“Salvation belongeth unto the Lord” (Psalm iii. 8).
The following are extracts from the essay on John Calvin in The Reformers and the Theology of the Reformation, by the late Principal, the Rev. Dr. Wm. Cunningham, of New College, Edinburgh:—
“The grand heresy which might be said to have overspread the church for many centuries, was in substance this—that the salvation of sinful men—was to be ascribed, not to the one true God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, but to men themselves and to what they could do, or to what could be done for them by their fellow-men and other creatures. Calvin (1509-1563) saw that the only effectual way of dealing with this great perversion of the way of salvation—was to bring out fully and definitely the whole doctrine of Scripture concerning the place held in the salvation of sinners by the Father, by the Son and by the Holy Ghost. Accordingly, Calvinism represents the Father as arranging, in accordance with all the perfections of His nature and all the principles of His moral government and at the same time, with due regard to the actual capacities and obligations of man, the whole provisions of the scheme of redemption, choosing some men to grace and glory, and sending His Son to seek and to save them. It represents the Son as assuming human nature and suffering and dying as the Surety and Substitute of His chosen people—of those whom the Father had given Him in covenant—of an innumerable multitude out of every kindred and nation and tongue, as bearing their sins in His own Body and bearing them away—as doing and bearing everything necessary for securing their eternal salvation. It represents the Holy Spirit as taking of the things of Christ and showing them to men’s souls, as taking up His abode in all whom Christ redeemed with His precious Blood, effectually and infallibly determining them to faith and holiness; and thus applying the blessings of redemption to all for whom Christ purchased them, and finally preparing them fully for the inheritance of the saints.
These are in substance the views given us in Scripture of the way in which sinners of the human race are saved. They are views which, as experience fully proves, are most offensive to the natural tendencies and inclinations of men’s hearts; and plainly as they are taught in holy Scripture, there is a constant and powerful disposition—especially when true religion is in a low or languishing condition, to reject them or explain them away, and to substitute in their room notions which, more or less directly, exclude or contradict them. However, “these views and these alone overturn from the foundation the whole system of notions which then generally prevailed and which so fearfully perverted the way of salvation.”
“When Calvinistic principles are rejected or thrown into the background, not only is something, more or less, of necessity taken from the Creator and assigned to the creature, but an opening is made, an opportunity is left, for carrying on this process of transferring to man what belongs to God to almost any extent, until the Scriptural method of salvation is wholly set aside or overturned.”