What Does Romans 6:23 Mean in the King James?
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse separates what missing earns from what favor gives: death is a wage, while the life of the ages comes as God’s gift.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you now: the path of missing bears death as its wage, while God gives you the life of the ages through Jesus Christ. Jesus (Ἰησοῦς, Iēsous; Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ, Yeshua, deliverance) and Christ (Χριστός, Christos; Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ, mashiach, the Anointed One) name the deliverance and anointing through which this gift comes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that life with God can be earned through moral performance; this verse names it as God’s gift.
THE ROOT
ἁμαρτία
hamartia
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρταν-
hamartan-
To miss, err, or fail to reach.
The word translated “sin” carries the sense of missing. The verse’s stark image is what this missing yields: death as wages.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss or err.
ἁμαρτάνω
The related verb makes the sense of missing active: a way of moving that fails to reach its end.
hamartēma: A fault, error, or miss.
ἁμάρτημα
This related noun shows the same root naming a particular instance of missing.
χάρισμα
charisma
GROWS FROM
χάρις
charis
Favor.
The gift is a favor-shaped grant: χάρισμα (charisma) takes its form from χάρις (charis), favor. Set against wages, it reveals life as given rather than owed as compensation.
ALSO GROWS
charizomai: To grant freely, or to forgive.
χαρίζομαι
This related verb shows favor taking the form of a free grant.
charitoō: To favor or bestow favor.
χαριτόω
This verb carries the same favor-root into the act of granting favor.
ζωὴ αἰώνιος
zōē aiōnios
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
An age or era.
“eternal life” in this verse is zōē aiōnios. The word rendered “eternal” also carries the sense “of the age.” The phrase opens onto life belonging to the ages God gives.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: An age or era.
αἰών
This is the root word carried within αἰώνιος.
aiōnios: Of an age; age-long.
αἰώνιος
This adjective connects the life in the verse to an age, as well as to duration.
THE PATTERN
Death is the yield of missing, while life comes from God’s giving.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.THE THREAD
For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)The word “gift” in Romans 6:23 is χάρισμα (charisma), formed from χάρις (charis, favor); Romans 5:17 names that same favor-root beside gift and life. The shared root reveals God’s gift as favor’s answer to death’s reign.
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