What Are Dead Works from Sin

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

Jesus bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead, using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. Through His final blood sacrifice, our guilty conscience that has bothered us in times past with our dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable and perfect before God, is cleansed once and for all so we can live all out for God. We don’t have to be ashamed of past sins or temptations. We can now serve God freely knowing He sees us as righteous because of Jesus.

Guilt, a Natural Defense Against Sin

Those who have received Jesus no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud of sin. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ changes us, freeing us from a lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. So with no more condemnation and guilt for our sins, why do we have a guilty feeling about our mistakes? We need to understand that God graciously implanted Guilt as a powerful ally within us to aid in the battle against sin. He gave you your conscience, and that gift is the key to bringing you joy and freedom. When we have an understanding that Jesus washed all our sins away with His blood sacrifice; past, present and future, we can feel the freedom in that without guilt. But is this freedom so that we can continue in sin? Do we allow that to cause our conscience to be seared over and have an “anything goes” attitude? No, God gave us guilt as a natural defense against sin so that we would use it to resist the devil and make him flea from us. When we make a mistake we feel the guilt of the mistake so that we learn from it, not so that we condemn ourselves. We know we are instantly forgiven, but this guilty feeling tells us that we did wrong and need to ask Jesus to help us do better. Then we learn to do all things through Christ who strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13)

How To Overcome Sin

Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness and sin. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are opposing, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? (Galatians 5:16-18 MSG)

Beloved, when you learn to walk in the Spirit, you are learning to resist self efforts of legalistic points of views toward others and yourself. Then you can truly see how you are saved by grace and how you have been given the gift of righteousness, not earned by self efforts. In this manner you can overcome sin knowing the blood of Jesus has cleansed  your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. This freedom in Jesus changes us into a better person through the love God sheds into our hearts and lives by the Holy Spirit.