Michael Tolosa

CAUSE of Salvation = Faith Alone
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
- Ephesians 2:8-9

EFFECT of Salvation = Works
“Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
- James 2:17-18

Works are only necessary as an evidence of faith. But the only requirement for salvation is faith. Once you put Works into the CAUSE category, you have a false gospel, of which Paul says…

“… even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!”
- Galatians 1:8

The difference between CAUSE and EFFECT in the matter of salvation is of eternal significance.

If you knew in advance that your team was going to win the Super Bowl, how boldly would you cheer for them during the season? During the playoffs? During the Big Game?

We tend not to be bold in our sports predictions, because we’ll lose face if we’re wrong. But if we knew for certain who would win, we would tell the world who we were rooting for, bet all the money we had, and be the proudest, wealthiest person in the world when our team wins it all.

Well, here’s a news flash… God wins in the end.

Jesus WILL return and establish His Kingdom. He WILL separate the wheat from the chaff and throw the chaff into the fire. This is a fact. This is what is going to happen when Jesus returns. Every Christian should know this with 100% certainty.

The problem is we don’t have faith in what the Bible says to be true. Though we think Jesus triumphs in the end, we don’t live our lives in a way that expresses this belief. Instead, we look around us and see a world that does not believe in Jesus or obey Him as Lord, so we become bashful and keep our beliefs to ourselves. We certainly don’t want to go out on a limb expressing these beliefs, then find out we’re wrong. That would be embarrassing.

We also see life as an 80-year process. It’s a long road — so we’ll get to the religion stuff towards the end. Assuming we live that long. Because EVERYONE dies of old age, right?

Well, here’s another news flash… The end is near.

Does that sound fanatical? Do I sound like a crazy person on the sidewalk with a cardboard sign? That’s what John the Baptist sounded like — and we see what happened with his prediction.

Faith is being bold about a truth only you seem to know. Being willing to be perceived by those around you as a crazy person. Accepting the fact that you will be mocked and discriminated against — and being okay with that, because you know, in the end, you’ll be on the winning side.

“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” – Mark 8:38

How differently would you live your life, if you knew Jesus was coming tomorrow? What would you stop doing? What would you start doing? If He was coming over for dinner, what would you discard from your house? If He was going to review your personal finances, what expenses would you try to hide? How much more would you tithe? If He asked you how you spent your time, what would you honestly say? What would you like to say?

Here are two certainties: 1) You are going to die, or 2) Jesus will return before you die. Either way, the end is near. You have about 80 total years on this earth to know God, obey Him, and make Him known to others.

What are you waiting for? It’s time to go all in.