Works Without Faith is Also Dead

by Scott Price

"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Hebrews 9:14

    Just as faith without works is dead, works without faith is also dead. A dead work is obviously unacceptable to God, so it is important to define what dead works are so we can identify and avoid them. A dead work is a work done without faith. The scripture says in Romans 14:23b "....for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." In Hebrews 11:6a it says

    "But without faith it is impossible to please Him....." What does it mean to do a work in faith? Does it mean you attempt to do something good and you give credit to yourself because you have faith that you are doing right? In other words are you to have faith in yourself? That is NOT a work of faith.

    Another characteristic of a dead work is they are done out of the wrong motive. The motive for a work of faith is love and gratitude. A dead work is dead for at least two wrong motives;

    1) Fear of God punishing you. It is impossible to do a work of faith thinking God will punish you if you do not do it. (An example of fear; giving money to the church because you think if you do not God will punish you by making you to lose your job, having your home burglarized, getting sick and get stuck with a hospital bill, etc. It is sad but I have heard some promote these ideas).

    2) Promise of reward. It is also impossible to do a work of faith for the motive that God will reward you based on that work. (An example of this; giving money to the church because you think the more you give the more you will GET. Money preachers always take verses out of context and pervert them to stir up greed and cause them to covet by trying to get their flock to "invest" in their own future by giving. They promise them great financial rewards as a result, a raise, a bigger car, bigger house, etc).

    (Note; the right motive to give anything to anybody is love. "Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." 2nd Corinthians 9:7)

    Most importantly dead works are aimed in some degree, knowingly or unknowingly, to the merit of salvation or blessing from God apart from the only ground of salvation, the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The two wrong motives are not of faith, therefore are dead works. All dead works are done from a self righteous basis. Any work done that is not fully trusting that God will bless them and accept them based solely on the merit of Christ is a dead work and totally unacceptable to God.

    Therefore works of faith are done with our faith in Christ, that God will bless us for the sake of Christ and not our own works. Dead works are used to gain, contribute to, or maintain salvation which is impossible "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight..." Romans 3:20

    When a person has true faith they will repent from dead works. They do not look to their works even for assurance of salvation, but to the work of Christ. What is your faith in, you or Him? Salvation is by grace alone WITHOUT works. Why would you look to your works as a basis of assurance? Have you been living a sinless life? Have you even lived a sinless hour? I did not think so. Christ did, so it would be more secure to look to the Saviour rather than putting confidence in your own sinful flesh. Do you want to be like the man in Matthew 7:21-23 who was pleading his dead works as his basis for Heaven and ended up in Hell or would you rather be like Paul who in Philippians 3:3-9 spoke of his repentance from dead works? Paul gladly gave up all his self righteousness merit which he said amounted to DUNG, to rather know Christ and be found in Him (in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ).

    Search your motives, look to Christ and trust Him as your acceptance to God, and repent of everything else that competes against Christ for your salvation, which would be self righteous dead works. This is the only answer to assurance and a clean conscience.