Repentance from dead works

One of the fundamental doctrines described in the New Testament is "repentance for dead works." But what is a "dead work"? Is it necessary that we repent of them even today? 

In Hebrews 6: 1-2 we find six of the fundamental doctrines of the New Testament. The first of these is "repentance for dead works." These doctrines were written so that the Jewish believers would learn to put them into practice and go "to perfection".

But, if we want to understand the first of these doctrines, we must first study the context of the book of Hebrews. We need to understand why this book was written.

A book for Jews

The main theme of the book of Hebrews is the superiority of God. In writing, the author attempted to explain and convince a Jewish audience that the New Covenant was far superior to the Old. Jews generally thought that the only way to be pleasing to God was to strictly obey his law; They believed that their atonement system and rigorous obedience to the law could make them worthy of forgiveness of sins and justification before God.

And abandoning this wrong belief was very difficult even for converted Jews. They needed someone to remind them of the fact that it is not enough to keep the law to be justified by God. This is why the author emphasizes that only faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ can make forgiveness of sins possible. Although it is true that keeping the law of God is fundamental, the mere fact of doing it cannot grant us forgiveness or salvation; a Christian can never be justified by his works, as good as they are.

Later in the book of Hebrews, the author reminds Christian Jews that, although the rituals of the time had served a purpose at the time, only "the blood of Christ ... will cleanse your conscience of dead works" (Hebrews 9:14 ). Sacrificing an animal will never forgive sins or cleanse a person's conscience.

A book for us too

But the teaching of the book of Hebrews is not just for the believing Jews of the day; We all have "dead works" that need to be forgiven. Before we reach conversion, our lives are full of dead works, and these can affect us even when we are converted.

In other words, repentance from dead works applies to every human being. As we read in 2 Timothy 3: 16-17, “All Scripture is inspired by God, and useful to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in righteousness, so that the man of God is perfect, fully prepared for every good work ”. But to better understand this fundamental teaching, we must also know exactly what repentance is.

What is repentance?

Repentance is a change of attitude, mind, and behavior. It is an approach to God to ask for his forgiveness for our sins and his help to change the course of our lives. When someone repents, it is because they have realized their personal sins and have understood that Christ died so that they would be forgiven. And, as a consequence, he decides to ask for God's forgiveness and be baptized in water.

If you want to understand this topic in more depth, we invite you to read two of our articles also available in this section, “What is repentance?” and "How to repent".

This brings us to the subject of "works". This word is used several times throughout the New Testament. The Bible speaks of two types of works: those that are pleasing to God and those that are sinful and unacceptable to Him.

Good works

The word “work” or “works” comes from the Greek ergon , which according to Vine's exhaustive expository Dictionary of Words, means “action, act”, within the believing context (pp. 683-684). So a good work is an action acceptable to God. Works of this type are the fruit of living in faith and according to the Ten Commandments.  

According to the book of James, to do good works — actions that please God — is to obey his laws, which are contained in his word (James 1: 21-27; 2: 8-26). James specifically defines "works" as acts or acts, and further advises us to be "doers of the work" (James 1:25). The author clearly explains that doing good works means living according to the Ten Commandments and other God-inspired principles that we find throughout the Bible.

Jesus Christ Himself taught His disciples that they should be an example to the world, making their light shine before all men (Matthew 5:16). And the example they were to give was their "good works," that is, their obedience to God's law.

Furthermore, the apostle Paul defines the concept of good works as "the fruit of the Spirit" - those thoughts and actions that are contrary to the "works of the flesh." Good works are the product of the work of the Holy Spirit in us, which is manifested as "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Galatians 5: 22-23).

Ungodly works

On the other hand, ungodly works are those that God disapproves of; they are actions that break your law in one way or another. The apostle Paul describes this type of works as the “works of the flesh”, which are: “adultery, fornication, filth, lust, idolatry, witchcraft, enmities, lawsuits, jealousy, anger, strife, dissension, heresy, envy, homicide , drunkenness, orgies, and the like ”(Galatians 5: 19-21). These evil deeds are the product of the carnal mind and are driven by human nature.

The word "works" is also used by Paul to correct those who believed that their good conduct could justify them before God. The apostle explained that ritual laws — like any other type of law — cannot justify us, and he describes these types of actions as "the works of the law." Furthermore, it reveals to us that the only way to be justified (receiving forgiveness of sins to be pleasing to God) is through faith in the sacrifice of Christ, for only the blood of Jesus can cleanse us from sin — only obedience to the law cannot do it.

Dead works

Now that we understand what a “work” according to the New Testament is, we can analyze the concept of “dead works”. According to Clarke's Holy Bible Commentary , dead works are "those works that deserve death — the works of those who were dead in transgression and sin, and died according to the sentence of the law, for their works had broken the law" (emphasis added).   

And this comment is in line with what Paul writes in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death." In 1 John 3: 4, we find the following definition of sin: “Everyone who commits sin also breaks the law; for sin is a violation of the law. ” In other words, to sin is to break the Ten Commandments of God, and it is an act that is worth the death penalty if we do not regret doing it.

In other versions of the Bible, the phrase "repentance of dead works" is translated as "repentance of works that lead to death" (New International Version) or repentance of "actions that lead to death" (Reina Valera Contemporánea ).

The repentance of dead works continues

Every human being, except Jesus Christ, has ever sinned; As Paul writes, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

The apostle John warns us that “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all evil. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us ”(1 John 1: 8-10).

This means that, because of sin, we all have “dead works” that we must repent of in order to receive God's forgiveness. These dead works (futile and futile actions) defined our lives before our conversion. And, once converted, we must persevere in repenting and overcoming any work that leads to death.

If you want more information on this topic, we invite you to visit our section on "Christian conversion".