REPENTANCE FROM DEAD WORKS

Foundation Principles Series - Part I

“Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.  And this will we do, if God permit” (Hebrews 6:1-3).                                

In the beginning of chapter 6 of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, we find what Paul refers to as “the principles of the doctrine of Christ,” and, in chapter 5:12, he calls them, “the first principles of the oracles of God.”  He makes it pretty clear by what he says at the end of chapter 5 that, until we can understand this “milk of the word,” we will find it difficult to advance to deeper truths, or “strong meat.”  So, in an effort to do just that, and to better understand these foundational truths, I would like to explore them one at a time and publish them periodically as God permits.  This is Part One of that effort.

Repentance from dead works seems like a pretty simple concept on the surface, and I think that we, as Christians, generally understand it.  We know that we must be truly sorry for our sins in order to receive forgiveness from our Heavenly Father.  There must be an acknowledging of our wrongdoing to God – a coming clean and agreeing with God’s assessment of our spiritual state.  We may also be pretty clear that the word repentance means to “turn away” from our sins altogether and determine not to return to them again.  Like the parent of a child who has broken a rule or lied to them, that parent is looking for some sign of contrition from the child to indicate that they understand that they must amend their ways and not repeat that behavior in the future.  Telling God, “I’m sorry,” after we commit a sin; and then not being willing to make a clean break with the thing that may have led us into the sin in the first place, is not repentance.  Paul describes the effect of true repentance in 2 Corinthians 7:11: “For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge!”  Heartfelt repentance should evoke the same reaction in us that it did in Job when he said, “…I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6).  Without true heartfelt repentance and remorse over the things that we’ve done in our lives that have violated God’s holiness, and His principles of righteousness, there can be no redemption.  Going to church and professing to be a Christian is meaningless without coming to God in contrition and true humility, and owning the failures of our past.

What I would like to focus on in this First Principle, is the “dead works” from which we are to repent from.  Without a proper understanding of the dead works and what they are, we will see no need of repentance.  The question, therefore, is what are dead works, and why should we repent of them?

Paul tells us, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).  In the Garden of Eden man was given a choice between the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  The Tree of Life afforded man uninterrupted communion with God Himself.  The picture in Genesis gives us just a glimpse of the intimacy of that relationship.  God walked in the Garden with man, and talked with him face-to-face.  Man was given, not just life, but spiritual life through the fellowship that he enjoyed with his Creator.  His spirit reflected the character and image of his heavenly Father.  He could have eaten freely from the Tree of Life and received eternal life right then and there.  Adam and Eve made the tragic decision to disobey their Maker, however,  and eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which the Lord had warned them not to do.  God told them, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16, 17).  Two things happened when Adam and Eve bit into the forbidden fruit: first, the fellowship that they had enjoyed with their Maker was broken.  Something happened in their spirit that created a separation from God.  Suddenly, they felt compelled to hide themselves from His presence.  For the first time in their lives, they experienced the feeling of guilt and shame.  The second thing that happened was that the clock began running down on their lives.  Their bodies began the slow but irresistible march toward ultimate death.  Both of these things were forms of death and were the fulfillment of God’s warning, “…for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” 

Man was now able to function independently from God.  His eyes were opened, and he became as a god in his own eyes, knowing good and evil.  What a horrific wage he had to pay for the sin that he chose!  Every decision he made was now tainted by his selfish, carnal nature; and even the good that he did was spotted with pride and self-righteousness.  Without the Spirit of God, man was doomed to walk in the flesh.  His works became “dead works” because they were born out of his own heart, strength, and will, and not the heart of God.  Consequently, every child that was born into the world afterwards was born with the same carnal nature.  “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Romans 5:12).  In the same way that we are all born with familiar traits and similarities from our parents and ancestors, so also were Adam and Eve’s descendants (which include you and me) born with a sin nature.  The only remedy is the gift of grace that God now offers man by the obedience of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for sinners.  We can receive a “reboot” by trusting in the work of redemption that Jesus performed on the cross, believing in the effectiveness of His shed blood to cleanse away our every sin, and receiving the new birth which restores our fellowship with God.  “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ.)...For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” (Romans 5:17, 19).

The first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 2, begins, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”  The word “quickened” used here means “to be made alive.”  As long as we are without Christ, we are in a state of spiritual death.  To remedy this seeming hopeless situation, we need nothing short of a resurrection spiritually speaking.  Better yet, we need to be born all over again, not once more as a clone of Adam, but spiritually, having our inner man reawakened to a living relationship with God our Father.  When a common seed is planted in the earth, the hard outer shell is softened and dies away.  Then, the tender germ of life that has been trapped inside that shell, and has laid dormant until now, breaks out into a sprout, then a shoot, then a sapling, and ultimately a tree.  Then, it can bear fruit itself which will contain the seeds which will produce many more trees!  

It is not until we are born again that we are made alive again to spiritual things – it is then that we are quickened by God’s Holy Spirit dwelling in us.  The Apostle Paul says, “the natural man [unsaved and unregenerate] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 3:14).  So, as surely as our first birth brought us into this world and introduced us to the rudimentary principles of living in the flesh, so also does our second birth introduce us to the principles of godliness, and of living in the Spirit.  Jesus told Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh [or fleshly; carnal in nature]; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit [or spiritual in nature].” (John 3:5, 6).  The phrase “born of water” refers to the water that surrounds a fetus before natural childbirth, and not, as some have misinterpreted it, Christian baptism.  If the latter were true, then the thief on the cross could not have entered into Paradise as Jesus promised because he was not baptized.  Also, the second sentence of Jesus’ statement is supports the first.  Jesus uses the phrase “Born of water and of the Spirit” to mean the same as “born of the flesh,” and “born of the Spirit.”

Paul continues in Ephesians 2: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”  Scripture makes it quite clear that, “…the whole world lieth in wickedness [or in the wicked one]” (1 John 5:19).  These verses couldn’t be any plainer in describing our miserable state before salvation.  This is why the Lord wants us to recognize the danger in the visible kingdoms of this world, and to usher us into the glorious invisible kingdom of His dear Son (Colossians 1:13).  Before being in Christ, we were “by nature” the children of wrath; but now, in Christ, we have become the children of God.  Before Christ, we were dead in trespasses and sins; but in Christ we have come alive in Him!

As you can see, this idea of dead works goes far beyond blatant and obvious sin.  It encompasses all of the works of the flesh.  God has a pretty good idea of how He wishes to accomplish His work on earth.  He doesn’t need our help figuring it out.  As Christians, our mission is to discover the determinate will of the Father, and then let the Spirit lead us in the ways that He instructs us to help fulfill that will.  We are often too full of our own agendas and programs to hear clearly the Father’s will for us.  This is a very subtle deception that the devil uses to derail the children of God.  The enemy of our soul would make us so busy doing “Christian” things that we miss entirely the grand purpose of God.  Because we have been so accustomed to “doing our own thing” in the world, it is natural for us to continue to do so as Christians.  Instead of praying and seeking God to know His will, and then asking for His grace to accomplish that will in our lives; we go about our business, doing as we please, and expect God to bless our every decision!  Even our best, most noble (even sacrificial) works, if born out of our own will, are dead works in the end.  Oh, how needful it is for us to learn to follow Jesus and be led by the Spirit of God.  Jesus calls His followers to follow Him, but we expect that once we are saved He is going to follow us, but, “…as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God.” (Romans 8:14).

Paul is very direct in his statements concerning dead works in Romans 8.  In this chapter, he clearly expresses the danger of walking in dead works and not being subject to the Spirit.  “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5-8).  Put quite simply: if we are walking in the flesh, we are working against God!  The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day are a classic example of this; they considered themselves God’s chosen, and yet desperately wanted to put the Messiah to death!  The Apostle Paul too, before his conversion, thought he was doing God’s work by rounding up Christians to be imprisoned and killed.  God has given us His Spirit to guide us into all truth and give us power to overcome the fleshly and carnal impulses that would lead us away from His perfect will.

When David was preparing to meet Goliath on the field of battle, Saul placed his own armor on David in order to fully prepare him for warfare.  Conventional wisdom said that if you were going to a fight, you better take all of the state-of-the-art weaponry and armor that was at your disposal to increase your chance of victory and survival.  David, however, was unfamiliar with the use of such armor.  In the end, he refused it in favor of his sling and a few stones.  This was according to God’s purpose.  Ultimately, Goliath’s defeat at the hands of a young man with a stone and sling brought greater glory to God and made it evident to Israel that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.  In the same way we must learn to rely on God more than on our own fleshly strength and weapons.   The Lord told Paul, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

The good news is that everything that has been lost in Adam has now been restored in Christ Jesus.  He is again able to walk with man, and man is able to commune with God through the Holy Spirit that He gives to those who love Him.  We must learn to walk in the Spirit at all times in order to please Him, however.  We must be quick to repent of our own dead works and be patient in seeking and discovering God’s will for us.  To refuse Saul’s armor and approach the giants in our life with just a sling and a stone takes great faith and courage, but, oh, the rewards are breathtaking!  Will you cease from your own dead works?  Will you be led by the Spirit of the living God?  Let your answer be a resounding, YES!  “For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  (2 Corinthians 6:16)

Even if we have never committed a sin in our lives up to this moment, we are still sinners before God because we have been born with the carnal, sin nature that we have inherited from our fleshly father Adam.  Our history and our nature are wrapped up in him.  When Adam sinned, the curse was passed down through every generation after him.  Because death came upon Adam, death came upon us all.  Somehow, sometime, we have all transgressed in thought, word, or deed.  We have all sinned, come short of the glory of God, and are in need of repentance (Romans 3:23).  In Christ the Savior our history has changed, however.  We find grace, redemption, forgiveness, and power at the cross of Jesus Christ.  His blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness!  We can be born again, not of the natural seed of man which makes us debtors to the flesh and slaves to sin; but of the spiritual seed of God that sets the captive souls free and breaks the chains of sin and death. 

Repentance should not be a reluctant act that we are forced into only when we are “found out.”  It should be a way of life for the children of God.  We need to become so sensitive to the Spirit of the Father operating in our lives that we are immediately pricked in our heart when we act in the flesh and step outside God’s will.  You are not alone, My Friend, we all do this more often than we like to admit; but the Father is very loving and kind toward His children, and He gently corrects and instructs us as we freely acknowledge our faults to Him and determine to walk in His ways.  When we do this, then we find that our path with God is, “…as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18).