NOTES for Rom 6:23

The obvious contrast "death - life" corresponds to the second pair of opposites, "wages - gift of God." Thus the apostle Paul points out that death is not something sent or created by God, but simply the inevitable consequence of sin. Indeed, sin separates us from God, and only God is the source of eternal life; therefore sin cuts us off from eternal life, and the absence of eternal life is, properly speaking, death. Sin carries its wages within itself.

With life everything is different. The human being himself is not eternal; God is eternal, and the human being is created by God, and therefore his existence is already not absolute. But God, who possesses eternal life, is ready to give it to us; more than that, He gives it to us, He has already stretched it out to us. This gift, this eternal life, already exists in a Man, in Jesus Christ, and we have only to accept this gift. For this we must, first, believe that it really is so, otherwise this gift simply does not exist for us; second, be united with Christ, otherwise this life cannot pass into us; and third, quite simply, not sin, otherwise sin will again tear us away from life.

What, the third thing does not work? Then we have not united ourselves well with Christ; let us return to the second step, which is called "bringing repentance." The second does not work? Then we must think properly about what we believe...