Foundations, Part 1 - Repentance From Dead Works

As we've seen already, God wants His people to grow up. He wants us to grow stronger in our faith...being built upon the foundation that He's laid in His word. But before we can move on to that, we must first make sure this foundation is in place.

In Hebrews 6:1-3, we see the description of the foundation God wants to have. This foundation comes from five doctrines (or teachings) that we need to be settled on in our own lives. After these things are firmly in place, THEN we're free to grow and move past the repetitive discussion of them.

Hebrews 6:1-3 "Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgement. And this we will do if God permits."

A word of caution from verse three: We can clearly see that God is the one Who will let us know when we can move on from these things. Until we get His approval to go deeper...we need to stay right here and keep working on the foundation.

So let's start at the very beginning...Let's talk about "repentance from dead works."

Did You Really Repent?

If you asked today's Christians what it means to "repent", what answer do you think you'd see the most?

Most likely, you'd hear something along these lines: "Repentance is feeling sorry for something you did wrong."

The idea is that, if you truly repented, you'd have tears in your eyes...and you'd feel as low as a dead dog for what you did. And then...if it's really repentance....you'd stay down for a while, just to make sure you've learned your lesson.

But that is not what Biblical repentance is about. Actually, you can repent without shedding a single tear or missing a single step! You don't have to fall down to repent at all! In fact, you can walk away from your time of repentance with a smile on your face.

1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

This is all it takes to deal with the sin that you've committed. Confess it.

This doesn't mean to tell God what you did...as if He didn't know you did it!

And confession doesn't mean you have to go find a priest or some other person to confess to. (Although, if your sin was against another person, you do need go to them and get it taken care of.) 

No, to confess your sin means to confess it AS A SIN. That is, don't make excuses for it - don't try to convince God that you were justified in your sin. Just agree with Him...it was a sin! It was wrong to do that thing you did.

This is the essence of "repentance"...it is simply changing your mind about something.

Once you thought it was ok - But now you see it to be wrong.

Once you thought it was fun - But now you see that it's destructive.

Once you thought God was fine with it - But now you see that it cost Jesus His blood.

Repentance is an inward change of mind that will produce an outward turn in direction.

No tears required!

So when you're convicted of a sin, here's what you do:

1 - Confess it. Agree with God that He is right - and that thing was wrong.

2 - Repent. Change your mind about it and make a quality decision to change.

3 - Receive your forgiveness - and your cleansing - by faith.

(Notice, I didn't say "Ask God to forgive you." The promise in 1 John 1:9 is that He will forgive. You don't need to ask for it...you need to receive it by faith.)

From that point forward...you keep your faith in God's grace. This will keep you free from that sin.

Hebrews 12:28 tells us that we are empowered to serve God by grace.

Titus 2:11-12 tells us that God's grace teaches us the right way to live.

Hebrews 4:16 says that His grace comes to help us in our time of need.

So before you leave your time of repentance, declare by faith that you will obey God completely from that point forward. This declaration of faith will bring God's grace on the scene and empower you to live right!

There Are Other Dead Works...

Hear me on this, not every dead work is what Christians commonly call "sin".

Notice how Hebrews 6:2 phrases this, "...the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God..."

We all know that faith without works is dead, right? (James 2:17)

But according to Hebrews, any work without faith is dead too!

So a dead work is something you do on your own...be it "good" or "bad". If it's not a work produced by faith, it dead and need to be repented of. Paul agreed with this when he wrote Romans 14:23, "...for whatever is not from faith is sin."

Any other motivation behind your works, no matter what work, is called sin:

 - Fear of punishment

 - Fear of Man

 - Fear of danger

 - Actually, fear of any kind

 - Desire for pleasure

 - Desire for recognition

It's a fact that the word "works" in the New Testament has more to do with attempted obedience than it does blatant sin. God has never been impressed with our own works...not before we were saved, and still not after salvation. He calls all those fleshly attempts at obedience "filthy rags" in Isaiah 64:6.

So, any attempt to obey God and His Word that is outside of faith is a sin, and it requires repentance. If you respond to His command by swallowing hard and saying, "Ok, I'll try my best!" - You're wrong! You're not going to please God like that...He's not impressed by you trying.

What God has always been impressed by...is faith! And this is how we live now - by faith.

The Old Testament prophet Habakkuk declared that "The just shall live by his faith." After he wrote that, he was quoted three times in the New Testament. Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38 all say this same thing - righteous people live by faith!

In fact, we see in Hebrews 11:6 that a life of faith is the only way to please God!

So what does it look like to live (and obey God) by faith?

First, stop reading God's command (or hearing His calling) as if it was a restriction on your freedom. Instead, look at it as it really is, a characteristic of your new nature. This is who you are now!

Second, understand that God has never given a command (or a calling) without the power to obey it. So instead of seeing a list of burdensome rules to grudgingly obey...see the command (and the calling) for what it really is - a promise of power!

Third, if you fall short of these commands (or of His calling on your life), don't lay down and beat yourself up over it. Instead, confess it, receive God's restoration, and take hold of God's grace to overcome that short-coming.

This is the very beginning of your foundation in Christ - repenting from every dead work!