Romans 6:23 (KJV)

What does this mean?

Paul has been explaining that sin is like a master who pays his workers, and the pay it hands out is death. The old word wages means the pay earned for work, and Paul says that is what a life of sin earns. Then he turns the picture around completely: God's gift, which no one earns, is life that lasts forever, and it comes through Jesus Christ.

What does this teach us?

Sin pays, but God gives. The verse draws a sharp line between what we earn and what we receive — death is earned, life is a gift — and the gift comes through Jesus Christ, not through our own goodness.

How can we apply this?

If you have been trying to earn God's favor, stop and receive the gift instead. Thank God for the life he gives freely, and let that gift change how you live today — not working to earn what is already given, but living like someone who has been given everything.

Related KJV passages

• “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

  John 3:16

• “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

  Romans 5:8

• “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

  Romans 8:1