What Are Dead Works?

 

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,  how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:13–14 ESV)

I host a Bible study on the New Testament book of Hebrews in my home, and a couple of months ago, we discussed these verses. We asked (and tried to answer) several questions about this text, questions like, “What’s up with sprinkling heifer ashes?” and “What does it mean to purify the flesh?” The question that intrigued me the most seems simpler than either of those: What exactly are the dead works that Jesus’s blood cleanses from our conscience?” 

Because I’m a reformed protestant, I see the word works in the Bible and automatically think of acts someone does to try to improve their standing before God. Some may give money to charity, for instance, or help the poor, or attend church in hopes of gaining God’s favour. Others perform religious rites, like (since it’s the season) giving up something for Lent. We could call these “dead works” in the sense that they cannot bring life. They will not gain God’s favor. No matter how many good works we do, we cannot perform ourselves into a better standing before God.

A couple of the commenters and preachers I read to prepare for the Bible study thought the dead works in this text were exactly these sorts of acts. Others thought the phrase referred to acts done in accordance with the Old Testament ceremonial system. S. Lewis Johnson, for instance, said dead works are “Levitical works. They have no power, really, to bring life. That’s why they are dead.” 

Neither of these answers to the question of the meaning of dead works in Hebrews 9:14 satisfied me. According to this verse, people needed to be cleansed from the inner defilement their dead works caused. Was a faithful Jew defiled inwardly by keeping all the Levitical laws? Considered in themselves without regard to motive, do giving to charity, helping the poor, and going to church defile us? I don’t think so.

I’ve concluded that the actual meaning of dead works in this passage is simpler than either of these explanations. The phrase “dead works” is used one other time in Hebrews, and this text helps explain what the author means by it: 

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, (Hebrews 6:1 ESV)

The writer of Hebrews says “repentance from dead works and faith toward God” is a foundational truth of the Christian faith. It’s his formula for the gospel. It means the same thing as “repentance from sin and faith in Jesus.” Dead works in Hebrews, then, are simply sinful acts. They are dead because they bring death. They are dead because they result in the condemnation of God. The NIV translates “dead works” as “acts that lead to death” and I think that’s exactly what it means. 

Our sinful acts defile our consciences, and Jesus’s sacrifice cleanses that defilement. The Levitical sacrifices effected cleansing from physical defilement, like the defilement that came from close contact with death, but they could not clean the inner defilement that came from intentional disobedience.

And—carrying on with the verse—a conscience purified by Jesus’s sacrifice is set free to serve the living God. We work for God, not to make ourselves clean, but because we have already been made clean. As the outflow of a cleansed conscience, we joyfully do the good works the living God prepared for us to do.