What are dead works?
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GRACE ambassador
Well-Known Member
The 'Lord, Lord' works done Without "repentance and faith"?:
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that
doeth The Will of My Father Which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in Thy Name? and in Thy Name have cast out devils? and in Thy Name
done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I Never Knew you: depart
from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matthew 7:21-23 AV)
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And, precious friend(s), Please Be Very Richly Encouraged and Edified
In The Lord Jesus Christ and In His Precious Word Of Truth, Rightly
Divided:
The Bible: The BIG Picture
Amen.
ScottA
Well-Known Member
Hebrews 6:1 refers and appeals to noting the times, as being past the foundation laid by Israel, and even past the basic or elementary principles of Christ. As a way of saying, that knowing where we are in the greater plan of God, we ought not dwell or stop there, but press on to what God has in store, and the very purpose of why those former things were established and brought into being and to pass. That they were brought to pass--not to remain in, as if to build the foundation of a house and not actually continue on to build the upper structure.
A matter that the church has mostly failed in.
Legalism says, you are accepted, because you perform. License says, because you are accepted, obedience does not matter. Paul rejects both, then he gives the command that frames the whole passage, Galatians 5:16, the word flesh here does not mean the physical body is evil. Paul is not teaching hatred of the body, he is describing fallen human nature turned away from God, the old self-directed life that bends even good things inward until they become idols. Right before Galatians 5:22-23, Paul lists what that old life produces, sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, hatred, strife, jealousy, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissensions, envy, drunkenness and more. You can almost hear a church coming apart in this list, arguments at tables, rival groups forming in corners, people measuring each other’s spirituality, freedom becoming self-protection, desire becoming law.
quietthinker
Well-Known Member
A Gentile believer sits at the table, still new to the scriptures of Israel, still learning the story of Abraham, Moses, David and the prophets, he has been told that through faith in Jesus Christ, he belongs, he is not a guest on the edge of God’s family, he is an heir. Then another teacher arrives and says, in effect, faith in Jesus is good, but it is not enough, you still need circumcision, you still need to take on the identity markers of the law of Moses, you need Jesus plus this. For that new believer, the question is not theoretical, it is the question of belonging, did Paul tell me the whole truth or am I still standing outside the door? That question would touch everything, it would touch who could eat together, who could marry whom, who could be called brother, who could pray with confidence, who could stand up in the assembly without feeling like a second-class believer, a doctrine that sounds abstract on paper becomes painful when it decides where you sit at the table.
Hebrews 9:14,
- how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God
In this context from dead works is probably speaking of the ashes of the red heifer which cleansed from ceremonial defilement caused by the contact with a dead body.
The blood of Christ cleanses the conscience from the defilement of dead works.
This was practised under the old law.
Numbers 19:9,
- and a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and lay them up without the camp in a clean place and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of seperation:
It is a purification for sin
The ashes were mixed with water for purification of anyone who touched a dead body.
This ritual restored ceremonial cleanliness. It did not remove moral guilt from sin.
Numbers 19:11,
- he that touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days
Hebrews 9:13-14,
- for if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh
- how much more shall the blood of Christ who though the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God
The blood of Christ cleanses the conscience from the defilement of dead works.
Hebrews 6:1,
- repentance from dead works...
They need to repent, change their mind of reliance on Levitical sacrifices from justification and remission of sins is not what the writer is saying they need to repent of. Yes these sacrifices cannot forgive sins. And they are no longer in effect as they are replaced with the new covenant, the law of Christ, Galatians 6:2.
Instead repentance of dead works are their sinful actions which produce death, Romans 6:23.
This is why the author uses the expression to purify the conscious from dead works. To serve the living God.
Dead works are their sins. When these sins are removed by believing in Jesus and obeying His commandments ones conscience is cleansed of the sins they commited.
Good question. Dead works are the things we do to try to earn God's favor apart from faith in Christ, religious effort with no living trust behind it. Hebrews calls us to repent of them and press on. Works that flow from faith are alive; works done to replace faith are not.
God calls you to build a guard over your mind, a spiritual filter, every idea, every story, every suggestion that anxiety throws at you must pass a test. 2 Corinthians 10:5, not every thought deserves to live in your mind, not every worry deserves a place at your table, not every fear deserves your agreement, you have the power through the Holy Spirit to test every thought, to measure it against truth, to cast it down if it does not align with the heart of God. Like 2 Timothy 1:7, if God didn’t give it, why are you carrying it, the spirit of lust is more than sexual temptation, its hunger dislocated, it stirs obsession with images, fantasy, stimulation, it reshapes your brain to confuse intimacy with indulgence, it haunts your quiet moments and it often works with shame to create the perfect trap.
