Two Kinds of “Good Works”

By Arthur J Licursi

Paul’s refers to “dead works” twice in his epistles to the members of the “body of Christ.” “Dead works” are not something innocuous but rather, as we see in these verses, “dead works” are something to be repented of and purged from our conscience.

1.) In Hebrews 6:1 Paul writes about “repentance from dead works,”

2.) In Hebrews 9:14 Paul declares that the blood of Christ works to “purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

What exactly are “dead works”?

“Dead works” are the so-called “good works” that may appear benevolent and moral, or religious ceremonial acts or rituals, or rote prayer that men may do while thinking such acts will make them more acceptable to God or to keep them acceptable to God after salvation. These are “works” that are based upon self-reliance and therefore those who do this sort of “good works” ignore the efficacy of Christ’s all-sufficient sacrifice at the cross. “Dead works” make His cross “of no effect” (Gal 5:4 below) or of no benefit.

The “good works” that actually are “dead works” are considered so because they are not the product of the regenerated “spirit of life in Christ Jesus” within the believer. Rather, such works are an attempt on the part of unregenerate sinners, or believers who still try to justify themselves before God. These would be better called “evil works.”

Such a “work” in itself may be benevolent or appear benevolent and appear to have a righteous motive, when the actual motive of the work is to earn favor with God – this reliance upon ones self is idolatry and evil in the eyes of God. Believers must come to see their self-ordained works as evil and renounce them if they are to genuinely praise God in thanksgiving for the cross that saved them.

To the Christian, Paul here writes of the pitfall of depending upon the Law with its works requirement as separating or severing them from Christ, such that they have “fallen away from grace.”

“If you seek to be justified and declared righteous and to be given a right standing with God through (your works of) the Law, you are brought to nothing and so separated (severed) from Christ. You have FALLEN AWAY FROM GRACE (from God’s gracious favor and unmerited blessing).” (Gal 5:4)

“For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now YOU ARE NOT UNDER LAW [AS SLAVES], BUT UNDER GRACE [as subjects of God’s favor and mercy].” (Romans 6:14)

Paul himself, once zealously religious, but wholly unsaved at the time, had to repudiate his religious “works of the flesh.” Paul’s below recounts his Jewish religious qualifications and then counts them “as loss” (v8).

“Though for myself I have [at least grounds] to rely on THE FLESH. If any other man considers that he has or seems to have reason to rely on the flesh and his physical and outward advantages, I have still more! ⁵ (I was) Circumcised when I was eight days old, of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew [and the son] of Hebrews; as to the observance of the Law I was of [the party of] the Pharisees, ⁶ As to my zeal, I was a persecutor of the church (Messianic Believers), and by the Law’s standard of righteousness (supposed justice, uprightness, and right standing with God) I was proven to be blameless and no fault was found with me.

⁷ But whatever former things I had that might have been gains to me, I HAVE COME TO CONSIDER AS [ONE COMBINED] LOSS for Christ’s sake. ⁸ Yes, furthermore, I COUNT EVERYTHING AS LOSS compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ (the Anointed One), ⁹ And that I may [actually] be found and known as in Him, not having any [self-achieved] righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law’s demands (ritualistic uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired), but possessing that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ (the Anointed One), the [truly] right standing with God, which comes from God by [saving] faith. (Philippians 3:4-9 AMP)

Paul says he considered his religious “works,” including Jewish ceremony and ritual, as being a “loss,” v7, which in Greek is “zemia,” meaning “a DETRIMENT or a hindrance” to one obtaining genuine salvation and regeneration by Christ’s life. Paul came to see it’s only the inner works of God that is effective in the believer’s life. “For IT IS GOD WHICH WORKETH IN YOU both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philip 2:13) Only Christ’s life can move one to genuinely produce genuine “good works” that God could accept.

Do men today still pursue religious ceremony, ritual and self-motivated “good works” that are really a DETRIMENT or harmful to “saving faith”? The answer is, yes!!! We see this among both the unsaved and also the believers who are saved… but then ignore Christ’s indwelling guiding and governing life.

How can such “good works” be called a “DETRIMENT”? It is because religious ceremony, ritual and so-called acts of “good works” are a subtle substitute that deceives the doer into thinking he is “earning” favor with God and then he thinks, “Now I’m Okay.”

Such works may seem “nice” but they have ABSOLUTELY NO BENEFIT IN OR TOWARD SALVATION, or in winning favor with God. Therefore, such “good works” are a detriment or hindrance to genuine saving faith. These “works” leave one as being dead to God and on a track to eternal death if one is yet without having trusted Christ in faith. “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.” (Proverbs 14:12).

Jesus spoke regarding the “work” of ritual of rote recitation of memorized and repetitious praying.  “And when you pray, DO NOT heap up phrases (multiply words, repeating the same ones over and over) as the (lost) Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their much speaking. (Matthew 6:6-7)

Any work of ritual and ceremony in the hopes of earning salvation and/or favor with God is in stark contrast to Paul’s “gospel of the grace of God.” This is why Paul declared this 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).

Above we see that there is a place for genuine “good works.” These come only as they spring out of saving faith that is of one who is wholly trusting in Christ as his Lord (governor). So, genuine faith is the root, while the genuine “good works” are the fruit of such trust in Christ as their new life since their salvation.

Both the unregenerate and the self-reliant born-again man produce the evil good works that Paul calls “dead works.” “Dead works” are not only unacceptable to God, but an EVIL SUBSTITUTE for THE FAITH HE DESIRES, “for without (trusting) 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 the fruit of “good works” with which God is truly pleased.

No man can please God while he denies the truth of His Word by rejecting the merit of His Son, so graciously given to die on the cross as our Saviour and risen Lord. To try to win His favor by phony “good works” while rejecting Christ’s Lordship, is like sending a gift to a man whose beloved son you look down on and despise.

Note that all born-again Christians will appear at what we call “the Judgment seat of Christ”

“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; ¹³ Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of WHAT SORT IT IS. ¹⁴ If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, HE SHALL RECEIVE A REWARD. ¹⁵ If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. (1 Cor 3:11-15)

Ones eternal salvation is not at stake here - it’s a matter of eternal “rewards” (v14). The believer’s salvation is sure and secure from the moment of having received Christ once and for all. Rather, the believer’s works are to be judged by Christ as to “what sort they are” (v 13). Their “works” judged as to whether theirs are “dead works” or genuine “good works.” The believer who has “dead works” of self-effort to present will “suffer loss” (v 15) but yet he is still eternally “saved” to heaven. By contrast, the believer whose “good works” are genuine, that is rooted in Christ’s life; he will gain the “reward” (v 14) of reigning in Heaven with Christ.