I didn't hear language until recently both in preaching and in reading, that there are two religions, one "do" and the other "done." It's a nice turn of phrase and can be helpful for someone who thinks salvation is by works. A popular leader in what I'm going to label, "new revivalism," like the title "new Calvinism," wrote a book called, "Done." In a sense, depending upon an explanation, this "done" versus "do" aphorism is true. It can also be false though, and dangerous. What I read, very often it is. In many cases, the ones writing "done" and not "do" are wrong, mainly in their watery, gumby definition of "done." The ambiguity provides for doctrinal perversion.
It makes good preaching to turn to the words of Jesus on the cross, "It is finished," tetelestai, perfect passive, the work of salvation done by Christ on the cross. Some Christian leaders, many now, as it's very popular, say that it's done, so when you sin, you just preach the gospel to yourself, so you don't feel burdened down by that sinning. Tetelestai is perfect passive, not to get super Greeky with you, but it doesn't mean, "done," per se as it would with the aorist tense, completed action. With the perfect, the work is done, but the results are ongoing. Jesus works, but His work doesn't stop working.
Paul wrote in Philippians 2:13, "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." He's not done working in you. It is finished, but the results are ongoing. How do you know He's done? Jesus said, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew7:21). "He that doeth." That's not "done;" that's "do," "doeth." For the one who is really "done," he will "do."
The work that Jesus does is transformative to the actual life, not some kind of fanciful, chimerical life, where you don't live it. Some of the "done" people say, Jesus lives it, and you just claim what He did as if it was you. Some of you readers may say that you're not doing that. You are when you lump sanctification with justification. How you know you're saved is that He keeps saving you. Evidence. It shows up.
Part of why the righteousness Jesus lived doesn't show up in the life of the "done ones" is that they did not repent, except again a kind of redefined, dumbed down repentance. This is changing your mind about not trusting in what Jesus did. You repent of depending on your self. This is the kind of so-called repentance of the Pharisees, just dumbing down righteousness, what Paul said was establishing your own righteousness and not submitting unto the righteousness of God (Romans 10:1-4).
Salvation is "done," don't get me wrong. It's a matter of what "done" means. What is done? When someone is saved, he is changed, a new creature (2 Cor 5:17). Sin doesn't have dominion over him any more (Roman 6:14). The life that someone has is not just the quantity of the life, but the quality of the life. The epistle of 1 John says that it is the life of God that is in someone (1 John 1:1,2, 5:11), where the believer becomes a partaker of the Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
Very often, if not most of the time, the modern purveyors of "done" mean, even if it is only for practical purposes, that salvation now is all set regardless if a person keeps on sinning. If there is any hint that his life is going to change, then it's "do" and not "done." He becomes cemented in sinning, because he can do it without any repercussions.
The apparent alternative to "done" is someone who gets salvation through the death of Christ after trying to be a good person and live a righteous life. That isn't it. Salvation isn't done until the believer is glorified, and if it really is done, Christ is in Him and will continue saving him. Ironically, when the presence of God isn't in that person's life to transform him, he is just doing, still, and without being saved, except he thinks he's saved in a dangerous deceptive way.
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