For the wages of sin is death— The wages of sin does not here signify the wages which are paid for sinning, but the wages which sin pays. This is evident not only from the opposition which is here put between the wages of sin, and the gift of God; namely, that sin rewards men with eternal death for their obedience; but that which God freely gives to those, who, believing in Jesus Christ, labour sincerely after righteousness, is life eternal: but it farther appears by the whole tenor of St. Paul's discourse, wherein he speaks of sin as a person and a master, who is served and obeyed. And so the wages of sin, being the wages of a person here, must be what it pays. We may observe, that sin pays death to those who are its obedient vassals: but God rewards the obedience of those to whom he is Lord and Master, by the gift of eternal life. Their utmost endeavours and highest performances can never entitle them to it of right; and so it is to them not wages, but a free gift. See Chap. Romans 4:4 and Locke.
Inferences.—How groundless and injurious are all charges of licentiousness on the doctrine of justification alone by the free grace of God, through the infinite merit of Christ! Though no good works of our own bear any part in our justification before God, yet they stand in a close and necessary connection with it; and nothing can be more detestable than to continue in sin, that grace may the more abound in pardoning it. For how shall we who are by profession and obligation, and, if true believers, are in fact dead to sin, live any longer therein? This would be a flat contradiction to our baptismal engagement, and to all that was signified by it, and is answerable to it; would be absolutely inconsistent with our character, privilege, and duty as members of Christ, who have communion with him in his death and resurrection, and with all realizing views by faith of deliverance from sin and wrath, and of an advancement to eternal glory through him.—How excellent is the effect of regenerating grace! it includes both a mortification of sin, that the old man may be destroyed, and spiritual quickenings to a holy and heavenly life, that we may walk before God with new principles and ends, and according to a new rule in imitation of Christ, and by virtue derived from his death and resurrection to the glory of God. How certainly may we judge whether sin or holiness has the ascendancy in our hearts and lives! Whichever of these we willingly yield ourselves up unto, that is the lord who rules over us. We all once were the servants of iniquity, as appeared by our choosing its works, obeying its dictates, and taking pleasure in violating every bond to holiness: but, blessed be God, true believers are moulded into the spirit of the Gospel, which, under divine influence, has a transforming efficacy upon them; they are set at liberty from the power of sin; they hate and abhor it, and by no means approve of it in any instance whatsoever; and they are become, in their very hearts, servants to God and righteousness. How concerned then should they be to live under a constant sense of what belongs to their state as Christians! They should reckon themselves to be intirely dead to sin, as those who have nothing more to do with it; but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And how great are their inducements and assistances to quit the service of sin for the service of God! Though they are still under the law as a law of life, they are not under it as a severe and impracticable covenant, nor under its curse; but are taken under the covenant of grace, which contains the strongest encouragements against sin's recovering its dominion over them; and they are freed from the dreadful lordship of sin. What fruit has any one ever found worth having, in its ways and works, even while he was employed in them? They are matter of the greatest shame, and their just wages are all miseries unto eternal death. But there is a present pleasure in the ways of holiness; and its happy issue is everlasting life, not indeed as the wages of righteousness, but as the mere gift of God's free grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
REFLECTIONS.—The riches of the grace which he had displayed in the former chapter, the Apostle clearly foresaw would furnish objections against his doctrine, which he therefore states and obviates. What shall we say then? Is this a licentious doctrine? and shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid: the Apostle rejects the thought with abhorrence, as the vilest abuse of this most blessed truth. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? under its power and dominion: how inconsistent would it be with our character; how contrary to the obligations of gratitude and duty lying upon us; and how destructive of our peace and hope! Our very baptism represents our profession, and intimates to us the conversation becoming the name that we bear. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, into the faith of his name, and obedience to his authority, were baptized into his death? that we should resemble him, dying to sin, as he died for it, and corresponding with his great design in suffering, which was to redeem us from all iniquity. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; partaking of the benefits of his death; and, as a corpse laid in the grave, which ceases from the actions of life, so should we shew an abiding deadness to sin; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, by his almighty power, even so we also should walk in newness of life, quickened by virtue derived from him, our head of vital influence; and having received a new nature, new principles, and new hearts from him, we are bound to shew forth to his praise, in all holy conversation and godliness, the real and universal happy change which is passed upon us to the praise of the glory of his grace. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death; engrafted into him, and one with him as the members of his body mystical, sharing in the blessed effects of his death, and experiencing its efficacy in separating our souls from sin, as death separated his body and soul; we shall be also planted in the likeness of his resurrection; quickened by his divine power, and enabled to walk before God in holiness: Knowing this, that our old man, that fallen nature derived from Adam and coeval with our very being, is crucified with him; so that in every genuine believer its condemning guilt is abolished, and its tyrannizing power is at least broken: for we know that Christ died, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin; should no longer be the slaves of corruption as before; and that quickly its very being in us might be at an end. For he that is dead is freed from sin: as a man that is dead can have no farther claims laid against him, so if we are crucified with Christ, we are freed from the power and dominion of our former master. Now if we be thus dead with Christ, through an union with this crucified Saviour, and virtue thence derived; we believe and hope that we shall also live with him, quickened to a life of grace here, and shortly to be raised to a life of eternal blessedness and glory to reign with him in heaven.
From these glorious views which the Apostle sets before us of our union and communion with Christ in his death and resurrection, the Apostle proceeds to urge upon the faithful two things: (1.) That they should reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin; not only discharged from its condemning guilt, but delivered from its power and dominion, so as henceforward to have no more fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, ceasing from them as a dead man does from the actions of life. (2.) That they should reckon themselves alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord; quickened by his grace, as the divine principle, to newness of life, and engaged and inclined to live to his glory as their great end.
This being then the great privilege, dignity, and duty of believers, we are most powerfully urged to walk agreeably thereunto. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. We are particularly called upon to deny the cravings of bodily appetite, by which the strongest temptations to sin enter; that, however beset, we may not yield obedience to the former lusts, in which we walked in the days of our ignorance. Neither yield ye your members, neither those of your bodies, nor the faculties of your souls, as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, to war in that hateful cause, under so foul a captain: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God, living henceforward for his glory and employing body, soul, and spirit in his blessed service, and to advance his kingdom and interests in the world, fighting under his banners, and faithful unto death.
But some man might object to this, that if this be the case, and we are no more under the law, we may live as we list. The Apostle prevents and refutes the objection: What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid: this would be to act in opposition to the whole design of the Gospel salvation, and inconsistently, with all our professions as children of grace. For know ye not, that it is a truth obvious and incontestable, to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servant ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? No man can serve two masters utterly contradictory in their commands. The servants of sin, who willingly surrender themselves to this tyrant's will, must infallibly reap eternal death as the wages of their work; while the faithful servants of God are servants of obedience unto righteousness, his interests being thus perseveringly served and advanced, and their end is eternal life. According therefore to the service in which we are employed, we shew what master we serve, and to whom we belong. But God be thanked, that though ye were, in times past, the servants of sin, ye do not continue so; but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you; both in heart and conduct now cast into the mould of the glorious Gospel, and bearing all its amiable lineaments, in the most blessed and happy conformity to him who is the great Author of it, Jesus Christ.
Being then made free from sin, by the power of the eternal Spirit through the Gospel effectually operating to destroy the dominion, tyranny, and love of sin, ye became the servants of righteousness; discharged from the hateful servitude of iniquity, and entered into the service of a better Master, which is perfect freedom, the willing subjects of the holy Jesus, your rightful Lord and Sovereign. I speak after the manner of men, representing this matter under the familiar images of masters and servants, because of the infirmity of your flesh, the understanding being still dark, and most easily receiving spiritual ideas, when communicated under the veil of sensible objects. For as, in time past, ye yielded your members, both body and soul, servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, willing slaves to every vile affection, going from evil to worse, and fulfilling all the corrupt desires of the flesh and of the mind; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness; let every member of your body and faculty of your soul be as freely, delightfully, constantly, and universally employed in the service of the blessed Jesus your Master, and in the practice of righteousness and true holiness, as by nature they were before engaged in the service of sin.
And surely the strongest obligations now lie upon you thus to walk in holiness: for when ye were the servants of sin, wholly devoted to its service, ye were free from righteousness; not from the obligations to it, which are immutable and eternal; but ye cast off all restraint, were utterly averse to the rule of righteousness, and boasted of liberty, when the most wretched slaves of corruption. And a moment's reflection will now convince you of the misery of that state in which you lay; for what fruit had ye then in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed? did not the curse of sin follow you close as your shadow? did not the sting of it at times torment and make you miserable in the midst of your enjoyments? did not the very pursuits in which you were engaged involve you in trouble, disappointment, vexation? and were you not always unsatisfied; and did you not feel an aching void, which nothing that you possessed could fill? and with what shame, horror, and remorse, do you now reflect upon your past conduct! for, careless and thoughtless as you then were, you now know, that the end of those things is death eternal, which must have been your miserable lot, if you had not been plucked through divine grace as brands from the burning. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, since this blessed exchange of matters, ye have your fruit unto holiness, walking in that good conversation and godliness which brings glory to God, and is most comfortable to your own souls and the blessed end and issue of which to the faithful soul will be everlasting life: For the wages of sin, the accursed master whom ye formerly served, is death, including all miseries, both here and hereafter, of soul and body, and that to eternity: but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us then examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith, and with deepest self-application consider what the Apostle has here advanced. Our everlasting hopes depend on our experience of these things. We most fatally deceive ourselves, if we talk of grace, and promise ourselves heaven, and live and die the servants of corruption.