What are dead works?

A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall heed my ordinances and do them.(Ezekiel 36: 26-27)
For we have all become like one who is unclean and all our righteousness is like filthy rags or a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away [far from God’s favor, hurrying us toward destruction]. Our own righteousness is like a filthy rag.(Isaiah 64:6)
There is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death.( Proverb 14:12)
When we accept the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, repent and surrender our lives unto God, we need to totally surrender our biggest obstacle SELF unto God. In so doing we reflect God’s own righteousness.
But is it always the case? A lot tend to hold on to their dead works
Dead works are works of self-righteousness and they are appropriately called “dead” works because they lead to death.
Apostle Paul refers to “dead works”. In Hebrews 6:1 he writes about “repentance from dead works”, while in Hebrews 9:14 he declares that the blood of Christ avails to “purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God”.
Dead works is not the same as wicked works but to dead works. These “dead works” are the so-called “good works” (whether moral or ceremonial) which men do to make themselves acceptable to God. They are “dead” because they are not the product of regeneration or spiritual life, but the mere attempt on the part of unregenerate sinners to justify themselves before God. In other words, following the traditions of men.
Apostle Paul himself, once zealously religious, but wholly unsaved, had to repudiate his “dead works” and count them “loss” to find salvation in Christ, through whom alone he could produce good works which God could accept. (Philippians 3:4-9).
This is why he later declared by divine inspiration: “For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works…” (Eph.2:8-10).
“Dead works” are not only unacceptable to God, but an evil substitute for the faith He desires, “for without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb.11:6). But “he that believeth on the Son of God hath life” and this life is bound to bear fruit— the good works with which God is truly pleased.
The difference between the “good works” of the unregenerate man and the “good works” of a true believer, then, is that the former are “dead works” while the latter are the precious fruit of life possessed. Amen!
No man can please God while he denies the truth of His Word or rejects His Son, so graciously given to die on the cross as our Savior. To try to win His favor by “good works” while rejecting Christ is like sending a gift to a man whose beloved son you spurn and despise.
“The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hands. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:35- 36).
God bless you for reading.

Author: Lawrence Tay

An Ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ, bearing record of His Light. View all posts by Lawrence Tay