Comp. Heb. 12:11; Rom. 4:11 (?); 1 Cor. 5:8; Eph. 6:14, 16 f. Comp. Winer, 3:59, 8 (a).
metanoiva"
...
kai; pivstew"
...] Repentance and Faith are not treated as abstract subjects of debate, but as personal attributes. Each has its supreme object in human life (repentance
from dead works
, faith
towards God
). So it is that they are combined together in the first proclamation of the Gospel by Christ, Mark 1:15, and practically in the first proclamation of the Gospel by the Apostles, Acts 2:38.
Comp. Acts 20:21. Repentance from dead works gives the negative, faith towards God gives the positive side of the Christian mind. The old must be abandoned, the new must be grasped.
metanoiva" ajpo; nekrw'n e[rgwn
] The force of this unique expression depends upon the sense of dead works (
nekra; e[rga
, Vulg.
opera mortua
), a phrase which occurs in the N. T. only here and Heb. 9:14
kaqariei' th;n suneivdhsin ajpo; nekrw'n e[rgwn
, nor is there any parallel phrase. Faith is spoken of as dead when it is unfruitful in deed (James 2:17, 26). Sin again is said to be dead when it is not called into activity (Rom. 7:8). And the body is already dead as carrying in it the doom of death: it has lost the power of abiding continuance (Rom. 8:10
dij aJmartivan
). Once more, men are said to be dead in relation to sin in three ways, (1) dead unto sin (
th'/ aJmartiva/
Rom. 6:11) when their connexion with the principle of sin is broken
de facto
(v. 2
ajpeqavnete
) and they use
de jure
the power of the new life (
zw'nta" dev
....), (2)
dead by transgressions and sins as deprived of true life through the manifold instrumentality of sin (
toi'" paraptwvmasin kai; tai'" aJmartivai"
Eph. 2:1, 5), and (3) dead in transgressions as abiding in them and devoid of the capacity for real action (
ejn paraptwvmasin
Col. 2:13, but the
ejn
is doubtful).
Compare also Matt. 8:22; Luke 9:60; 15:24, 32; John 5:25; Eph. 5:14. From the analogy of these usages it is possible to give a precise sense to the phrase dead works. Dead works are not vaguely sins which lead to death, but works devoid of that element which makes them truly works. They have the form but not the vital power of works. There is but one spring of life, and all which does not flow from it is dead. All acts of a man in himself, separated from God, are dead works (comp. John 15:4 ff.). The first step in faith is to give up the selfish life which they represent.
Here the phrase has necessarily a special application. The writer of the Epistle is thinking, as it seems, of all the works corresponding with the Levitical system not in their original institution but in their actual relation to the Gospel as established in the Christian society. By the work of Christ, who fulfilled, and by fulfilling annulled, the Law, the element of life was withdrawn from these which had (so to speak) a provisional, and only a provisional, vitality. They became dead works. Comp. Herm. Sim. 9.21, 2 ta; rJhvmata aujtw'n movna zw'si, ta; de; e[rga aujtw'n nekrav ejsti .
The contrast between pivsti" and nekra; e[rga corresponds with and yet is distinct from that between pivsti" and e[rga "ovmou in St Paul. Dead works present the essential character of the works in themselves: works of law present them in relation to an ideal, unattainable, standard.
It follows therefore that Repentance from dead works expresses that complete change of mindof spiritual attitudewhich leads the believer to abandon these works and seek some other support for life.