I pray to God through Christ Jesus to help us understand what is meant by the wages of sin is death in this sermon in Jesus name, Amen.

To answer the question of what is meant by the wages of sin is death in this sermon, we will look at the following points:

1. What is meant by the wages of sin is death?
2. What is sin?
3. Why the physical death is not the wages of sin.
4. The second (spiritual) death as the wages of sin is death.

What the wages of sin is death means.

The wages of sin is death means that human beings who die without repentance will never rise again to life rather they will rise to a second death as the scripture says in John 5: 29: And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

When I contemplate on this scripture I always remind myself of the second death that the scripture speaks severally about:

1. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’
2. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

And I always believe this second death is the wages of sin because everyone, whether they sin or not, are going to die someday.

What is sin according to the bible?

According to the Bible, sin can simply be defined as disobeying God’s commands and statutes, or going against His orders.

The first sin committed in the human generation can sum up this definition.

God told Adam and Eve not to eat a certain fruit in the garden, that if they do they shall die. Genesis 2:16-17.

But they disobeyed this command or went against this order by eating that fruit God told them not to. Genesis 3:1-6.

And since God had earlier told them that the very moment they eat the fruit they shall die, He couldn’t take that word back as Adam and Eve had to pay with their lives for the sin they committed. Genesis 3:19.  

Now let’s see what is meant by the wages of sin is death.

Why the physical death is not the wages of sin.

The physical death is not the wages of sin because everyone on earth, no matter how righteous they are; will all die at their own set time.

Adam and Eve were cursed to die physically in order to set an example of how the wages of sin are going to take effect after physical death.

But then, this curse was to be inherited by their offspring i.e. every human being that will descend from Adam.

Therefore, since then till today, every human being; whether he sins or not; must experience physical death.

However, if we think that it is this kind of physical death that the bible is talking about, we will end up lying against the scriptures.

‘The soul who sins shall die.

Ezekiel 18:20

The second (spiritual) death as the wage of sin is death.

When we go to seek knowledge from the scripture about what is meant by the wages of sin is death, we will come to realize that man is made up of two parts i.e. the physical body is called dust; while the spiritual body is called the breath of life.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathe into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

(Genesis 2:7)

The physical body is doomed to die; even if it sins or not, because, it has already inherited the curse from its first parents- Adam and Eve.

But the spiritual body has a chance to escape death, if it fulfills the process of saving itself through righteousness; while it lives in the physical body.

That is why at the point of death the body goes back to where it came from, while the spirit returns to God in order to receive its wages.

Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

(Ecclesiastes 12:7)

Therefore, if the spirit did not attain righteousness before he left its physical existence; he will pay the wages of his wrongdoings with the second death.

And this is the second death as the bible verses about spiritual death below reveal.

Bible verses about spiritual death.

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.

(Revelation 20:12)

And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. 

(Revelation 20:15)

Then death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

(Revelation 20:14)

The first and second Adam.

The first Adam is the reason why human beings have to die physical death; while the second Adam (Jesus Christ) died and resurrected to prove to mankind that there is a second death.

In other words, the death of Jesus symbolizes the first death that all human beings have to die.

Because even though He was a Man found without fault in his whole life, He still had to experience the first death as all mankind.

In fact, there was no way to escape this first death; because even though He had the power he would have saved Himself, the physical death still had a hold on Him.

But the good news is that He did not submit to physical death as He rose to life again on the third day after his burial.

And so it is written, “the first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life giving spirit. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second man is the Lord from heaven.

(1 Corinthians 15:45, 47)

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

(1 Corinthians 15:22).

Beloved, we can now see that; when the scripture was referring to death as the wages of sin, it did not mean the physical death that we must all go through but rather, the second death for those whose names were not written in the book of life because of their sins.