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Meaning, commentary and cross references

Romans 6:23

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23 (ESV)
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In other translations

  • KJV · King James Version

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

  • NIV · New International Version

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

  • WEB · World English Bible

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

What does Romans 6:23 mean?

John Gill · Exposition of the Entire Bible, on Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death,.... By sin, is meant every sin, original sin, actual sin, every kind of sin, lesser and greater: the "death" which sin deserves, is a corporeal death; which is not owing to the original nature and constitution of men; nor merely to the divine appointment; but to sin, and the decree of God, on account of it; which is inflicted on Christless sinners, as a punishment for sin, though not on believers as such, because Christ has took away the sting and curse of it: a death of diseases and afflictions also follows upon sin, as its proper demerit; which are properly punishments to wicked men, and are occasioned by sin in believers: there is a death of the soul, which…

John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63). Public domain. Digital text: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org).

Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Romans 6:1–23

So, Rom 6:23, The gift of God is eternal life. Heaven is life, consisting in the vision and fruition of God; and it is eternal life, no infirmities attending it, no death to put a period to it. This is the gift of God. The death is the wages of sin, it comes by desert; but the life is a gift, it comes by favour.

Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706–21; Romans–Revelation completed by Nonconformist ministers). Public domain. Digital text: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org).

John Calvin · Commentaries, on Romans 6:20–23

23. For the wages of sin, etc. There are those who think that, Paul, by comparing death to allowances of meat, (obsoniis,) points out in a disparaging manner the kind of wretched reward that is allotted to sinners, as this word is taken by the Greeks sometimes for portions allowed to soldiers. But he seems rather indirectly to condemn the blind appetites of those who are ruinously allured by the enticements of sin, as the fish are by the hook.

John Calvin, Commentaries (Calvin Translation Society English text). Public domain. Digital text: Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org).

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Context: Romans 6:20–23 (WEB)

20For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. 21What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Read all of Romans 6

Cross references

  • John 3:36

    One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

  • Romans 5:12

    Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death passed to all men because all sinned.

  • James 1:15

    Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death.

  • John 6:40

    This is the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

  • Ezekiel 18:20

    The soul who sins, he shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.

  • Matthew 25:46

    These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

  • John 5:24

    “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

  • Ezekiel 18:4

    Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul who sins, he shall die.

Key words

In the Baptist Catechism

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