Metanoia from Nekros Ergon

Hebrews 6:1 — “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,”

This is the first stone. If this stone is a slogan, the year is a slogan.

Chapter 1 opened the gate. This chapter lays the first of the six. You will not be given a feeling in the place of the cluster, an eighth repent-word, Matthew 16 as the narrative of Hell, or a second saviour.

A student at three hours a week must have something to sit with. An intensive student uses the same text with longer writing. The doctrine does not change with the clock.

I. METANOIA FROM NEKROS ERGON

A. The heading

This principle is headed: Greek metanoia from nekros ergon.

Hebrews 6:1 has already named the foundation: repentance from dead works. The Greek on that heading is metanoia from nekros ergon. Metanoia is the change. Nekros ergon are the works. You will not flatten either term into a mood.

Metanoia (G3341) is a real change of mind and attitude toward sin and its cause, not merely the consequences of it. The verses the owner list assigns to that definition are Matthew 3:8, Matthew 3:11, Matthew 9:13, and Luke 24:47. They will be quoted in full in section II. Hear the definition first, then the verses, then the distinction from metamellomai.

Metanoia specifies compunction (remorse) for guilt including reformation: regeneration, quickening, recreation — “new creature.” A real change of mind and attitude over sin and the cause. All things are become new.

It is not a mood. It is not a tear without a turn. It includes reformation because the man in Christ is a new creature. Compunction without reformation is not the metanoia named here. Reformation without blood is still a dead work; section VI will not let you make self-reformation the way. Hold both.

2 Corinthians 5:17 — “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Who writes? Paul. To whom? The church at Corinth, a people he must still reason with about ministry and reconciliation. Why here? This verse is used four ways in one principle: new creature, change, old things deceased, in-Christ location. If any man be in Christ — the location is Christ, not a course enrolment. He is a new creature — recreation, not a repaired mood. Old things are passed away — section IV will name two kinds. Behold, all things are become new — “all things are become new” is not a slogan for a new year. It is the state of the man in Christ.

B. Nekros ergon

Nekros ergon — dead works — are the works of the old man: the spirit and nature of the devil (Ephesians 4:22); old things (2 Corinthians 5:17); the old nature (Ephesians 2:1 — trespasses, a deviation from moral equity, and sins). The wages thereof is death (Romans 6:23).

This teaching also printed negra erga. That is a compressed print of the same phrase, not an eighth word and not a second doctrine. Dead works. Works of the old man. Works of the old nature.

Ephesians 4:22 — “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;”

Ephesians 2:1 — “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;”

Trespasses, in Ephesians 2:1, are deviation from moral equity, and sins. Dead works are not “things I did that felt empty.” A man may call a boring task a dead work because it bored him. Scripture calls a work dead because it is of the old man and the old nature. Do not confuse them.

Romans 6:23 will be opened in section V. Hear its clause now so the wage is not a surprise: the wages of sin is death. Dead works earn that wage. The conscience is later purged from them by blood (Hebrews 9:14). That purge is not this heading. This heading is the change of mind over the works and over the cause that produced them.

C. Reversal of another’s decision

By implication the word also carries reversal of another’s decision. Do not flatten that into a technique. Keep this: repentance is not less than a change of mind. A change of mind can reverse what a man had decided, and what he had followed in another’s decision. It is still a change of mind over sin and its cause. It is not a method for managing rooms.

D. Distinction, principle, charge

Distinction: metanoia as real change of mind and attitude toward sin and its cause, including reformation and the new creature, versus a tear without a turn versus a mood versus a regret of consequences only. Dead works as works of the old man and old nature versus tasks that bored you.

Principle: the first stone is metanoia from nekros ergon. The man in Christ is a new creature. Old things pass. The wage of the old things is death.

Reasoning: if metanoia were a feeling, 2 Corinthians 5:17 would be a feeling. If dead works were boredom, Hebrews 9:14 would purge boredom. If reformation could be detached from the new creature, this school would not name regeneration, quickening, recreation in one breath with “new creature.”

Application: name one work you have called “dead” because it bored you, and one the Scripture would call a dead work because it is of the old man. Do not submit the first as if it were the second.

Charge: write Hebrews 6:1 and 2 Corinthians 5:17. Then write ten lines: what metanoia is, what nekros ergon are, and where you have treated a tear as if it were a new creature.