For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Parallel translations
- WEB For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- KJV For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- BSB For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- NKJV For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- NASB For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Sin pays the wage of death, but God gives the free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus. Salvation is grace, not earnings.
Overview
This climactic verse contrasts what sin earns with what God freely bestows. Death is the just wage of sin, while eternal life is an unmerited gift grounded in Christ. The deliberate language of 'wages' versus 'free gift' magnifies grace and locates all hope of life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 32
- John 3:36One 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.”
- Rom 5:12Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.
- Jas 1:15Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, produces death.
- John 6:40This 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.”
- Ezek 18:20The 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.
- Matt 25:46These 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.
- Ezek 18:4Behold, 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.
- Rom 2:7to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life;
- Rom 5:21that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Gen 2:17but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”
- John 10:28I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
- Rev 21:8But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
- Gal 6:7–8Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
- Titus 1:2in hope of eternal life, which God, who can’t lie, promised before time began;
- Rom 5:17For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.
- 1 Jn 5:11–12The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
- Rom 6:16Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
- John 17:2even as you gave him authority over all flesh, he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
- 1 Pet 1:3–4Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
- John 5:39–40“You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.
- John 3:14–17As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
- John 6:32–33Jesus therefore said to them, “Most certainly, I tell you, it wasn’t Moses who gave you the bread out of heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread out of heaven.
- Isa 3:11Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them; for the deeds of his hands will be paid back to him.
- John 6:68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.
- 1 Cor 6:9–10Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,
- John 6:27Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has sealed him.”
- 1 Jn 2:25This is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life.
- Gen 3:19By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
- John 6:50–58This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die.
- John 4:14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
- Gal 3:10For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 6:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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