Dead Works

Hebrews 6:1 “Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.”

In a short study that I found, it stated that the phrase “dead works” can be found only twice in the New Testament. In the first, it refers to the deeds of the unsaved sinner from which he must turn away in salvation, while in the second is in Hebrews 9:13-14 “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”, and it refers to unprofitable deeds accomplished by the believer, from which we must also turn away.

Dead works are certainly not good works, but neither are they necessarily evil works. Rather, they are ineffective, useless acts that count for nothing. They are as different from evil or good works as wild fruit is from good fruit or bad fruit. In this analogy, while bad fruit looks unappealing and would never pass for food, wild fruit may have the appearance of good fruit but lacks flavor and nutritional value and would provide no useful function even if it were eaten. In just the same way, dead works, which may be of some humanitarian value, lacks life—not stemming from proper motives and not being propelled by godly love and thus accomplish nothing of lasting value.

The non-Christian can pridefully indulge in such works, but this must be repented of at the point of salvation. In theology, repentance is defined as the pain, regret or affliction which a person feels on account of his past conduct. Real penitence; sorrow or deep contrition for sin, as an offense and dishonor to God, a violation of His holy law, and the basest ingratitude towards a Supreme Being of infinite benevolence. This is called evangelical repentance, and is accompanied and followed by amendment of life. 

Likewise, the Christian must replace his useless dead works with good works through the power of the Spirit of the living God. May we continually submit all our efforts to Him, recognizing that service to the living God does not entail our dead works.