NOTES for Rom 6:23
The obvious contrast "death - life" is matched by the second pair of opposites, "wages - the gift of God." In this way, 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. A human being is not eternal in himself; God is eternal, and the human being was created by God, so for that reason alone his existence is 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 held it out to us. This gift, this eternal life, already exists in the Man, in Jesus Christ, and all that remains for us is to accept this gift. To do this, first, we must believe that this really is so, otherwise the gift simply does not exist for us; second, we must be united with Christ, otherwise this life cannot pass into us; and third, very simply, we must not sin, otherwise sin will tear us away from life again.
What, the third part is not working? Then we have not been well united with Christ; let us return to the second step. This is called "bringing repentance." The second is not working? Then we need to think carefully about what exactly we believe...