The purpose of this page is to set forth the doctrinal convictions that distinguish us from other faithful churches in Las Cruces, so that you can prayerfully discern whether Grace Community Church is the place for you to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. We praise God for the other gospel-preaching churches in our community and rejoice in the partnership we share in advancing His Kingdom. At the same time, we recognize that meaningful doctrinal differences exist, shaping the life and culture of each congregation. Because these convictions are foundational to who we are, we believe it’s important to articulate them here with clarity and transparency.
THE FIVE SOLAS
At the heart of the Protestant Reformation was a recovery of the Bible’s teaching on salvation. The Reformers labored to expound and exalt the true gospel over and against the fatal flaws of the Roman Catholic Church, which had distorted the message of salvation through centuries of human tradition. In setting forth the biblical gospel, the Reformers articulated what we now know as the Five Solas (sola meaning “alone” in Latin). These were not new doctrines, but a heaven-sent rediscovery of the ancient, apostolic truths found in Scripture.
Most Protestant churches today would readily affirm the Five Solas without hesitation. We include them among our distinctives, not because they are tucked away in some theological closet of ours, only to be brought out for the occasional orthodoxy check, but because these truths saturate our preaching, guide our praying, inspire our singing, and enrich our fellowship. We more than affirm them. We treasure these truths and seek to weave them into the very fabric of our life together.
Sola Scriptura: Scripture Alone
The Bible is our final and highest authority in all matters of faith (what we believe) and practice (how we live). The conviction behind Sola Scriptura arose in the Reformation to oppose the Roman Catholic claim that the traditions of the church and the authority of the Pope were equal to the authority of the Scriptures. With the Reformers, we believe that the Scriptures alone are God-breathed, authoritative, true, clear, sufficient, and supreme (2 Tim. 3:16; 1 Cor. 4:6). Fools may temporarily twist the Bible’s message (2 Pet. 3:16), but they cannot ultimately trump its authority (Isa. 40:6–8). Scripture is not only our highest earthly authority but also our greatest earthly treasure. Sweeter than honey and sufficient to save, sanctify, and satisfy our souls, the Christ-centered Word brings life (Ps. 119:50), light (2 Pet. 1:19), liberty (John 8:31–32), and lasting joy to all who believe (Ps. 119:111).
Sola Gratia: By Grace Alone
Salvation is an undeserved gift to the unrighteous, not a reward for the self-righteous. It cannot be earned by our efforts, religious duties, or moral achievements, but is freely bestowed on us by God’s sovereign grace (Eph. 2:8; Tit. 3:5). We “are justified by his grace as a gift” (Rom. 3:24). Unlike the Roman Catholic view, which teaches that saving grace is imparted through the sacraments (CCC 1129) and must be increased and maintained by human cooperation through good works (CCC 2010; Council of Trent, Session 6, Canon 9), Scripture teaches that God’s grace is not a spiritual energy drink fueling our performance as we strive for heaven. God’s grace is the sole source of our salvation from beginning to end. With the apostles we confess, “We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 15:11). Not grace mixed with good works, not grace maintained through the sacraments, not grace mingled with our cooperation, but grace alone. “From the first to the last, salvation is all of grace. Grace chose us, grace redeemed us, grace regenerates us, grace preserves us, and grace must perfect us” (Charles Spurgeon).
Sola Fide: Through Faith Alone
At the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic Church officially declared, “If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone... let him be anathema” (Session 6, Canon 9). By this standard, the apostle Paul himself would have been placed under Rome’s anathema, for long before Trent he wrote, “a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Gal. 2:16; Rom. 3:28, 4:4–5). God justifies the ungodly, not by a combination of faith and works, but by faith alone. Faith is the outstretched, empty hand by which we receive God’s gift of righteousness. “Faith is the hand of the soul. It is not a work, it is not a merit, it brings nothing to Christ, but it takes everything from Him. All that faith does is to receive what grace provides” (Charles Spurgeon).
Roman Catholicism regards justification as a process involving both faith and works (CCC 1989), but the Bible presents justification as a decisive, one-time act whereby God, on the basis of Christ’s redeeming work, declares the sinner to be righteous in His sight the moment he or she trusts in Christ. Rather than looking to ourselves, we come to Him confessing, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling” (Augustus Toplady). Even this faith, the very act of coming to Christ, is itself a gracious gift from a kind and merciful God (John 6:44, 65; Phil. 1:29).
Solus Christus: In Christ Alone
Jesus Christ is the only Mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5). He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). He alone is able to save to the uttermost all who draw near to God through Him (Heb. 7:25). Neither priest nor saint, not even Mary the mother of Jesus, can accomplish or contribute to the salvation of sinners, for “there is salvation in no one else” (Acts 4:12). Octavius Winslow wrote of Christ, “He has undertaken to save us just as we are. He finds us a ruin, and recreates us; he finds us fallen, and raises us up; he finds us guilty, and he cleanses us; he finds us condemned, and he justifies us. All our salvation is in him… all the grace and strength our salvation demands, dwells in infinite fullness in Christ.”
There is a reason why Paul’s letters overflow with phrases like “in Him” and “through Him” whenever he is speaking of Christ and our salvation. He wanted the church to know that when it comes to our salvation, Christ is everything, as Spurgeon so beautifully states: “If Christ be anything, He must be everything. If He be not everything, He is nothing to us. He will never go into partnership as a part Savior of men. If He be something, He must be everything. And if He be not everything, He is nothing.”
Soli Deo Gloria: To the Glory of God Alone
Because salvation is the work of God’s grace and power from beginning to end, all the honor and glory belongs to Him from beginning to end. No human being will ever be able to boast in the presence of God (1 Cor. 1:29). Roman Catholicism’s teaching that grace must be joined with man’s cooperation, religious merit, and the mediation of the church eclipses the glory of Christ and leaves the door wide open for sinners to boast that salvation is partly their own achievement. We passionately reject such notions and stand with the Reformers in proclaiming that salvation is entirely the work of God and therefore belongs entirely to Him. To boast in anything other than the sovereign grace of God and the finished work of Christ, whether in our willingness to receive Christ, our wisdom in recognizing our need for Him, our faith in embracing Him, our repentance in turning to Him, or our good deeds as a means of earning and increasing God’s favor, distorts the gospel and robs God of His glory. The presence and persistence of such boastful arrogance is evidence of a heart untouched by God’s transforming grace. All the glory for man’s salvation belongs to God alone. Our only contribution in the matter of salvation is the sin that made it necessary.
The Doxological Root of the Solas
After showcasing the multifaceted beauty of our salvation in Romans 1–11, Paul sweetly summarizes everything in a soul-stirring doxology: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36). Paul’s understanding of salvation is clear: it flows from God as its source, is accomplished through God as its means, and returns to God as the ultimate end of all things. The Triune God is the source of our salvation, the means of our salvation, and the goal of our salvation.
This doxology is simple enough for a child to grasp, yet so profound that the sharpest theological minds in church history have spent their lives mining its treasures and have barely scratched the surface of its unsearchable riches. Romans 11:36 is the fertile soil from which the Five Solas spring forth and the solid oak from which the battering rams of the Five Solas were hewn. These rams were wielded by the Spirit-empowered church of Christ to assault and break through the gates of death and false religion, liberating captives from spiritual darkness at the time of the Reformation and in the centuries since, even to this day.
After Paul penned these words, and as the church’s understanding of the gospel matured through the centuries, this God-breathed doxology became the foundation upon which the Five Solas were faithfully articulated and boldly proclaimed. Sola Gratia and Sola Scriptura confess that all saving grace and all saving truth flow from God as their source. Solus Christus and Sola Fide proclaim that salvation is accomplished through Christ alone and received by faith alone. And Soli Deo Gloria celebrates the thunderous truth that when it comes to our eternal salvation, all the glory belongs to our Triune God.
One Word Makes All the Difference
The power and preciousness of the Five Solas rests in a single word: alone. That word is what set the Reformers apart from the Roman Catholic Church then and what still sets us apart today. Roman Catholics then and now believe in Scripture (Scriptura), believe in grace (gratia), believe in faith (fide), believe in Christ (Christus), and believe that salvation brings glory to God (Deo gloria). What they deny, however, is the most important word in the equation: alone.
Protestants, by contrast, prize and proclaim the truth that Scripture alone is enough to lead us to salvation, not Scripture plus tradition or the doctrines of men. We glory in grace alone as the ground of our salvation, not grace mingled with merit or grace increased by our cooperative efforts. We believe that faith alone is the only means of being justified before God, not faith joined with works. We boldly declare that salvation is found in Christ alone, not Christ alongside popes, priests, saints, or sacraments. And we boldly confess that God alone deserves the glory for our salvation. He does not share this glory with Mary or anyone else who concludes that salvation depends ultimately on man’s decision to follow Christ.
Whether in our day, in the days of the Reformation, or in the days when the Spirit of God worked through His servants to complete the canon of Scripture, the word alone has preserved the purity, power, and preciousness of the gospel, ensuring that the crown of eternal glory rests exactly where it belongs: on the head of our wonderful and worthy Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ.
THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE
Naturally, our love for the Five Solas overflows into a deep affection for the Doctrines of Grace, for both magnify God’s sovereign grace and humble man’s boastful pride. More commonly known as the Five Points of Calvinism, these biblically rooted realities beautifully display the sovereign work of the Triune God in rescuing and restoring ruined sinners to Himself. They provide a helpful and thoroughly biblical framework for understanding how salvation is initiated, accomplished, and applied by the grace of God. These doctrines turn our eyes away from ourselves and fix them on the inscrutable wisdom and steadfast love of the Triune God, who sovereignly seeks and saves the lost by His grace and for His glory.
Historically, the acronym TULIP has been used to summarize these doctrines: T for Total Depravity, U for Unconditional Election, L for Limited Atonement, I for Irresistible Grace, and P for the Perseverance of the Saints. That said, we prefer not to lean on labels that aren’t found in Scripture, especially since terms like Reformed or Calvinistic often carry limitations, invite misrepresentations, and evoke false caricatures that prevent meaningful conversation among brothers and sisters in Christ. We would much rather be known simply as Christians who love the Lord Jesus Christ and make much of God’s grace. Too often such labels raise unnecessary walls, foster division, and become stumbling blocks to doctrinal clarity and Christian unity.
Nevertheless, we believe it is important to be clear about what we believe, especially in matters of salvation that have often been the source of heated debate throughout the history of the church. We treasure the Doctrines of Grace, not because they align with a particular theological system or reflect the convictions of our heroes in church history, but because they are consistent with the teaching of the whole counsel of God contained in the Scriptures. Labels, heroes, and systems aside, what matters most is this: Do the Doctrines of Grace faithfully align with the truth of the whole Bible? We are convinced that the answer is a resounding yes.
Salvation Belongs to God
Though we mention the label with hesitation, we want to be clear, even at the risk of sounding overly simplistic. When we say we are Calvinists, we simply mean that we hold dear and lift high the truth thundered throughout the entirety of Scripture: “Salvation belongs to our God” (Rev. 7:10). We believe that God saves sinners. He does not merely make salvation possible, or make sinners savable. He actually saves—period. As already mentioned, the only thing we contribute to our salvation, as wrecked and ruined sinners—the only thing we can truly claim as our own—is the sin that would have, and should have, sunk us to hell.
We offer the following summary of the Five Points—not to raise unnecessary walls, but to clarify further doctrinal convictions that distinguish us from other faithful congregations in our city. Rather than merely stating that we are Calvinistic or Reformed in our understanding of salvation, we have chosen to explain in our own words what we mean by this. For those who desire a deeper consideration of these truths, we invite you to listen to our sermon series entitled The Doctrines of Grace.
Total Depravity
We believe in the doctrine of Total Depravity, which does not mean that human beings are as depraved as they possibly could be. It means that sin has radically corrupted every part of our being—blinding our eyes, hardening our hearts, enslaving our wills, darkening our understanding, and distorting our affections to hate what we should love and love what we should hate as God’s image bearers. Sin has left us spiritually dead and morally incapable of doing anything truly good or pleasing to God (Rom. 8:7–8). This inability is not an external constraint cruelly imposed on us by a malicious God to keep innocent, willing sinners from coming to Christ, but the natural result of our own deep-rooted love of sin and hatred of God (John 3:19–20; Rom. 1:30). Perhaps a better way to describe this doctrine would be Radical Depravity. The word radix comes from Latin, meaning “root.” Our wickedness runs deeper than the surface of our thoughts, words, and deeds. It permeates us through and through, down to the very root of who and what we are. We are sinful to the core. We bear bad fruit because we are corrupt at the root.
This means exactly what it implies: sin’s radical corruption has left us unable to repent and believe in Christ apart from God’s merciful intervention and enablement. Jesus taught in John 6:44 that no one is able (Gk. dynamai—“to have power,” “to be capable”) to come to Him in faith unless the Father draws him (Gk. helkō—“to drag,” “to pull with force”). The English word draw is often misunderstood as if it meant merely to woo or to attract. Sadly, this misunderstanding fuels much of the man-centered theology so prevalent in the church today, a theology that robs God of His glory in order to magnify the sinner’s role in the work of salvation. But the word Jesus uses means something far more forceful and effectual than wooing or attracting. In fact, Luke uses the same word to describe Paul being violently dragged into the marketplace and out of the temple (Acts 16:19; 21:30), and John uses it to describe a heavy net of fish being hauled in by the disciples (John 21:6, 11).
It is highly unlikely—indeed, absurd—to imagine that the persecutors of Paul and Silas wooed them into the marketplace without forcefully laying hands on them to attack and beat them, or that Peter somehow wooed the heavy net of fish ashore without physical effort. So, to reduce John 6:44 to the idea of the Father merely wooing sinners is not only wrong, it strips the verse of its meaning and power. Jesus is not talking about God persuasively wooing sinners, but about God powerfully winning sinners. Jesus understood that man’s sinful corruption is so deep that we need far more than God’s convicting or wooing influence. We need His life-giving power to regenerate us, raise us from spiritual death, and effectively bring us to Christ. As Jesus declared, unless we are born again and made alive (Eph. 2:4–5), we cannot even see the Kingdom of God, let alone enter it (John 3:3–5).
Calvinists are often accused of teaching that God drags sinners to Christ, kicking and screaming against their wills. But John 6 says nothing of sinners being drawn unwillingly. It teaches that all who are drawn by the Father will come to the Son and be raised up on the last day (John 6:37–44). The Father’s drawing is not merely influential. It is wonderfully effectual. When God draws, the sinner comes. All whom God calls, He also justifies and glorifies (Rom. 8:30). When God seeks the sinner, He finds the sinner.
Though the power of sin has wrecked and ruined us, leaving us both unable and unwilling to return to our Maker, the regenerating power of God makes us able and willing to come to Him with indescribable joy and gladness. When God’s sovereign ability and gracious willingness collide with man’s inability and stubborn unwillingness, the result is nothing less than glorious. By His merciful might, God makes the unwilling willing by replacing hearts of stone with hearts of flesh and working in us both to desire and to do what pleases Him (Ezek. 36:26; Phil. 2:13). All who are drawn by the Father come to the Son willingly and joyfully (Matt. 13:44). No one is ever forced against his or her will, for in the day of God’s power, He is able to make His people willing (Ps. 110:3).
At the heart of man’s inability to come to Christ is his wicked unwillingness to submit the entirety of his life to God. This unwillingness flows from the fact that his will, like every faculty of his being, is enslaved to sin and under the power of Satan (John 8:34; Rom. 6:20, 8:7–8; 2 Tim. 2:25–26). Man’s all-consuming love affair with sin is so pervasive that he cannot, and therefore will not, turn from it in surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from the new birth, we really are that bad.
This inability is moral, and therefore evil and punishable. Sin’s sinister influence has thoroughly ravaged us, leaving us helpless, hopeless, hell-bound, and wholly dependent on the grace and power of God to overcome our rebellion, raise us from death, open our eyes, free our wills, and effectively draw us to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the biblical doctrine of Total (Radical) Depravity.
Unconditional Election
The doctrine of Total Depravity highlights the sobering reality that, left to ourselves, we would never break off our love affair with sin to be united with the glorious Christ revealed in Scripture. This raises the all-important question: How, then, can anyone be saved?
The answer is found in the doctrine of Unconditional Election. It teaches that before the ages began, for reasons entirely outside of us (hence the word unconditional), God freely and graciously chose to rescue a vast multitude of hell-deserving sinners—by His sovereign grace, from His righteous wrath, and for His eternal glory (Eph. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9). Scripture refers to them as God’s elect (Tit. 1:1). They are vessels of mercy (Rom. 9:23), chosen by the Father and entrusted to the Son (John 10:29), to be sprinkled and justified by His blood (1 Pet. 1:2; Rom. 5:9).
Contrary to the popular, man-centered view of election, God did not choose us because He looked down the corridors of time and foresaw—or discovered—that we would choose Him. Such a notion not only suggests that the infinite, all-knowing God is capable of learning, but it also reduces His choice to a mere reaction to man’s decision rather than what Scripture declares it to be: a sovereign act of His gracious will (Rom. 9:10–18; 2 Tim. 1:9; John 15:16). If His choice of us were based on our choice of Him, election would no longer be an act of God’s gracious initiative but a passive response to human initiative, which is a denial of His initiating mercy and eternal purpose (Rom. 8:28–30; 9:11; Eph. 3:11). Scripture plainly teaches that God’s purpose of election “depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16).
The Bible consistently emphasizes God’s sovereign choice to save sinners, not man’s decision to choose God. He is the sovereign Initiator and gracious Pursuer—never one who waits on man’s will or merely responds to sinners. Whenever salvation is celebrated, God’s merciful will and sovereign grace are held high, while human will and effort are laid low (Matt. 11:27; John 1:13; Rom. 9:16–18; 1 Cor. 1:28–29; Jas. 1:18). His initiating grace does not find its origin in time, when He begins to pursue sinners, but in eternity, when He purposed to save them. Everything He accomplishes in time flows from what He determined to do before time.
Even if we were to entertain the idea that God chose us because He foresaw that we would choose Him, we must ask: What exactly would God have seen in us, given what Scripture reveals about human depravity as articulated in the doctrine of Total Depravity? We begin with what He would not have seen: a people pursuing Him, needing only a faint spark of the Holy Spirit’s conviction to repent and believe in His Son.
Scripture is clear about what He would have seen: a world of glory-exchanging, truth-suppressing, sin-loving rebels who hated the very God who made them (Rom. 1:18–32). He would have seen what Ezekiel saw, but on a greater, global scale—a barren wasteland filled with dead, dry bones, a sobering image of our spiritual lifelessness before the living God (Ezek. 37:1). He would have seen the dark portrait of humanity painted in Romans 3:10–18: a people without goodness, righteousness, understanding, or the fear of God; not a single soul seeking Him or doing good, a people whose mouths were full of deceit and bitterness, leaving nothing but ruin and misery in their wake.
In determining the end—the eternal salvation of all His elect—God also predestined the means. He determined that we would be the recipients of His life-giving gifts of repentance and faith (2 Tim. 2:25; 2 Thess. 2:13; Phil. 1:29). God’s election of sinners before time leads to their believing in Christ within time (Acts 13:48). His choice of us before time guaranteed that the Holy Spirit, in time, would set us apart and lead us to embrace the truth of the gospel (2 Thess. 2:13). God not only chose to save us but also ordained the very means by which our salvation would be accomplished.
This truth silences the common objection: If God has already chosen who will be saved, why share the gospel? The objector imagines a God who ordains the end yet leaves the means to chance. But Scripture reveals that the same wise and sovereign God who appointed sinners to salvation also ordained both the message of the gospel and the messengers who proclaim it, together with the Spirit’s regenerating power, as the means by which His elect are drawn to His Son. Far from making evangelism unnecessary, election gives it purpose, power, and the promise of success. As Paul preached in Antioch, “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). The God who determined to save lost sinners graciously invites His people into the joy and privilege of participating in His work of calling His elect to Himself. God’s purpose of election encompasses both what He will do in saving sinners and how He will accomplish it (Rom. 10:13–15; 2 Thess. 2:13–14). As a kind Father, He joyfully works through His children to accomplish His eternal purpose of saving His chosen ones for His glory (2 Tim. 2:10; Tit. 1:1).
Unconditional Election is consistent with both the mercy and justice of God. The elect deserve wrath yet receive mercy—mercy that God is under no obligation to extend to sinners (Rom. 9:14–15). The non-elect also deserve wrath, and they receive it. In righteous judgment now, God gives them over to their destructive desires (Rom. 1:24–28); in righteous judgment later, He will punish them for their wickedness. In the end—and in everything leading up to it—no one is ever wronged or treated unfairly by God. As one Puritan prayed, “Let wrath deserved be written on the door of hell, but the free gift of grace on the gate of heaven.”
In an age stained by high views of man and low views of God, the real wonder is not that God passes over millions, but that He saves any at all. Unconditional Election means that no one ever “just happens” to get saved. Every genuine conversion is the outworking of God’s sovereign plan from eternity past to magnify His mercy and glorify His grace toward wrath-deserving sinners. Election is not God’s reaction to man’s decision to follow Christ, but the very cause of that decision. Those who choose God in time do so only because God chose them before time. We celebrate the glory and wonder of God’s free and sovereign grace given to us before the ages began (2 Tim. 1:9).
Limited Atonement
The doctrine often called Limited Atonement is better described as Particular Redemption. It teaches that Christ’s atoning death is limited not in its power or sufficiency, but in its divine intent and saving extent. According to the eternal plan of the Triune God, the Son was sent by the Father not to make a general payment for all humanity, but to redeem specific sinners whom the Father had chosen and entrusted to Him before the foundation of the world.
Ultimately, we affirm Particular Redemption because we affirm a united Trinity. The Son came not to accomplish His own will, but the will of His Father (John 6:38). The Father’s purpose in election, the Son’s work in redemption, and the Spirit’s role in regeneration are perfectly harmonious. Jesus said, “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given Me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life” (John 6:39–40).
Scripture reveals that the Father chose and gave to the Son a particular people—not all without distinction, but some out of the world (Eph. 1:4; John 17:1–2, 6, 9; Rom. 9:11–13). To claim, as many do, that the Son died for all without exception while the Spirit strives to save as many as possible is to proclaim a divided Trinity. We desire to proclaim a united Trinity: the Father elects a definite people, the Son redeems those very people, and the Spirit effectually calls that same people—without fail and without exception. The Son accomplished the Father’s will, and the Spirit applies the Son’s accomplished work to all whom the Father chose and the Son purchased.
Discussions about the extent of the atonement often devolve into a proof-text tug-of-war—one side quoting verses that say Christ died for “many,” the other quoting verses that say He died for “all.” But the real question that plunges us beneath the surface of this tug-of-war is not, “For whom did Jesus die?” but, “What was the Triune God’s purpose and intent behind the Son’s death?” because God’s intent behind His Son’s death determines the extent of His Son’s death. To separate the “why” of the atonement from the “who” is to divide what God has joined together. To center the entire discussion on the “who” without considering the “why” is what leads to misleading conclusions concerning the cross.
Narrowing in on the divine intent behind the cross, we ask, Did God intend His Son’s death to actually save sinners, or merely to make them savable? Was Jesus sent to ransom sinners, or to make them ransomable? Was the purpose of the cross to make salvation possible, or to make it actual? Scripture consistently answers in terms of divine accomplishment, not mere provision.
For example, Isaiah 53 does not portray a hypothetical atonement dependent on human cooperation for its effectiveness; it proclaims a substitution that actually secures salvation. The Suffering Servant bore the griefs and carried the sorrows of others (Isa. 53:4). He was pierced for their transgressions, crushed for their iniquities, and by His wounds they are healed (Isa. 53:5). The Father laid on Him the iniquity of sinners, and those very sinners are justified through His death (Isa. 53:6, 11).
The New Testament echoes the same reality: Jesus came “to save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21); by His blood we “were reconciled to God” (Rom. 5:9–10); and through His single offering He “perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). God intended His Son’s death to be a sin-bearing, wrath-absorbing substitution that actually secures redemption for His people. The cross was not God’s way of merely meeting sinners halfway by “making a way” for them to be saved; it was His way of opening a new and living way into His presence for those set apart by His grace (Heb. 10:14–19). As Hebrews declares, “He entered once for all into the holy places… having obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12).
The Father’s purpose and intent in sending His Son—to bear iniquity, satisfy justice, and secure the redemption of particular sinners—reveal the specific design of the atonement. Christ’s death was no hypothetical provision for all who might choose to benefit from it, but a definite sacrifice for all whom the Father chose and gave to the Son—His church (Acts 20:28), His sheep (John 10:14–15), and His bride (Eph. 5:25).
If we affirm the doctrine of Total Depravity—that fallen man is morally unable to come to Christ apart from divine grace, as the Lord Himself teaches (John 6:44, 65)—then salvation must depend entirely on God’s sovereign initiative and saving power. This initiative begins in Unconditional Election, where God, moved solely by His grace, chose to save particular sinners who deserved only justice. The Father’s purpose to save His elect and the love that moved Him to send His Son into the world are therefore inseparable; the Son’s saving mission perfectly reflects the Father’s saving plan. The Triune God acts with one purpose, one plan, and one people in view from eternity to eternity—with one ultimate goal: to glorify the riches of His grace in Jesus Christ.
Unless we conclude that the Father purposed to save all without exception—and therefore elected all—we cannot conclude that the Son died for all without exception. The saving work of each Person of the Trinity is consistent with the unified will of the others. The Father elects, the Son redeems, and the Spirit regenerates the same people, ensuring that the golden chain of redemption in Romans 8:30 remains unbroken for all whom God has chosen—to the endless praise of the Triune God: “Those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.”
Although the Persons of the Trinity never work apart from one another but always together and as one God—the doctrine of Inseparable Operations—Scripture also speaks by way of Appropriation, attributing particular saving acts to distinct Persons to reveal their unique relations and the fullness of the glory of the Triune God. In the four links of the golden chain of Romans 8:30, the Father is the One who predestines His elect (Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:5); the Spirit calls and regenerates them (John 6:63; 1 Thess. 1:5; Tit. 3:5); and the Son justifies them through His atoning work (Isa. 53:11; Rom. 3:24; 5:9). Together, they will bring all the elect to final glorification (John 6:39; Rom. 8:11; Phil. 1:6; 3:21; Heb. 2:10), so that the eternal purpose of the Father—accomplished by the Son and applied by the Spirit—might be to “the praise of His glorious grace” (Eph. 1:6).
The song of heaven centers on the Lamb, Jesus Christ: “Worthy are You… for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God” (Rev. 5:9). The glorified saints do not sing of what Christ merely made possible for the world, but of what He accomplished for His people. They are not singing of a death that merely made sinners ransomable. He paid the ransom in full and will rightfully receive every sinner He paid for, making them a Kingdom of priests to God. Not one drop of His blood was spilled in vain. Every believer—chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and renewed by the Spirit—will join that song forever, confessing with Paul, “The Son of God… loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
This is the doctrine of Limited Atonement. It fixes our gaze on the precious price our Savior paid when He died a death unlimited in power and efficacy, yet divinely limited in extent to the wrath-deserving rebels whom the Father purposed to showcase as vessels of mercy, that they might forever glorify Him for His mercy (Rom. 15:9).
Irresistible Grace
We treasure the Doctrines of Grace because they beautifully magnify the Trinitarian nature of our salvation: the Father chose us, the Son redeemed us, and the Spirit regenerates us. The doctrine of Irresistible Grace teaches that all who have been chosen by the Father and redeemed by the Son will most certainly be summoned out of darkness and into God’s marvelous light, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Just as the Son accomplished the will of the Father by laying down His life for the flock entrusted to His care, so the Spirit awakens and renews those same individuals. Working in perfect harmony with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit ensures that the eternal purpose of the Triune God reaches its full and glorious completion.
By nature, sinners hate the light and resist God (John 3:19; Acts 7:51). Yet the gracious power of God is able to overcome that resistance and effectually draw them to Christ, which is exactly what He does for His elect (1 Thess. 1:4–5). In the miracle of the new birth, the Spirit removes the heart of stone, gives a heart of flesh, and opens blind eyes to behold the surpassing beauty of Jesus Christ, so that the sinner freely, willingly, and joyfully repents and believes in Him. The Spirit powerfully and personally applies the redeeming benefits of Christ’s death to all for whom He died, enabling them to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for them, calling them to follow Him and making them willing to do so.
Contrary to common misunderstanding, Irresistible Grace does not mean that sinners are never capable of resisting God’s grace. Left to ourselves, this is all we would ever do. It means that when the Spirit comes with the sharp, two-edged sword of the gospel, He turns the sinner’s resistance into repentance by bringing about the miracle of the new birth, out of which repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ arise. It means that the Holy Spirit does not merely seek the lost; He saves the lost.
As children, many of us played hide and seek. The doctrine of Irresistible Grace reminds us that, though sinners spend their lives running from God and hiding in the darkness, the Holy Spirit, as the true Seeker, never loses. He always wins. Every sinner chosen by the Father and ransomed by the Son will be found, awakened, and brought home by the sovereign grace of the Holy Spirit, who, like the wind, blows where He wishes (John 3:8).
Perseverance of the Saints
The doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints teaches that those who have been chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and regenerated by the Spirit will persevere to the end without finally falling away. Those predestined in the beginning will be glorified in the end (Rom. 8:30). As we saw in John 6, the Son will not lose a single one of those the Father has given Him. His death secured their redemption. As Christ’s sheep, we are safe and secure in the hands of both the Father and the Son (John 10:28–29). We are not our own, for we have been bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:19–20) and now belong wholly to Christ. The Christian is doubly owned by Him—first by creation (John 1:3; Col. 1:16) and then by redemption (1 Cor. 6:20; 1 Pet. 1:18–19). To suggest that any of His blood-bought saints could be lost is to suggest that He could fail to keep His own. Nothing and no one can pluck us from the hands of Omnipotence or separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:37–39).
Though we falter, fail, and fall prey to the temptations of sin and Satan, our faithful, covenant-keeping Triune God who began His good work in us will bring it to completion (Phil. 1:6). For this reason, the Perseverance of the Saints is perhaps better understood as the Preservation of the Saints, for though our perseverance is real and necessary (Heb. 10:36), it is ultimately grounded in the preserving power of God’s providence. Though we are called to keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude 21), our hope is not in our grip on Him, but in His grip on us. As “those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:1), we rest in the confidence that the Triune God is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with great joy (Jude 24).
Not Calvinism, but Biblical Christianity
The Doctrines of Grace are not the invention of John Calvin or his students, nor did these beliefs originate during the time of the Reformation. These truths are as ancient as the Scriptures themselves, dripping like sweet honey from the pages of both the Old and New Testaments. They sing the song that salvation—from beginning to end, from first to last—belongs entirely to the Triune God. It is a salvation that began in eternity past, when the Father chose, foreknew, predestined, and entrusted us to His Son; a salvation secured for us when the Son laid down His life to pay our ransom; and a salvation applied by the power of the Holy Spirit, who called us, regenerated us, converted us, and sealed us for the day of redemption.
Charles Spurgeon famously said, “I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else.” He went on to explain, “I do not believe we can preach the gospel if we do not preach justification by faith without works, nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah. Nor do I think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people, which Christ wrought out upon the cross. Nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor.”
While we wholeheartedly agree with Spurgeon and unashamedly affirm what is often referred to as Calvinism—holding to a thoroughly Reformed understanding of salvation—we generally avoid using that kind of terminology from the pulpit. This is not because we are trying to hide our convictions (we’ve laid them out plainly here on our website), but because such language often raises unnecessary barriers, invites misunderstanding, and fuels unhelpful caricatures.
Our calling is to preach Christ crucified from all of Scripture for the glory of God and the joy of all peoples. The pulpit is the place where Scripture must speak for itself, in its own terms and in its own way. Our aim is to open God’s Word and proclaim it faithfully, trusting that when it is plainly preached and humbly applied to every area of life, the Spirit of God will regenerate the lost and sanctify the saved, conforming them to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ—the church’s one foundation.