Now, let’s look at the other word – DONE. Done means finished, complete, full, ended, ready, accomplished, fulfilled, perfected. What a great word! The true message of Biblical Christianity is DONE. In other words, everything necessary to bring you to God and into eternal life with Him has already been DONE by Christ Jesus. But you still must ‘trust’ what Christ has DONE, and receive Him (Christ the living God) freely, in order to obtain eternal life and peace with God. When Jesus was dying on the cross, He cried out these words, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) The phrase literally means “paid in full.” DONE. DONE says “there’s nothing more to DO.” The price is paid. The atonement is complete. If you try to earn it, work for it, or DO something to get it, you’re wasting your time. It’s already DONE for you.
Imagine that you’ve prepared a wonderful Christmas morning for your family. You’ve saved up all year, shopped, wrapped, decorated, and made all the preparations. In spite of all your efforts, your children come running downstairs eager to celebrate Christmas, but rather than sitting down to open their gifts, they begin feverishly doing things for you to earn their gifts. They start cleaning the garage, washing the cars, doing the dishes, vacuuming the house, ironing clothes, and whatever else they can find to do. Other than having a heart attack, you would probably be disappointed. You would stop them and ask, “What you are kids doing? This isn’t the time for good works, this is the time for receiving gifts!”
Suppose their response goes something like this, “Dad and Mom, we’ve realized that we don’t deserve your gifts to us, and so we’ve decided to earn them. We’ve decided to serve you and do things so that we can deserve your kindness.” What would you do? You would probably explain that this is totally unnecessary! You would tell your kids how much trouble you’ve gone to in saving, shopping, and purchasing gifts. You don’t want their service (at least not yet) so much as you just want to enjoy Christmas morning and present them with their gifts – your free expression of love to them.
This is the ‘Gospel Message’ of God to the sinful human race. “So long as you are busying yourself with DOING, you’re missing what I’ve already DONE for you through my Precious Son.” The gift of eternal life has been worked for (Christ’s sinless life) and purchased (Christ’s shed blood). There’s no need for you to DO anything more, but to just trust Christ Himself (His doing and sufferings) to save you from your sins. All the work and preparations have been made for you. Christ paid it ALL, there’s nothing for you to pay for, nothing at all. Stop trying, and simply TRUST HIM with your soul. Come now, let us reason together, saith the LORD. His invitation to you is not to DO for Him, but rather simply come to Him as a helpless, hopeless, and guilty sinner, and RECEIVE from Him. There is all the difference in the world between the world's religions that are made up of “Do, do, do” and the Bible's religion that is spelt “D-O-N-E, DONE.” He who has the Bible religion of “It is all done,” loves God out of gratitude, and he serves God, because he is saved freely for Christ's sake; but he who has the religion of “DO” is always a slave, never gets salvation, but perishes in his own doings, as they deserve to do who look to themselves instead of looking to Christ alone.
This is the remedy for your disease of sin and for the disease of your heart—TRUST Jesus alone! There He hangs on yonder Cross for you. Look to Him! Trust Him! You say “I cannot realize that He is mine.” Did I tell you to realize that? Trust Him! “Oh, but I do not feel as if I had a good heart to bring to Him.” Did I tell you to bring Him anything? Just Trust Him! Forsake all other carnal and religious trust and look to the Lamb of God and His bleeding wounds. Look your doubts and sins away at the foot of the cross. Trust Christ Jesus alone! Oh sinner, this is the essential lesson for you if you would enter into the Light of God and peace—TRUST!
You may say, “But I have so many sins.” TRUST! “But I have such tendency tendencies to sin.” Trust Him to overcome those tendencies. “But I have tried.” No, I did not say, try, but TRUST. “But I, I will try.” No, do not try. I did not say, try. “Sir, I was going to say I will try to trust.” I did not say try to trust! Trying to trust is the very reverse of trusting! If Christ is a liar, do not trust Him. If He is true, TRUST Him. If He cannot save you, do not trust Him, but as He is the Almighty Savior sent from the Father, TRUST Him. So, with all the religions in the world, are there really only two? That’s the bottom line, just two. DO or DONE.
If there’s a way to know for sure where you would spend eternity, wouldn’t you want to know? This is the trouble with the “DO” religions. They leave you wondering rather than knowing. They trap in a system of doubt and uncertainty, that keeps you coming back to them for more help, and they enjoy your contents of your pocket book all the way to the bank. The other trouble with the “DO” religions is they leave you thinking “Have I done enough? Have I done the right stuff? Have I done it right? Ultimately you’re left wondering “Where am I really headed?”
Perhaps you are wondering – Can you really know for sure you are going to Heaven when you die? Well, the Bible says in I John 5:13, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” Did you catch that? God says, “You may know that you have eternal life!” But most religious ‘do’ systems will never show you this verse. Think about that for a moment, let it sink in. God want you to know (that’s for sure) where you’re going. God doesn’t want you to wonder, fear, doubt, or regret. He wants you to KNOW. That’s what the Bible SAYS, not some religion.
Now think about this question. Do you know where you are going? You may hope. You may be sincere and thinking optimistically, but do you KNOW? The word KNOW implies full confidence and understanding, just like you KNOW what your name is and the day you were born. True faith from God removes doubt, hesitation, or questions. Faith rests on FACTS rather than wrestling with doubt. Faith trusts TRUTH rather than being frustrated in fear.
True knowledge and faith completely remove the fear of death. This is the greatest single fear in all the world in every man’s heart before his sins are forgiven through faith in the blood of God. True knowledge of God removes all doubts. No fear! Just as God says in II Timothy 1:7. Look it up in the Bible. Don’t take my word for it. Your soul’s eternal destiny is at stake.
True knowledge of Christ allows you look forward to something beyond death. In short, you would have HOPE! You don’t have to live a life of religious doing, and doom, and dread. Dear friend, you are going ‘somewhere’ when you die, there is no escaping death and eternity. And God that sent His Son to die for you, doesn’t want you to wonder and fear where you are going. He wants you to settle this matter. He wants you to REST in what you KNOW. He wants you to be sure of what will happen to you after you die. God wants you to KNOW that you have eternal life. (See I John 5:13; 2:25; 5:20; John 6:47; 5:24; 3:5-16; 6:40; Romans 6:23) Remember, Grace is everything for NOTHING to those unworthy sinners who don’t deserve a thing.
