Romans 6:23

I decided to go ahead and start posting today, but my posts will probably not come every Wednesday. Anyway, the text verse for this post is Romans 6:23--For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What a great verse this is! Today I want to look at a literary tool called an antanagoge, which is used perfectly in this verse. An antanagoge is the statement of a negative point counteracted by the statement of a positive point afterward, such as "That girl's a blond, but she's a great athlete." (My apologies to the blonds reading this.)

This device is used to the extreme in Romans 6:23. "For the wages of sin is death" is about as negative as it gets; I don't know of any worse news you could receive. But praise God for the positive statement! "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." It absolutely does not get any better than that. I'm so glad that, although we're death-deserving sinners, God gave us the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

And remember, it is a gift. It is not earned; it is freely given. There's nothing we can do to deserve it; God simply gives it out of love. And it is through Jesus, and through Jesus only. There is no other way.

So please, go and spread the positive statement that Jesus came and died to take away our sins, and rejoice in that fact. There is no better news you could give. And if you don't know Him as Savior, come to Him now. You won't regret it. I promise.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and I'll see you next time on The Devoet. God bless!