The study of how salvation works is called “soteriology” and Reformed soteriology is what is commonly called “Calvinism,” stating that our salvation is completely the work of God and that we do not contribute anything to it, not even our free will. We believe in Predestination, that God has already decided before the world was made who will be saved and who will not be. The Reformed view is rooted in the theology of St. Augustine, who taught that salvation is completely the work of God, and not the work of us at all. This is called monergism, as opposed to synergism, which denotes us cooperating with God’s grace to be saved. The “5 points of Calvinism,” which often use the acronym, TULIP, came from the Canons of Dort, which was a document written to clarify the Calvinist view of salvation after the followers of Jacob Arminius wrote a criticism of Calvin’s views.
Total Depravity
The ‘T’ in TULIP stands for Total Depravity, which means that because of original sin, every aspect of us is hopelessly corrupted by sin, including our will. It doesn’t mean that there is nothing good in us at all, because God created us good and the creation still remains, but it does mean that we are so sinful that there is nothing we can do to free ourselves from that state. All of Calvinism needs to be understood in light of the fact that all people are dead in sin and deserve eternal judgement. God would be just in condemning everyone to Hell, so the fact that even one person is spared from that is a pure act of mercy. Nobody deserves to be saved.
Unconditional Election
The ‘U’ in TULIP stands for Unconditional Election, which means that God chooses who to save and who not to save unconditionally, meaning not based on anything we do or any choice we make. However, those who God chooses will believe and be united to Christ, so it’s not as though we can have no idea who is chosen and who is not. The majority of Calvinists are Infralapsarian, meaning that election is done in light of the fact that all people already deserve judgement and Hell, so the ‘non-elect’ are simply those whom God passes over and leaves in their own sin, which they are responsible for. However, we are Supralapsarian, meaning that God elects people out of a pure mass and allows the fall so that He can show mercy to the elect and his wrath to the non-elect. This view is often confused with Hyper-Calvinism, which says God has no love at all for the non-elect and created them for the sole purpose of being damned, which we do not believe.
Limited Atonement
The ‘L’ in TULIP stands for Limited Atonement, and is probably those most misunderstood of the 5 points. First of all, it doesn’t mean that the value of Christ’s sacrifice is limited. Christ’s sacrifice is of infinite value. Secondly, it doesn’t mean that Christ’s sacrifice doesn’t apply in any sense to the non-elect. Christ’s death and resurrection redeems the entire creation which all are a part of. The “limited” aspect means that Christ only died to cover the individual sins committed by the elect. So Christ still died fro for
Irresistible Grace
The “I” in TULIP stands for Irresistible Grace. This does not mean that nobody can ever resist God’s grace, since we all resist God’s common graces every day. It means that when God elects to save someone, they will definitely be saved no matter what. In other words, nobody can resist God’s saving grace, which He extends only to the elect. All are called to believe the gospel, but only for some does God actually regenerate their hearts, and nobody who God chooses can resist this process.
Perseverance of the Saints
The “P” in TULIP sounds for Perseverance of the Saints, and this point is also misunderstood because some people confuse it with a simple “once saved, always saved.’ However, Reformed theology does indeed believe that one can fall away from the faith in some sense. One can be truly “Christian” by being part of the covenant and having the Spirit work through them, and then fall away, in which case they can never be restored to faith as Hebrews 6 tells us. However, when someone is truly regenerated by the Holy Spirit and partakes of Christ’s eternal life, they cannot fall away. However, it is often hard to determine who has been truly regenerated and when as that is an invisible process.