For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:23 NIV)
We cannot appreciate the magnitude of God's gift of eternal life until we first understand that the wages of sin are death. Wages are what we "earned," what we "deserve." "Death" is not only physical death, here, but spiritual and eternal death. Our sin was an offence to the infinitely holy God, and thus justly deserved eternal punishment. But God's grace, which was greater than all our sin, brings us eternal life instead.
PRAYER: Lord, help us to see that your punishment for sin is just and to sense something of the true heinousness of sin. Help us to appreciate more fully how much we were forgiven, and having been forgiven much, to love much. 
