REPENTANCE FROM DEAD WORKS. INTRODUCTION

“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.” Heb6:1-2

The first foundational truth we see here is repentance from dead works. In this series we are going to look at what it means to repent from dead works.

The word repent (metanoia) is defined by Thayer’s lexicon as a change of mind. It means to have a change of mind or a change in one’s thinking or belief. This change of mind always leads to a change of direction or a visible transformation in direction, behavior or actions.

For many of us repenting has come to mean asking God for forgiveness, saying sorry for our sins or feeling terrible and guilty about our failures, iniquities and inadequacies. However this is not biblical.

When the bible speaks of us repenting, it is usually talking about us changing our minds about what we believe about God and what we believe about ourselves.

What we believe in our heart produces the actions and behavior in our lives. Look at these scriptures;

“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Prov4:23

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” Prov23:7

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Rom12:2

When we get saved, we have to change our mind (repent) concerning what we believe about God, purpose, ourselves, life, marriage, money etc. we have to change our mind from what we believe to what God’s Word says about these things.

When we become Christians, we are to change our minds about dead works. We are to repent from all works that are dead works and begin to think about them the same way that God thinks about them.

What are dead works?

In thinking about dead works, many of us tend to think that God is talking about evil works or sins and wickedness. This verse speaks about dead works, not evil works.

Evil works consist of sins, wickedness and all the iniquities that we do. However, God is not speaking about evil works. He is talking about dead works.

There is no functional difference between dead works and good works. We are easily confused about good works and dead works. Dead works look exactly the same as good works. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

We are supposed to do good works, but we are supposed to change our minds about dead works. Dead works and good works can be the same action with different motives.

Dead works are the works, traditions and ceremonies that are dead and of no effect. They profit nothing. They are actions, behaviors and practices that we do believing that they will make us righteous before God and earn us the favor and goodness of God.

When we come to Jesus, we have to change our minds (repent) about dead works. I.e. what we believe makes us righteous and acceptable before God.

In other words we have to stop thinking that our actions and behaviors can make us righteous before God. This is the prevailing mindset of the religious person without Jesus. They try to earn their salvation and righteousness by doing good and not doing bad. However when we come to Jesus in faith, this mindset needs to change.

Dead works and good works are the same actions. Praying, fasting, tithing, giving, witnessing to the lost, serving in the church and so many others.

The difference is in the motives. Why do you do what you do? This is where repentance (a change of mind) needs to occur.

GRACE THE KEY TO TRUE REPENTANCE

It is impossible to understand and change your mind (repent) from dead works without an understanding of the grace of God.

It is a sad thing today that many of us view grace and repentance as contradictory concepts. As a result we have people who claim to embrace grace and have rejected repentance. We also have those who claim to embrace repentance and have rejected grace.

This is largely because of a misunderstanding of what repentance means or what grace means. We have already seen that to repent simply means to change your mind or your thinking. Let us define grace.

Some define grace as the unmerited favor of God. Indeed the Greek word ‘charis’ which was translated as grace in the New Testament was also translated as favor in other passages. Therefore grace is favor and favor is grace. However to restrict grace to only favor is to do a great disservice. It would be equivalent to me defining an atomic bomb as something that explodes. I would be correct in that an atomic bomb explodes but I would be woefully short in my definition. There is so much more to it than that. Unmerited favor is not what grace is, unmerited favor is how we get it.

The word ‘charis’ sometimes denotes a pleasantness of speech or appearance. 

It is thus translated ‘gracious’ for example in Luke 4:22; “And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious (charis) words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?”

And in Colossians4:6 “Let your speech be always with grace (charis), seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”

In other places the word ‘charis’ was used to denote favor that a person received from God or from men. For example;

“And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour (charis) with God.” Lk1:30

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour (charis) with God and man.” Lk2:52

“And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour (charis) and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.” Acts7:10

The word ‘charis’ was also used to denote gifts of money that were given by the churches to the apostles or to the church in Jerusalem;

“And when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your liberality (charis) unto Jerusalem.” 1Cor16:3

“And not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace (charis), which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and declaration of your ready mind” 2Cor8:19

It was also used to mean the increase and prosperity that God gives to the giver to enable them become wealthy and continue to give and be a blessing;

“And God is able to make all grace (charis) abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work” 2Cor9:8

The word ‘charis’ is also used to denote an endowment or ability that God gives to a minster to enable them operate in what He has called them to be and to do. 

Today we call it the anointing.

“For I say, through the grace (charis) given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Rom12:3

“Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace (charis) that is given to me of God, That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.” Rom15:15-16

“According to the grace (charis) of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.” 1Cor3:10

“Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace (charis) of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace (charis) given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” Eph3:7-8

“But unto every one of us is given grace (charis) according to the measure of the gift of Christ” Eph4:7

“I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace (charis) of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; That in everything ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: So that ye come behind in no gift (charisma); waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” 1Cor1:4-7

In other places ‘charis’ was used to denote the empowering and ability of God that works in men to enable them do what God wants. In this sense, grace is the power of God;

“Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace (charis) that is in Christ Jesus.” 2Tim2:1

“But by the grace (charis) of God I am what I am: and his grace (charis) which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace (charis) of God which was with me.” 1Cor15:10

We see from the above scripture grace as something which labors with us working from within us.

“And he said unto me, My grace (charis) is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” 2Cor12:9-10

Here Paul refers to God’s grace as the power of Christ which rested upon him when he was in weakness. This power preserved and kept him in the day of reproach and infirmity and persecution.

However most commonly we see the word ‘charis’ being used to denote the salvation and justification that God provides to us by His unmerited (unearned, undeserved) favor.\

In this regard, this grace (charis) is totally based on God and proceeds entirely from within Himself, and in no way whatsoever depends on us and what we do. In other words it is totally unmerited favor. Our only part then becomes to receive it by faith by which God declares us righteous. There are several scriptures that makes this point. Here are a few;

“Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” Rom11:5-6

“Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Rom4:4-5

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” Rom3:23-24

“I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” Gal2:21

Ephesians 2

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” 2Tim1:9

Titus 3

5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

“Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.” Acts15:10-11

Thayer’s lexicon defines grace (charis) as among others good will, loving-kindness, favour, the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues

Strong’s concordance defines charis as among others the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude): - acceptable, benefit, favour, gift etc.

Therefore there can never be one single sufficient definition of the grace of God. There are several ways that grace can be defined on the basis of scripture. Different contexts within which the word was used tell us a lot about what it is.

However we can see from the different scriptures and definitions of the Greek word charis that grace can be defined as a divine influence which works from the heart and makes one able.

Grace is God’s ability and influence in our hearts which comes to us by His unmerited favor.

Grace is the personal and divine action of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

Grace has to do with God sovereignly acting from within Himself and in accordance with His nature to favor and empower and advantage us for His own glory and because of His love.

Grace makes us able. It gives us God’s ability to get the results that He wants.

Grace is God’s ability to change what we can’t change on our own.

LEARNING FROM JESUS

John 1

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.

16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

We are told in verse 14 that Jesus was full of grace and full of truth. And it is from His fulness of grace that we have also received grace.

The grace of God was the power that worked in Jesus. It is the power that worked in the apostles and it is the power that works in every believer to live above sin and to do good works and live a holy life. The same grace that operated in Him and in the apostles now operates in us.

When Moses came with the Ten Commandments from the mountain, he brought God’s truth unto Israel. However he did not bring the ability to do those commandments and to abide by God’s truth. The people were thus condemned due to their inability to abide by God’s truth and keep His commandments.

The law demanded that we change from our sinful ways and live according to God’s righteous and holy standards. But it didn’t empower us to change. Instead it condemned us for not changing.

When Jesus came, He brought grace and truth. Jesus not only brought the truth of God, He also brought the ability and power to abide by that truth and to fulfill God’s law. This power was grace.

Jesus brought us truth and the ability to do that truth. That ability is grace.

The New Covenant doesn’t demand that we first change before God accepts us. Instead God accepts us by His unmerited favor and then empowers us to change into the righteous and holy children that He wants us to be. This is grace.

“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom8:3-4

This verse tells us that there is something the law could not do. This was to make people righteous before God. However much they tried, people could not become righteous by obeying the law which was given by Moses.

We are also told why the law could not make people righteous. It was because it operated through the flesh. The weakness of the law is the flesh. In other words our natural attempts to fulfill the law and be righteous by our own performance of it.

Being in the flesh is not sinning and doing evil things like many of us think. The flesh simply means man’s ability. Our own ability to perform and fulfill God’s expectations and obey His Word. 

Being in the flesh is when we attempt to be righteous by our own ability and obedience to the law. You are in the flesh when you believe that you are saved, but must perform to earn God’s righteousness.

Being in the spirit, is when we accept that righteousness is a work of the Spirit of God who is in us. You are in the spirit when you believe that Jesus is your Lord and that He made you righteous.

Being in the Spirit leads to the fruit of the spirit in your life. The fruit of the spirit is something that grows in your life because you believe that you are righteous in Christ.

Being in the flesh leads to works of the flesh which manifest as both dead works and also the evil works of sins and wickedness. The works of the flesh are those things which you end up doing because you don’t believe that you are righteous in Christ and so you limit yourself to your own ability to fulfill God’s commandments which always falls short.

Doing the best you can didn’t help you before you got saved. It didn’t make you righteous before God. All you ended up was a drunk, gossiper, addict, thief, rank sinner, hypocrite, self-righteous etc. That was the best that you could do. That was flesh at work. That was you at your best. That was your ability.

If your ability couldn’t help you before you got saved, it can’t help you now either. Getting saved doesn’t strengthen your flesh to live above sin than you did before you got saved. You still have the same weak flesh.

This is why Christians still struggle with sin. We are still trying to do the best we can instead of trusting God to empower us by His grace working in our lives to transform us.

The difference now is that you have the grace of God operating in your spirit and strengthening your inner man and enabling you to subdue your flesh and mortify the deeds of the flesh.

Grace change (repentance) is enduring change. If change (repentance) comes by your own efforts, then it will only last as long as your efforts. The moment you stop exerting effort, you stop changing. As soon as you get tired or give up, you fall back into what you used to do. This is the experience of many of us.

Lasting change is effortless change. It always begins with changing what you believe (repenting). However changing what you believe is not effortless. There is effort if you are to change what you believe. There is a struggle involved in the renewing of the mind and confronting religious belief. This is what Hebrews4:11 calls laboring to enter into rest. You labor to rest.

Effortless, long lasting change (repentance) only happens by grace through changing our beliefs about God and about ourselves.

Jesus was full of grace and truth. Everything that He did was a work of God’s grace in His life. The ability to live above sin, the ability to work miracles, the love and patience to minister to people, even His ability to face the suffering and death of the Cross in our place. It was God’s ability working in Him.

Jesus was a man like all of us. He didn’t have ability on His own to do all these things. He had to depend on God’s grace and ability working in Him.

Grace is not God’s ability to overlook sin. Grace is God’s ability to get you out of sin.

SALVATION BY GRACE

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” Eph2:8

Everything we have in God is a work of grace. We are saved by God’s grace through faith. We are saved by our faith in God’s ability.

The word saved to many of us means going to heaven or getting born again. We interpret it as meaning that initial experience whereby we accept Jesus as our Saviour and confess Him as our Lord. However this in not the biblical meaning of the word salvation.

The word saved (sōzō) means to make or keep safe, to save, deliver or protect, to heal, preserve, do well, make whole, rescue from danger etc.

Jesus told the woman with the issue of blood “thy faith hath made thee whole (sozo). And the woman was made whole (sozo) from that hour.” Mat9:22

In this case, the same word saved (sozo) meant healed or made whole.

In James 5:15 we are told that ‘the prayer of faith shall save (sozo) the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up’

This word (sozo) doesn’t just talk about our initial born again experience only but also about everything else to do with our Christianity. We are healed, prospered, blessed, delivered, made whole, made successful and anointed by grace through faith. Everything we experience from God is free. We receive it as a free gift by His grace.

Everything that God does is a matter of grace which makes us accepted and able. Every work of God is a work of grace. He makes us able to walk in health, in wholeness, in success, in prosperity, in power, in freedom and liberty etc. it is His power.  Not ours.

This means that no one has to fail. We can all be healthy, we can all live holy, we can all be successful, we can all be prosperous, we can all be anointed. As long as we have faith in His grace.

“Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” Rom4:16-17

This verse tells us that God made salvation an issue of grace so that the promise would be sure to all (available to everybody). His ability and favor is available to whoever can believe. Look at these verses

Romans 10

11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

God’s grace is available to whosoever calls upon Him and receives by faith. Are you a ‘whosoever’? You qualify.

STARTING TO WALK IN GRACE

“That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom5:21

The apostle Paul uses the word sin (hamartia) which is a noun 45 times in the book of Romans alone. By contrast, he uses the word sins (hamartēma) which is a verb only 4 times in the whole book. A noun denotes a person, place, or thing while a verb describes the action or behavior of nouns.

Paul is not really talking about the sinful actions that we do but rather our tendency towards sin. That is to say the source and nature from which these individual acts of sin originate. This is what the NIV bible calls the sin nature and the KJV more accurately calls the flesh. 

The sins are just symptoms of a sickness which is inside. To fully recover, you don’t focus on the symptoms, you deal with the sickness inside and the symptoms will go away.

The Christian’s problem is not really the individual acts of sin that they do but rather the inner tendency to sin. If the propensity (tendency) to sin can be broken, then the actions of sin will cease.

When we get born again, this sin nature dies. However we still remain with a soul that was programmed to think and feel and make decisions in accordance with the sinful old nature. As a result we continue to think and behave in the same way we did when were unbelievers and slaves of sin. This is why we need to repent (change our mind). The bible calls this the renewing of the mind. (Rom12:2)

We don’t have a sin nature any longer that compels us to sin but we still have those old residual thoughts and behaviors of the old man operating in our soul. We need to repent from these. To change our thinking and let the grace of God transform us.

This residual (remaining) effect of the old sin nature in our souls is most evidenced by our sin consciousness and condemnation. Most of us are still overcome by an overwhelming sense of our inadequacy and unworthiness before God.

Most Christians feel filthy, dirty and undeserving of God’s goodness. We feel unholy and unrighteous. So we keep trying to improve ourselves through fighting against sin and trying our best to do the right things and live a holy life. However we always end up failing. We end up doing the things we don’t want to do and not doing the things we want to do (Romans 7).

This is how sin reigns in us. By condemning and disqualifying us. By making us depend on our own ability and power. Which is always inadequate.  This of course ultimately produces death in us. When sin reigns, it always brings death. Sin produces death.

On the other hand, when righteousness begins to reign in us, it produces God’s power and ability in us to overcome and defeat this old sin nature and experience God’s life in our soul. This is why righteousness and grace are so valuable to the Christian. They are the only way that we can be free from the old nature and operate in God’s liberty and eternal life.

The key to grace is faith righteousness. This verse tells us that grace reigns through righteousness. When we believe that we are righteous in Christ, we allow grace to reign in us. When we don’t believe the righteousness that God has provided in Christ and go ahead to establish our own righteousness, we hinder and frustrate God’s grace from operating in us and transforming us.

“I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Gal2:21

Remember that true righteousness is not worked for and earned but believed and received by faith. We discussed this in detail in our previous series on faith righteousness.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Rom10:9-10

Grace establishes and settles us in the kingdom of God and enables us to live life as God intended.

“Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.” Heb13:9

This is what we are going to look at in the coming months as we discuss this first foundation of repentance from dead works. It is my prayer that God will establish our hearts by His grace.