Faith Is Assurance: The Reformation Gospel by David Engelsma

Faith Is Assurance: The Reformation Gospel
By Prof. David J. Engelsma

True faith is assurance of personal salvation.

Assurance is not the fruit of faith for a few old people after many years of doubt. Assurance is not the "well-being" of faith (for the few believers who are "God's best and dearest friends") in distinction from the "being" of faith.

Assurance is what faith essentially is. Personal assurance of one's own salvation by the grace of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ is the very being, or nature, of faith. Faith knows and trusts Jesus Christ as the Savior of the one who believes. Weak faith is certain of salvation, as well as strong faith. Faith is certain of salvation at the very beginning of the believing life, for example, in a covenant child, as well as faith at the very end of the way, for example, in a dying, old saint.

Faith is assurance.

Denial that faith is assurance was the fundamental cause of the deep, widespread, continuing doubt of salvation that characterized the congregations of the Puritans. It is the fundamental cause of the same doubt in Reformed and Presbyterian congregations today languishing under typically Puritan preaching. There are other causes of doubt as well: unsound emphasis on introspection; dependence on spiritual experiences; the deadly notion of "preparatory grace"; and the conditionality of the covenant and its salvation.

But the fundamental error is denial that faith is assurance. This error fills churches with doubters—comfortless, terrified doubters.

The previous editorial on assurance (Standard Bearer, March 15, 2004) showed that Scripture teaches faith as assurance.

Recovering the gospel of Scripture, the sixteenth century Reformation of the church taught that faith is assurance of salvation. With one accord, all the Reformers taught that assurance is the very nature of faith.

"Does Not Waver, Wobble, Shake, Tremble, or Doubt"

In his 1535 "Theses concerning Faith and Law," Martin Luther distinguished true faith from false faith this way: "True faith says, 'I certainly believe that the Son of God suffered and arose, but he did this all for me, for my sins, of that I am certain.'" Luther went on: "True faith with arms outstretched joyfully embraces the Son of God given for it and says, 'He is my beloved and I am his.'" According to Luther, it is exactly "that 'for me' or 'for us'" that "distinguishes it [true faith] from all other faith, which merely hears the things done."

Luther defined faith as "the firm and sure thought or trust that through Christ God is propitious and that through Christ His thoughts concerning us are thoughts of peace, not of affliction or wrath" (commentary on Gen. 15:6).

Late in his life, in 1543, Luther exulted in faith's essential certainty:

Faith is and, indeed, must be a steadfastness of the heart, which does not waver, wobble, shake, tremble, or doubt, but stands firm and is sure of its case.... When this Word enters the heart by true faith, it makes the heart as firm, sure, and certain as it is itself, so that the heart is unmoved, stubborn, and hard in the face of every temptation, the devil, death, and anything whatever, boldly and proudly despising and mocking everything that spells doubt, fear, evil, and wrath. For it knows that God's Word cannot lie. Such a person is . . . made certain, as the Word of the Lord is certain. So Paul says: "I know . . . and am persuaded (II Tim. 1:12)" (commentary on II Sam. 23:1).

Richard Marius is correct, in his recent, fine study of Luther, Martin Luther: The Christian Between God and Death, in stating that for Luther faith was assurance.

Faith is the only way to God, and as Luther presented it, faith seems always to have a warmhearted, existential content. It involves a personal, emotional binding with Christ. True faith is not merely to believe that the stories recounted in the Gospels are true; such belief "is no help, for all sinners and even the damned believe that." True faith, that faith filled with grace, is to know "that Christ was born for you, that his birth was for you, that it was all for your good."

Although Luther struggled all his believing life with hellish temptations to doubt the goodness and grace of God, he always affirmed that faith is assurance. All his life, despite his struggles against doubt, his own faith was assurance. By this confident faith, he constantly battled and overcame his temptation to doubt, and lived in the assurance of his own salvation.

Martin Bucer defined faith as "an undoubted persuasion of the mercy and fatherly good will of God towards us, made through the Holy Spirit and founded on the propitiation of Christ" (commentary on Romans).

The "Minutest Particle of Faith"

John Calvin's entire, lengthy treatment of faith in the Institutes—chapter two of book three—is a sustained argument that assurance is of the very being, or nature, of faith. "We shall now have a full definition of faith if we say that it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, and sealed on our hearts, by the Holy Spirit."

Contrasting true believers with those who "are harassed by miserable anxiety while they doubt whether God will be merciful to them," Calvin declares that "our faith is not true unless it enables us to appear calmly in the presence of God. Such boldness springs only from confidence in the divine favor and salvation. So true is this, that the term faith is often used as equivalent to confidence."

Calvin expressly repudiates the later, Puritan notion that faith must grow into assurance over a long period of time, so that new, or young, believers cannot expect to enjoy assurance: "As soon as the minutest particle of faith is instilled into our minds, we begin to behold the face of God placid, serene, and propitious." The reason why even the believer with the smallest, least developed faith—the "minutest particle of faith"—has assurance of salvation is that the "clear knowledge of the divine favor ... holds the first and principal part in faith."

Although Calvin is well aware that "believers have a perpetual struggle with their own distrust," he insists that "he only is a true believer who, firmly persuaded that God is reconciled, and is a kind Father to him, hopes everything from his kindness, who, trusting to the promises of the divine favor, with undoubting confidence anticipates salvation."

Calvin demolishes the Puritan notion that one can be a believer, indeed, can be a believer for years, but lack assurance of salvation, and that, in fact, this is the case with most believers. "No man, I say, is a believer but he who, trusting to the security of his salvation, confidently triumphs over the devil and death." In support of this contention, Calvin appeals to the glorious words of assurance that the Holy Spirit puts in the heart and on the lips of every one who believes the gospel of grace, in Romans 8:38, 39: "I am persuaded that [nothing] shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Lack of assurance is unbelief. One who lives persistently in doubt, perhaps under the sickly preaching that assures him that doubt is normal for most believers, is an unbeliever.

That faith is assurance is for Calvin a matter of the greatest importance. He does not simply teach this. But he emphasizes this at every opportunity. In his Sermons on Melchizedek & Abraham, preaching to his congregation on Genesis 15:6, Calvin asks, "What then is Belief?" His answer is: "It is to receive whatsoever is spoken unto us from the mouth of God, with such reverence, as that we hold it to be certain and sure." But this is "not enough." This is not enough to constitute "Belief." Belief, or faith, regards the Word of God as "such a sure and certain word unto us as may make us approach near unto God, and make us partakers of his bounty and goodness: and not to doubt but that he will be our Father and Savior, and so thereupon may be bold to call upon him, and hold ourselves for his children, and fly unto him for succor and aid."

Theodore Beza, Calvin's successor in Geneva, likewise taught assurance as faith's very nature. In his handbook of Reformed theology, The Christian Faith, under the heading, "How faith is necessary, and what faith is," Beza gave this description of faith:

The faith of which we speak does not consist only in believing that God is God, and that the contents of His Word are true:—for the devils indeed have this faith, and it only makes them tremble (James 2:19)—But we call "faith" a certain knowledge which, by His grace and goodness alone, the Holy Spirit engraves more and more in the hearts of the elect of God (I Cor. 2:6-8). By this knowledge, each of them, being assured in his heart of his election, appropriates to himself and applies to himself the promise of his salvation in Jesus Christ.... Whosoever truly believes trusts in Him alone and is assured of his salvation to the point of no longer doubting it (Eph 3:12) [emphasis added].

A Lame Defense of Apostasy

From the teaching of the Reformation that faith is assurance, the Puritan doctrine of assurance is a radical departure. Advocates of the Puritan doctrine have noticed this, of course, and have offered what must certainly rank as one of the lamest defenses of apostasy from Reformation orthodoxy in all the history of doctrine. The Presbyterian theologian William Cunningham acknowledged that the Reformers spoke "very strongly of the importance and necessity of men being personally assured about their own salvation." But the Reformers were mistaken in their doctrine of assurance. Their views on assurance were "extreme and exaggerated." The later Puritans and Presbyterians were right in denying that assurance is of the essence of faith and in denying assurance to most believers. According to Cunningham, the reason for the Reformers' "high views" of assurance was that they themselves received a special dispensation of grace: "God seems to have given to them the grace of assurance more fully and more generally than He does to believers in ordinary circumstances."

Apart now from his explanation of the Reformers' doctrine of assurance, Cunningham made significant admissions. He admitted that the later Puritan denial that assurance belongs to the essence of faith conflicts with the teaching of the Reformation. He also admitted that this deviation from the Reformation tends towards Roman Catholicism. "It is no doubt true that in so far as there has been a deviation from the views [on assurance] generally held by the Reformers, it has proceeded in a direction which tends to diminish the differences between Protestants and papists" (see William Cunningham, "The Reformers and the Doctrine of Assurance," in The Reformers and the Theology of the Reformation).

In the language of the warning of the Canons of Dordt, by the Puritan doctrine of assurance, particularly the denial that assurance belongs to the essence of faith, "the doubts of the papist are again introduced into the church" (Canons, V, Rejection of Errors/5).

Cunningham's explanation of the Reformer's doctrine of assurance is mistaken. The Reformers' doctrine of assurance had nothing to do with their own, allegedly special experience and certainly nothing to do with a special dispensation of grace in the sixteenth century. One could as well explain away their doctrine of justification by arguing that the Reformers were justified in a special way at a special time in the history of salvation.

The Reformers taught that faith is assurance for all believers, in all times, because this is what the Bible teaches about faith.

The Reformers taught that faith is assurance for all believers, because the Reformers saw that faith has respect to God's work of sovereign grace in Jesus Christ. Looking to grace, in dependence upon a sure promise, faith is certain. Assurance is the blessed fruit of the gospel of grace.

The Puritan teaching on assurance, therefore, is serious error. It is radical deviation from the teaching of the Reformation. It is false doctrine about faith. It robs many of the only comfort in life and death. And it betrays a grievous departure from the gospel of grace. The Puritans and those who followed them shifted the center of faith's attention away from the work of God in Jesus Christ, including the work of God in Jesus Christ within the elect sinner, to the sinner's experience of salvation. Puritanism did this deliberately. It was bold to proclaim itself a "second reformation." Thus Puritanism, with no little arrogance, judged the sixteenth century Reformation inadequate and heralded itself as accomplishing the vital thing left undone by the "first" Reformation. The vital thing consisted of concentrating on the sinner and his experience.

The result was fatal.

Doubt.

Thoughts on The War between my Flesh and my Spirit

Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:
I have only one enemy in this life: My flesh.
This flesh hates God. It has no desire for the Perfection of Beauty. It looks at the cross with contempt and would that God were not. It wants its own and will kill, steal, and destroy to obtain. It is a slave to corrupt passions and desires so to be. It knows not God and is content as such. It will not obey the truth of the gospel, but rather enjoys unrighteousness and sin. It would rather suffer in the torments of eternal hell than to submit to Christ as Sovereign Lord, bowing in honor and fear to Him, even for a moment. There is no good thing in my flesh. It wages war against the Spirit that God has graciously put within me, and is capable of doing the worst acts of sin any human has ever committed in order to destroy this Spirit. It never will. My flesh will not believe this though. It refuses God’s Word and is not subject to it. It is God’s enemy as it is mine. Through Christ I can be separated from myself, yea, I already have been. I can hate with righteous anger that which if it could, would crucify Christ forever and never be tired of causing Him sufferings. But praise be to God, for grace has given me freedom from this filthy heaven-hater. He has delivered me from the bondage of sin and death. O my soul, look unto your mediator! He ever lives to intercede on your behalf! He will not forsake you utterly, nor leave you to be ever wounded by this selfish carnality that temporarily abides within you. He is your victory and has overcome this perversion of nature. O thou flesh! You are and have nothing! You are despicable and I indeed rejoice with my God in your death. Thank you precious Father for yielding your sword and crucifying this flesh in your Son at Calvary! Thank you for raising Christ from the dead and thus raising me to newness of life in Him! Thank you.

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

An Overnight trip to Weavers Needle, AZ

Here are some pics that I took while on route to a location east of the Superstition Mountains (AZ) called Weavers Needle. I went with a close friend of mine, Dan Peters (who himself was hunting for deer via bow and arrow). It was about a 2 hour hike with a 55 pound pack and I really enjoyed it. The evening was refreshing and the night sky was black with stars to the horizon. God truly is magnificent and His glory is an abounding beauty!

Is Saving Faith commanded by the Moral Law?

Excerpts by John Brine (1703-1765)

"I shall attend unto the small Labour of a thorough Examination of his 'Answer' to the Question propounded, viz. Whether saving Faith in Christ is a Duty required by the moral Law, of all those who live under the Gospel Revelation?...

The Image of God, wherein Man was created, consisted in a perfect Knowledge of God, and of his Duty according to the Nature of the Covenant, under which he then was, in a holy Affection to God, and in a

habitual Disposition to Obedience. These Things ought constantly to be maintained against, the Socinians, who deny original Righteousness, to the Disparagement of human Nature, in its primitive State, and unto the Dishonour of God our Creator. For, to imagine, that God gave Existence to a reasonable Creature destitute of Principles, suited to enable it to walk before, and with him, in all holy Obedience unto his Will, is to cast impious Reproach on his Wisdom, Goodness, and Holiness. Nevertheless, there is a great Difference, between that Life which we had in Adam, and that which we now have. The gracious Principle in Believers, springs from the Fountain of eternal Love, in the Heart of God towards them, as the God of all Grace. But the Life we had in Adam did not. Our spiritual Life is derived from Christ, and by him it is maintained, and influenced in all its Acts, which the living holy Principle in Adam was not. Again, the regenerate Principle is a Disposition to Acts towards God, agreeable to the Nature of the new Revelation, which he hath given of himself in the Covenant of Grace. But the holy Principle in Adam was a Disposition unto, and exerted itself, in Acts of God, suitable to that Revelation, which the Covenant of Works gave of him. As the Covenant of Works, and the Covenant of Grace differ in Nature; So our Life unto God is of a different ind, according to the Difference and distinct Nature of the two Covenants:
Says Dr. Owen: For neither would the Life of Adam be sufficient for us, to live unto God according to the Terms of the new Covenant; nor is the Life of Grace we now enjoy, suited to the Covenant, wherein, Adam, stood before God. Wherefore some Differences there between them, the principal whereof may be reduced into two Heads."

"The Author [Mr. Jackson] observes, That those who appear most warm against Faith in Christ being a Duty, do yet own andacknowledge that Faith to be the Duty of all Men to whom the Gospel is preached, which the Scripture declares is a saving Faith. These Persons, then, are a Parcel of extremely weak and silly Creatures, who thus contradict themselves. But the Contradiction will be found in Mr. Jackson [The man who in writing opposes him], not in them. What is that Faith which they maintain, is the Duty of unconverted Sinners? It is a Belief of the Truth of the Report of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ, in his Person, Offices, and Benefits. This he asserts to be saving Faith, than which there is nothing more false. Thus the Devils believe: Thus Simon Magus believed; and such a Faith as this is a Man may carry to Hell along with him. It is merely a rational Act excited in the Mind by rational Evident. This is not a Sinner’s fleeing to, receiving of, and resting on the Lord Jesus Christ alone for Salvation, which, Mr. Jackson has before observed, is true saving Faith, in perfect Contradiction to what he here affirms. So that this Argument to prove his Point is absolutely and entirely lost..."

"But in his third Argument lies almost the entire Strength of his Cause, which, therefore shall be thoroughly weighed, and, whatever, properly belongs unto it, in the whole Performance, shall not be paired over, without Notice. It is this:
Thirdly, The holy Scripture declares, that Faith in Christ is a commanded Duty; and proves, that it is a Work, which, God,by the moral Law, requires of all Men, to whom the Gospel is preached.
That we may proceed clearly, in our Enquiries, into what we have now before us, I would observe, that the moral Law is to be considered, either as a Covenant of Works, or, merely, as a Law and Rule of Conduct: This twofold Consideration of the Law is absolutely necessary. For, without it, we must grant, that Believers, are under the Covenant of Works, or deny, that they are under the Law. Whereas, neither may be allowed. They are not under the Law, as a Covenant, but under Grace; nevertheless, they are not without Law to God, but under the Law to Christ. Now the Question is plainly this: Whether Faith in Christ for Salvation is required by the Law as a Covenant? The Answer must be, I think, in the Negative; my Reasons for it are these:

1. The Law is not of Faith: It doth not present the Object of Faith, that all will allow. Nor doth it direct to the Act of Faith in Christ, as a Saviour. The Law, as a Covenant, requires Obedience, in order to Acceptance, and receiving the promised Reward. Do and live is the Language of it, but not believe and be saved: Yea, it is so far from requiring Faith in Christ for Salvation, that it allows not the Subject of it to hope for Deliverance from Misery. That Constitution is nothing but Death to the Sinner: The Soul that sins shall die. How, therefore, can it require Faith in Christ in order to Salvation? The Grace of the Gospel, by its Revelation, makes no Change in the legal Constitution; that is the same it was before the Discovery of Salvation in the Gospel, and so it will eternally remain.

But this is no Bar to the Hope of a regenerate Man: For,

2. A Believer is dead to the Law, as a Covenant: He is brought from under its Power; and therefore, in acting Faith on Christ, he yields not Obedience to the first Covenant, which he must be supposed to do, if that Covenant required it. No Actings of Grace, which the new Covenant gives, are Obedience to the Commands of the old Covenant.

3. The Law is dead to a Believer. Now, that which is dead to him can’t reasonably be thought to give him Direction about, and oblige him unto, the Actings of a Principle, in Consequence whereof its Death to him follows. The Exercise of Faith in Christ, therefore, is not Obedience to the Covenant of Works.

4. Until a Man, thro’ the Law, is dead to the Law, he hath no Warrant to receive Christ as a Saviour, or to hope for Salvation through him. Conviction of Sin, a Sense of Misery, as justly deserved, and despairing of Relief from the Law and Works of it, in Order of Nature, at least, precede the first: Act of Faith on Christ for Salvation. The Act is of that Kind as necessarily supposes it. And as, in the Nature of the Thing, such an Act cannot be put forth, previous unto the Relinquishment of all Hope of Life by the Law, there is not any Thing, in the whole Gospel, which directs and encourages Men to exert such an Act, without the Supposition of that Conviction wrought in them; which Conviction is the Effect of Regeneration; and, therefore, a Man is not under the first Covenant, even when he puts forth the first: Act of Faith on Christ.

Now, tho’ special, supernatural Faith is not required by the Covenant of Works, it requires a Belief of the Truth of every Revelation, which God, at any Time, shall be pleased to make of his Will to his Creature, Man, who is the Subject of that Covenant.
1. The first Covenant most certainly obliges Man to believe that is true, which God expresses.
2. The Christian Revelation hath such evident and indelible Characters of its divine Original, or that it really is a Revelation from God, as are abundantly sufficient to satisfy any rational, unprejudiced Enquirer.
3. That Covenant obliges Man to conclude upon the Wisdom and Holiness of all God’s Designs and Acts about and towards his Creatures, both in a Way of Justice and Mercy.
4. The Mysteries of Redemption by Christ are expressed in Language, which is not above the Capacities of Men; and, therefore, they are able to perceive the Truth of those Mysteries, though they are not capable of understanding the real Nature of them, without an additional supernatural Revelation, or Illumination of the Mind, is graciously vouchsafed to them.

Hence it follows,

5. Contempt cast upon the Gospel, or a Disapprobation and Rejection of the wise and gracious Method of Salvation by Christ, involves Men in Guilt, and justly subjects them to Punishment. And, especially,
6. If they, thro’ Prejudice and Pride, throw off all Regard to Christian Doctrines, after a Conviction of their Truth, or being the Matter of divine Revelation. Many awful Instances of this Kind our perilous Times furnish us with.

The first Covenant requires of Men a Belief of, and reverential Regard to, the Doctrine of the new Covenant, tho’ it doth not oblige them unto acting Faith on Christ for Salvation. Every Man, who despises the Grace of the second Covenant, by so doing brings himself under the dreadful Curse of the first. This is what an holy innocent Creature would never do; but, upon the Revelation of it, he would give Credit to, and reverentially regard it. Thus do the holy Angels, as I before observed. And it is thro’ Ignorance, Pride, and corrupt Prejudices, that Men disbelieve, and reject it as Folly, unto their just Condemnation, But thus far of the Law, as a Covenant, and of the Obligation it says Men under to believe, and not reject, the Gospel of the Grace of God."

"Again, the moral Law is to be considered as a Law merely, or Rule of Action; as such, regenerate Persons are under it, and by its Authority they are obliged unto all the Actings of the regenerate Principle, in Faith, Repentance, Love, and evangelical Obedience.
For,
1. The new Man, or the Believer, as a new Creature, is under the Command of the Law, to love God, and to love his Neighbour; and, consequently, he stands obliged unto all those Acts, by Vertue of that Command, unto which that new Principle in him is suited.
2. As by a new Revelation, both external and internal, new Objects of Love, Adoration, and Delight, are presented to his View, those Acts are the Matter of his Duty. Yea,
3. All the Actings of this Principle, in the future State of Glory, will be due unto God, by Vertue of the moral Law, which is no other than his Will, that his Creature, Man, should yield Obedience unto him in every State, suitable to those Principles wherewith he furnishes him, and unto those Discoveries of himself, which he graciously affords him. I am so far from thinking, that Believers are not, in this State, under the moral Law, or that their Acts of Faith, Repentance, Love, and filial Fear of God, are not Obedience to it in the present State, that I am most firmly persuaded, that they will be under that Law in Heaven, and that all their holy Acts of Love, Adoration, and Delight, in that blissful State, will be Obedience due to their heavenly Father, by Vertue thereof."
 
"The Objection, in Fact, is this: The holy Principle connatural to Adam, and, concreated with him, was not suited to live unto God through a Mediator; that kind of Life was above the Extent of his Powers, though perfect; and, therefore, as he in a State of Integrity had not a Capacity of living unto God, agreeably to the Nature of the new Covenant, it is apprehended, that his Posterity, while under the first Covenant, are not commanded to live unto God after that Sort, or, in other Words, to live by Faith on God, through a Mediator. Capable he was of receiving a Revelation from God of other Truths, than what are contained in the first Covenant, if it had been the Pleasure of God to make such a Revelation unto him. He was able to give an Assent, to the Truth, of what God should please to reveal to him, and had a Capacity of reverentially regarding Truths divinely revealed to him, though not included in that Covenant, wherein he was to walk with, and live unto God."
 
-Excerpts taken from Motives to Love and Unity Among Calvinists, Who Differ on Some Points
By John Brine

Audrey

                                          I Love my Daughter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let there be Faith!

Just meditating on the nature of saving faith today, and how the commandment God makes to the lost sheep to believe the gospel of their salvation is similar in essence to the creative commandment God said in the beginning:

Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

It can be said that the Holy Spirit commands faith in his elect, saying "Let there be faith: and there was faith."
This is salvation. It is the new covenant. It is not a work of man, but rather a work of God. And just as our very conciousness does not create our existence in this life, so also, faith does not create spiritual life, but on the contrary is a very conciousness of it. And just as when we look into our mirrors at home and are filled with an awareness of our own existence, so also is faith rectified and strengthened when it looks into the Word of God, into the reflection of the gospel of its salvation, and the Spirit bears true witness that we are; that is, that we exist; we who are His, are new creatures in Christ Jesus, and faith as a commanded gift of God begins to shine the moment God creationally commands it! Praise Him!

2Co 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Three Points of Calvinsim?

Thinking about the 'Five Points of Calvinism' today, and how they convey to us the Gospel:

The most common form of the '5 points'

Point 1- Total Depravity

Point 2- Unconditional Election

Point 3- Limited Atonement

Point 4- Irresistable Grace

Point 5- Perseverance of the Saints


A Summary of the '5 points' in only 3 points

Point 1- Man is Lost

Point 2- God saves man

Point 3- Man is Saved

The only distinction with these three points compared to the five is that Election, Atonment, and Irresistable Grace are compressed into one point, namely, that God saves (point 2). Consisdering this causes us to see that points 2, 3, and 4 (of the 5 points) are really the work of the Godhead. The Father elects (point 2), the Son atones (and mediates; point 3), and the Spirit draws through regeneration (point 4).

This to me is a quite amazing way of percieving 'the doctrines of grace'. The reality is this: they are a summarization of the Gospel, period. What other Gospel could we believe in that does not involve a lost sinner, a God who saves, and the result of the two, a found sheep. This is all the five points reveal to us. In fact, if we didn't make distinction in the Trinity of God (which by all means, we must, for the Scriptures do), we would only have three points of the doctrines of Grace, and the Glory of God in the redemption of sinners! Good news!

Here is another way of describing it

Point 1- Total Depravity (Man is Lost)

Point 2- Unconditional Election (The Father Saves)

Point 3- Limited Atonement (The Son Saves)

Point 4- Irresistable Grace (The Spirit Saves)

Point 5- Perseverance of the Saints (Man is Saved)