saying, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee Either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man. So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.”

Just one person’s sin, just because Adam and Eve disobeyed God, for their sin, their children, their children’s children, and the entire world have to suffer for their sin.

Genesis 3:23-24 “Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”
cf Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

There is a price for sin, that is death. This is not just an ordinary death, this is eternal death (based on the context of the verse, because it’s talking about eternal life on the other hand). Eternal death is eternal punishment – burning/tormented/screaming forever without dying.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Revelation 21:8 “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Punishment for sin seems to be so heavy for a small sin that God would damn us for all eternity.

Take this for an example, there is this bowl of tasty soup in front of us and we saw one tiny maggot in there and that ruins the entire soup right. What would we do? We would dispose of the whole soup together with that maggot. Here’s the key: in that maggot’s perspective there is nothing filthy about that. If we were a maggot, in our perspective of a maggot, we wouldn’t see anything filthy about that. We’d think that’s such a heavy and cruel thing to do just to dispose of the whole soup and taking away the maggot’s life cause it ruined the soup. But from the human’s perspective, even something so small like that, even a maggot in our soup is a big deal that we wouldn’t hesitate to dispose of the soup. That’s the key: perspective.

We are smaller than a maggot in God’s eyes. In God’s eyes, He is even bigger than the universe so that makes us even smaller than a maggot.

In our perspective, we don’t think that one small sin is a big deal but in God’s perspective, it is a big deal that He wouldn’t hesitate to dispose of us.

Every second God hears cuss words coming out from man, people taking the name of God in vain, not only that God sees the filthy perversions people do in their bedrooms, what’s the evil in their minds and hearts. He sees that every day and every second. Yet He doesn’t zap them dead.

God’s judgment/holiness and His mercy

He is so merciful and He doesn’t say ‘Clean that up to get saved’, He says, ‘Just receive me for your salvation and you’re taken care of’. If He really abided by his own system of holiness, we would be all dead.

God is perfect in mercy but He doesn’t compromise in his holiness. He would damn a soul for all eternity for a small sin but at the same time, he is merciful to not kill the person and give them a chance to be saved. That makes God a perfect god.

He sent His only son, Christ Jesus our Lord to die for us because He knew that on our own, we won’t be able to escape everlasting punishment.

Why is this world getting worse and worse?

They play around with sin and they don’t see how serious sin is. They try to make sin not a big deal. Why would you make everyone suffer disease, famine, hardship just because of that one disobedience back at the Garden of Eden? Why? Because that’s how seriously filthy sin is and God would do something so harsh like that. That should make us not sin.

That’s the reason why people don’t want to get saved, that’s the reason why people accuse God for damning a soul for all eternity over one small sin. Because they want to sin, they want to play with their sins and they don’t see how serious sin is.

God’s solution is to give us the free gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus His son

Dear reader, if you haven’t accepted the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation yet, please understand that:

1) It is a truth that we are all sinners (Romans 3:23),

2) The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23),

3) The only way to receive eternal life is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins (Romans 10:9-10).

For further reading,

The original audio file can be found here.