<p>6:23<i>For the wages of sin is death</i>- Used specifically of pay given to soldiers (Lk. 3:14; 1 Cor. 9:7; and every usage in the LXX is in this connection- 1 Esdra 4:56; 1 Macc. 3:28; 14:32). This would continue the military analogy which was used in Rom. 6:13- of presenting our limbs as armour, weapons Gk., to King Sin. See also the military term in Rom. 7:8.</p><p>The&nbsp;<em>wages</em>&nbsp;of sin and the&nbsp;<em>gift</em>&nbsp;of God are here contrasted. &ldquo;God&rdquo; and &ldquo;sin&rdquo; are the names of the two slave masters in 6:22. We noted under 6:22&nbsp;<em>you have your fruit</em>&nbsp;that the everlasting life will be the end result of our service, given at the day of judgment at Christ&rsquo;s return. It may be that we are intended to visualize the wages of sin being paid at the same time. In any case, all believers, all servants of God, will die in any case. This isn&rsquo;t the wages of sin. Surely the &ldquo;death&rdquo; that is in view here in 6:23 is the second death at the day of judgment.&nbsp;</p><p>Asaph laments how the wicked seem to be so prosperous, and then remembers that one day God will awake. More than this, he comes to see that &quot;they...&nbsp;<em>shall&nbsp;</em>perish: thou&nbsp;<em>hast</em>&nbsp;destroyed them... how are they brought into desolation, as in a moment they&nbsp;<em>are</em>&nbsp;utterly consumed with terrors&quot; (Ps. 73:27,19). The wages of sin&nbsp;<em>is</em>&nbsp;death (Rom. 6:23)- not 'it will be death at the judgment', it&nbsp;<em>is</em>&nbsp;right now the response God makes to sin. Because God is without time, the judgment has effectively happened to them. We are come to &quot;God the judge of all&quot;- even now (Heb. 12:23).</p><p><i>But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord</i>- Remember that the context of this whole section in Romans is that of becoming&nbsp;<em>in&nbsp;</em>Christ by baptism&nbsp;<em>into</em>&nbsp;Him. This is what associates us with the gift of eternal life.</p><p>Our natural man, the devil, is a personification of sin. He cannot be reformed; he can only be destroyed by death. &quot;The wages of the sin: death&quot; (Rom. 6:23 Diaglott) seems to suggest that Rom. 6:23 is not saying that we die for each specific sin we commit (you can only die for one sin anyway, because we only have one life); rather is it saying that the end of the natural man, &quot;sin&quot;, the devil within us, is death. Therefore we must associate ourselves with the man Christ Jesus, both in baptism and in our way of life, so that the personification of Christ within us will be clothed with a glorious bodily form at his return.</p>