I was struck with a new perspective on this passage in Hebrews 9, which might relate to what I wrote yesterday about the “boat.”

Under the old covenant the blood of bulls, goats, and the ashes of a heifer were sprinkled on those who were defiled and effectively cleansed them outwardly from their ceremonial impurities. Yet how much more will the sacred blood of the Messiah thoroughly cleanse our consciences! For by the power of the eternal Spirit he has offered himself to God as the perfect Sacrifice that now frees us from our dead works to worship and serve the living God. (Hebrews 9.13, 14, TPT)

“Frees us from our dead works to worship and serve the living God.” A lot of our Christian activity is dead works. Church attendance can be a dead work. Even putting on the “church service” that others attend can be a dead work. Believe me – I’ve worked on church staff.

It takes real effort to sustain life (enthusiasm) in any activity. A new activity feels fresh when we begin, but pretty soon, it can become dead. Even daily “time with God” can be a dead activity. Navigator Skip Gray said years ago, “Many people fellowship with a habit, not with God.” 

“You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” (Revelation 3.1, ESV, from the letter to the church at Sardis.) 

I can be dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2.1, 2).

I can participate in dead works (Hebrews 9.14, above).

Returning to the parable of the two sons in Luke 15, of the two sons:

• One was dead in sins

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. (Luke 15.24, ESV)

• The other was involved in dead works

Now his older son was in the field, …(Luke 15.25, ESV)

But he answered his father, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command…” (Luke 15.29, ESV)

Isaiah tells Israel that their religious fasting is a dead work:

³  ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers.
⁴  Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.
⁵  Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD?
⁶  “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
⁷  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? (Isaiah 58.3 – 7, ESV)

It pleases God more when we demonstrate godliness and justice
than when we merely offer him a sacrifice. (Proverbs 21.3, TPT)