For the wages of sin is death... ROM 6:23.

You have probably heard that mentioned at funeral services and other times, but have you noticed that the verse is not referring to merely physical death? When you understand ROM 6:23, it in fact is not primarily speaking of our physical death. It's speaking of spiritual death.

Watch what it says. It starts out with the word For. When it starts with the word For, we have to see what preceeds this word. The entire sixth chapter of Romans is speaking of spiritual death. It speaks of crucifying that old man of sin. It speaks of crucifying that lust and that old man. It's talking about marking death upon sin, upon self, and upon the world.

It says if you walk in sin, you bring spiritual death to your soul. Look at ROM 6:6. "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin."

It's speaks of crucifying that old man of sin. "For the wages of sin is death." If we're going to walk in sin, if we're going to walk in the carnal, with envy and strife, what's the result? The Lord withdraws Himself. The Spirit of Christ is not there.

What's the result? We're walking in death. We're walking in spiritual death. "For the wages of sin is death." When we walk in all these things of the flesh, it says that the wages of sin is death. It is Spiritual death, but the gift of God is Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Knowing that the old man is crucified with him, thus all those old desires, the carnal mind must be crucified. Remember the words of ROM 6:16. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey." Watch what it says, "whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?"

So if we obey the old man of sin, obey those fleshly desires of our hearts, and walk in the things of disobedience, we are working Spiritual death, not obedience unto righteousness. What does the word righteousness mean? It means obedience and conformity of life to the divine law.