“The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Romans 6:23
When we live under grace, we are completely released from a wage economy, with its condemning calculation of what is due. This is part of the message of Romans 6.
Throughout the chapter Paul portrays the key issue of human existence as being one of lordship. We human beings are caught up in the struggle between two warring realms; the crucial issue is to which realm we belong. We live under the rule of Christ, or we live under the rule of sin. We stand under grace, or we stand under law (6:14, 15).
Paul knows nothing of the modern assumption that the human self is rational and autonomous, or of the post-modern assumption that the successful self is one able to re-make itself. Rather, he perceives the human self as set in a universe permeated, as John M.G. Barclay has observed, by “powers, submissions, and slaveries.” From Paul’s perspective our condition apart from Christ is captivity to sin. It is those who have been united with Christ and his saving death through baptism (6:2-10) who are liberated from this captivity.
Enlisted for the opposite side
Unsurprisingly this means that to be a Christian is to now be enlisted on the opposite side of the struggle. Paul tells his readers, “You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (6:11). We are to understand our identity in Christ in a way that will orient our actions away from sin and towards God. Paul emphasizes that this new identity cannot only be a matter of how we think but must find expression in bodily obedience (6:12-13). Yet what is often challenging for readers of Romans is that although Paul does not expect such obedience to be easy, he does expect victory to follow. The struggle between the two realms is not an equal one, and those who are in Christ are on the winning side. What is the basis of Paul’s confidence, and what does it mean for us today?
An important part of why Paul is so confident is found in the contrast between sin and grace with which he closes the chapter (6:23). Using economic metaphors, Paul illustrates the fundamental difference between the two warring realms. On sin’s side, its servants receive wages. They get what they have earned, which is always only death. In contrast, God’s servants receive the gift of eternal life. They do not get what they have earned and are entitled to, but instead receive the riches of God’s generosity. Grace means that instead of getting what we are due, we receive God’s mercy through Christ’s giving of himself for us.
The gift God gives
But as well as rejoicing in God’s mercy we should also note the nature of the gift that God gives. Eternal life is limitless. It is not possible to measure eternal life, or to ask how long it will last; by definition, it is forever. It is not just that God does not give us what our sins deserve, and it is not just that grace is gratuitous. It is also that the gift we are given is beyond our calculating or imagining.
We now live within the superabundant economy of divine gift. In the economy of this world, to be unwaged is the gateway to poverty and hardship. But in God’s economy of salvation, to be unwaged is the basis of every blessing. Nobody deserves eternal life. It is not possible to earn it like a wage. It can only be had as an immeasurable gift or not at all. In Christ Jesus, God not only gives us the gift that we most need but the greatest possible gift.
It is to this infinite gift that we respond when we seek to obey God as Christians. And this means that we cannot measure the consequences of our service by normal human standards. Sin receives only what it deserves, it only gets its wages, but the positive consequences of obedience are unendingly multiplied by grace.
The promise of God
Sometimes it might look as if our service has made very little difference here and now. It might appear as if the rational thing to do would be to accept defeat and give up our attempts to live for Christ. But the promise of God is that although we might not be able to see the results in the present time, obedience to God’s will is never wasted. If we continue to serve the Lord, then our acts of obedience will have consequences that last forever. As Paul puts it in Galatians 6:8, if we sow to the Spirit we will reap eternal life. There will be an everlasting harvest.
If we understand that the economy of salvation is one of gift, then we will be equipped to walk by faith and not by sight. We will recognize that calculations of effectiveness made according to the human economy do not apply to the economy of God where every act of obedience will be eternally fruitful.
We need never fear that any act of obedience to the Lord is wasted. Every act of love of neighbor, of hospitality, of mercy, of putting the needs of others first, and of refusing to indulge illegitimate desires of our own will be honored eternally by God. Even when we are hard-pressed, we can serve the Lord with courage and without fear because the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Sin and death are powerful forces in our fallen world but in the economy of God’s salvation they are infinitely less powerful and effective than obedience under the lordship of Christ. Sin and death are powerful for a time, but their time will pass. By the grace of God, the consequences of our service will endure forever.
