It is interesting that Paul calls death the wage, the earned payment, of sin, not the penalty. Sin as master pays death as the wage to those who work for it, who serve it. An eye-opening metaphor. We gain death incrementally—what we accrue as we work in, for, and to sin is death. The lusts and wanton, ill-directed desires, which hold out such pictures of enjoyment, happiness, and fulfillment, and toward which we strive and expend our efforts pay death instead. It is truly an astounding bait-and-switch that we fall for over and over. We know it every time we do something we know we shouldn’t do, even when those things are self-imposed thou shalt nots. We do it and the joy and fulfillment that was just before us vanishes and we are left crushed and defeated, loathing our weakness and lack of self-control. Not only does doing the thing point out to us our weakness, it makes us weaker. Next time we have less resistance to the dictates of the master. We hate it, but not enough to change what we do. Slaves we are to Sin and shall be until we kill it, until we die to sin ourselves and live to serve the Righteous One.
