Examining The Scripture LXXXIX: One of My Favorite Proverbs

Proverbs 10:16 “The wages of the righteous is life, the income of the wicked, punishment”.

There is much in this verse that points to Christ. This verse is another way of saying “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” in Romans 6:23. Therein is one of its appeals for me. Proverbs is neat and the wisdom contained within it is inspired by God so, as 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us it is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” but I enjoy finding/seeing Christ in much of what I read.

I do not mean to diminish Jesus by this statement but I get great joy in finding the shadows and types on my own and having that “A-ha!” moment. I do not perform eisegesis (read things into verses that isn’t there) but I know that the centrality of Scripture is Christ and I know that it I look hard enough and allow the Spirit to work through me I will find Christ directly or indirectly in many of the contexts that I read in the Bible. In the case of this verse it is a neon sign. I didn’t need a commentary to understand its implication either, nor because of its parallel with Romans.

Those that stay the course and walk in a disciplined Godly manner by obeying God and all He commands has accepted God/Jesus through faith. By doing this a person will “live”. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." John 3:36 -also- "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. John 5:24. So why do we gain eternal life from Christ by accepting. It is in this way that God has decided that Jesus Christ’s righteousness will be imputed to us. By accepting that: “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures”…and we are to accept this fact by faith.


There is also an extreme strong parallel with Galatians 6:7 also, “God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” I believe the implication here is that we are all responsible for our own actions regardless of how people view God acting in our lives.

Conversely, the fruit of the wicked. All the profit that the wicked make they use in the service of sin, which tends only to death (Romans 6:21). What we see here is the due reward of honourable industry in contrasted with the gains obtained by any means, discreditable or not.