Why we have the Five Points of TULIP Part One

five main points of doctrine

　

 

The year of our Lord 2018–19 marks the four-hundredth anniversary of the meeting of the Synod of Dort in Dordrecht, the Netherlands. The synod was convened in order to settle the ongoing controversy in the Dutch churches regarding the teaching of Jacobus Arminius and his followers on the topic of election. The document produced by the synod, the Canons of Dort, affirmed five main points of doctrine in response to the errors of the Arminians. These five points are often described today as the "doctrines of grace." They are also frequently associated with the acronym TULIP (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints), even though this acronym alters the sequence of the points adopted and in some cases may offer a misleading impression of the canons’ teaching.

 

This article will follow the sequence of the canons. Though it is often forgotten, this sequence was already established by the time the Synod of Dort convened in 1618. Before the meeting of the synod, the Arminians had presented their teaching in the form of five opinions. The five points of the Canons of Dort were written, therefore, as a direct reply to the errors of Arminius and his followers. They were written not to offer a complete statement of the Reformed faith but to settle the controversy regarding Calvinist soteriology provoked by the teaching of Arminius.

 

In the course of its deliberations, the Synod of Dort judged the five Arminian articles to be contrary to the Word of God. Against the Arminian teachings of divine election based on foreseen faith, universal atonement, resistible or ineffectual grace, and the possibility of a fall from grace, the canons set forth the biblical doctrines of unconditional election, definite atonement or particular redemption, radical depravity, effectual grace, and the perseverance of the saints. On each of these points, the canons first present a positive statement of the Scriptural teaching and then conclude with a rejection of the corresponding Arminian errors.

 

First Point: Unconditional Election

 

In the opening articles of the first main point of doctrine, the canons summarize the most important aspects of the biblical gospel. These include the fact that "all people have sinned in Adam and have come under the sentence of the curse and eternal death" (article 1), that God has manifested His love in the sending of His only begotten Son (article 2), and that God’s anger continues to rest upon those who do not believe the gospel of Jesus Christ (article 3). Within the framework of these truths, the canons address the fundamental question to which the biblical doctrine of election is addressed: Why do some believe and repent at the preaching of the gospel but others remain in their sins and under the just condemnation of God? The answer to this question at its deepest level is God’s unconditional election in Christ of some persons to salvation:

The fact that some receive from God the gift of faith within time, and that others do not, stems from [God’s] eternal decision. For all His works are known to God from eternity

 

(Acts 15:18; "Known to God from eternity, are all His works"

 

Eph. 1:11). In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, ^{12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.}

In accordance with this decision He graciously softens the hearts, however hard, of His chosen ones and inclines them to believe, but by His just judgment He leaves in their wickedness and hardness of heart those who have not been chosen. And in this especially is disclosed to us His act—unfathomable, and as merciful as it is just—of distinguishing between people equally lost. (article 6)

 

Because God’s sovereign and gracious purpose of election is the source of faith, the canons go on to assert that it cannot therefore be based on faith. God does not elect to save anyone "on the basis of foreseen faith, of the obedience of faith, of holiness, or of any other good quality and disposition, as though it were based on a prerequisite cause or condition in the person to be chosen" (article 8). Faith is not a meritorious work but is itself a gracious gift that God grants to those whom He calls according to His purpose

 

(^{Acts 13:48; And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. 49 And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. 51 But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to conium. 52 And the disciples were filled}

^{with joy and with the Holy Spirit.}

^{Eph. 2:8–9; . For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.}

^{Phil. 1:29). For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.}

 

The conversion of those who are called through the ministry of the gospel must not be credited to them, "as though one distinguishes himself by free choice from others who are furnished with equal or sufficient grace for faith and conversion (as the proud heresy of Pelagius maintains)."

 

After articulating the scriptural teaching of unconditional election, the canons further affirm that this sovereign and gracious election of a particular number of people to salvation means that some sinners have been "passed by" and "left" in their sins (article 15). Those whom God does not elect to save in Christ belong to the company of all fallen sinners who "by their own fault" have willfully plunged themselves into a "common misery." In the case of the elect, God mercifully and graciously elects to grant them salvation in and through the work of Christ

 

(^{Eph. 1:3–7). Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing gin the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.}

In the case of the reprobate, God demonstrates His justice by choosing to withhold His grace and to finally condemn them for their sins and unbelief

 

(^{Rom. 9:22–24).\\}

22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

DOCTRINE OF SIN OUTLINED

the study of the doctrine of sin

I. SIN IS AGAINST MAN'S PRESENT GOOD, IN THIS LIFE, against the good of his body and the good of his soul. For on both it has brought a curse and death.


(1) Against the good of man's body.
(2) Against the good of man's soul. (1) In a natural sense
(i) It is against man's well-being in this life.

a. Sin is against man's rest and ease, of which man is a great lover; and, indeed, he needs it as a great part of the well-being of his life.
b. Sin is against man's comfort and joy. In sorrow shalt thou eat all the days of thy life (Genesis 3.17). Not one whole merry day!
c. Sin is against man' s health. From it come all diseases and sicknesses; till sin there were no such things.
d. Sin is against the quiet of a man's natural conscience.
e. Sin is against the beauty of man
f. Sin is against the loving and conjugal co-habitation of soul and body.
g. Sin is against man's relative good in this world. Thus sin sets itself to oppose man's well-being,

(ii) Sin is against the very being of man. (2) Sin is also against the good of man in a moral sense (i) It has degraded man, by defiling him,

a. To his body, for the flesh is filthy (2 Corinthians 7.1),
b. This defilement also cleaves to the soul, which is the principal subject of it.
  (ii) Sin has darkened man's understanding.
  a. By his groping, which, in the Scripture, is constantly attributed to blindness and darkness. Peruse Deuteronomy 28.29; Job 5.14, and 12.25; and Isaiah 59.10.
b. Though the light shines, yet man's darkness comprehends it not (John 1.5).
c. By his walking in all kinds of wickedness, which are called the works of darkness (Ephesians 5.11).
d. Man knows not whither he goes. (John I2.35; 1 John 2.11).
e. He stumbles, and does not know why (John 11.9,10; Proverbs 4.19).
f. Man knows not his time, nor how to order his thoughts, words and actions.
g. He can be content to be led, even by a dog.
  (iii) Sin has depraved man' s understanding, and made him a fool, a sot, a very brute; ignorant, foolish and beast are joined together in Psalm 73.22.

Man's folly is shown to be great in three ways a. In relation to his chief and ultimate end,

Three things, among many others that might be named, that man's happiness cannot be made up of any or all creature-enjoyments, of having the world for a portion, even all of it. For, beside what has just been said:

(1) It was not so when man was in paradise
(2) That cannot be our happiness which is below us
(3) That cannot be our happiness which is not so much as a token of the love of God b. Man's folly appears to be great in relation to the means and way leading to happiness, as well as in relation to his end and happiness; he mistakes them both.
(1) Idolatry is man's folly. To worship no God, or that which is not a God, but an idol, is folly.
(2) Superstition is man's folly, also, as to religion

This must suffice to show man's folly, and how sin has duped man, as to his end, happiness, and the means to it, religion. I now proceed to show

 

c. Man's folly as to the non-improvement or mis-improvement of means, when made known in truth and clearness
Let us consider some examples, and only some, of man's folly:
(1) Man is so heady, hasty and rash in his undertakings. Nothing more becomes a man than deliberation and consideration.
(2) Man laughs at, and sports himself in his sin and misery.
(3) Man says, It is vain to serve God
(4) Man is so ungrateful to God, who has put him under an infinite obligation.
(5) If God corrects man, or afflicts him for his sin and folly, he soon grows angry with God.
(6) Man's folly is apparent in that he is unteachable.
7) Some men are such fools as to apostatize, even after they have received the truth and have gone far in the profession of it, which is no small folly. 'As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly' (Proverbs 26.11 compared with 2 Peter 2.20-22).
  (iv) Sin has degraded man and made him a beast

a. Sin has made man like a beast, and not only like one, but, indeed, a very beast!

(1) Sinful man is like the beasts in ignorance and stupidity. 'So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee' (Psalm 73.22).
(2) Sinful man is like the beasts in sensuality, as if he were only belly-wise, and had no soul to mind, or a soul only to mind his body.
(3) Sinful man's likeness to the beasts consists in, and is apparent from his unfitness and unsuitableness for society and communion with God and man
  b. Sinners are like the worst of beasts
c. Sin has made men worse than the beasts; more beasts than the beasts themselves and worse than the worst of beasts.

(1) The beasts do not transgress the law of their nature, but man has done and does so over and over again
(2) Sinful man is worse than the beasts in the very quality for which he is likened to them. The ox and ass have no understanding, and sinful man is compared to them for ignorance and stupidity; but they are more knowing than he (Isaiah 1.3).
 

The wicked tyrannical rulers of the world are compared to a roaring lion and a ranging bear (Proverbs 28.15): they have no pity, but make a prey of all to whom they come near. Hypocrites are like vipers (Matthew 23.33). Herod was called a fox, not only for his craft and cunning, but for hunting after the life of the Lamb, Christ Jesus. Thus some sinners are like some animals and some like others, but there are two animals to which all sinners are likened: the goat and the dog.

 

a. Sinners are called goats (Matthew 25.32,33):

(1) Goats are very lascivious, wanton and lustful. Sinners are so too: the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye are the things they are taken with (1 John 2.16). To these they give themselves up. The Apostle says, Among whom we all had our conversation in the lusts of the flesh (Ephesians 2.3), and served divers lusts (Titus 3.3). In this they are like goats.

(2) Goats are stinking animals. A goatish smell is a stinking smell, and to smell of or like the goat is to have a very strong, unsavoury and stinking scent. Likewise the wicked are in abomination to the Lord, a very stink in his nostrils.

(3) Goats are very bold and adventurous animals. They climb rocks and precipices to browse and feed on what they can get with hazard. In this sinners are like them too; they run risks and many dangerous adventures for a little, indeed, no satisfaction. They venture peace, conscience, life, soul and all, to get that which is not bread (Isaiah 55. 2).

 

b. Sinners are likened to dogs. I shall not make divisions in this nor pursue the metaphor into details, of which a little was said before. I will only show that though it was more usual with the Jews to call the Gentiles dogs, and our Saviour spoke in their language when he told the woman that it was not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs (Matthew 15.26), yet it is a common name for sinners, whether Jews or Gentiles, to all without God and Christ; for without are dogs (Revelation 22.15).

 

(v) Sin has separated man from God in a moral sense

 

a. From the sight of God. Man could talk with God face to face, as a man converses with his friend, but alas! man cannot see his face and live

b. From the life of God. Sin has separated man not only from living to God and with God but from living the life of God, that is, such a life as God lives, which is a life of holiness and perfection

c. From the love of God.

d. From communion with God.

e. From the covenant relationship in which he stood to God.

Fruit of the Spirit

The presence of these [i.e., the fruit of the Spirit] affections and qualities in the mind is proof of the saving energy of the Holy Ghost in regenerating the human soul; the absence of them proves the want of it....The prevalence of these qualities, clear and unquestionable in the consciousness, leaves the question of regeneration settled beyond a doubt

At the heart of our assurance as a Christian is the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. It's absence should tell us immediately that the Holy Spirit has never applied His regenerating power to our lives, so that we remain lost in sin and under the judgment of God.

Is the fruit of the Spirit being manifest in your life? Let us consider together the evidence of true conversion in the fruit of the Spirit.

There is a big difference between the "gifts of the Spirit" and "the fruit of the Spirit."

The gifts are for the purpose of ministry in the church, while the fruit of the Spirit helps us to have assurance and to give power to our Christian witness. Gifts may vary from one believer to another, while the fruit of the Spirit manifests itself in solidarity within every believer. Gifts as acts of service can be imitated, while the fruit of the Spirit as character cannot.

The premise which Paul builds in this portion of Galatians is that in the same way the unregenerate nature produces "deeds of the flesh" the regenerated nature will be a well-spring of "the fruit of the Spirit."

The Holy Spirit cannot indwell a life without evidence of His holy presence and influence. He permeates the whole of the believer's character. He changes him at the root of his nature so that a "moral energy" as it were, works the holy character of Jesus Christ in and through the believer. The fruit of the Spirit is not a choice we make, but an inevitable manifestation in those who are truly born of God. (

Paul describes...not the fruits, as we might more naturally have expected, and as the phrase is most often quoted; all this rich variety of graces, of conduct and character, is thought of as one. The individual members are not isolated graces, but all connected, springing from one root and constituting an organic whole.

There is further to be noted that the Apostle designates the results of the Spirit as fruit, in strong and intentional contrast with the results of the flesh, the grim catalogue of which precedes the radiant list in our text.

The works of the flesh have no such unity, and are not worthy of being called fruit. They are not what a man ought to bring forth, and when the great Husbandman comes, He finds no fruit there, however full of activity the life has been.

We have then here an ideal of the noblest Christian character, and a distinct and profound teaching as to how to attain it. I venture to take the whole of this list for my text, because the very beauty of each element in it depends on its being but part of a whole, and because there are important lessons to be gathered from the grouping.

In Ephesians Paul mentions 4 components of the fruit of the Spirit with the result being unity...

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called (cf walking in the Spirit, Galatians 5:16),

2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience (fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22), showing forbearance to one another in love,

3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (another fruit of the Spirit). (See notes Ephesians 4:1; 4:2; 4:3)

Paul's use of fruit in the singular writing that...

The use of the singular "fruit" instead of the plural "fruits" is instructive. It suggests the common root and interdependence of these several spiritual graces mentioned. They can be produced only in a life that is rooted in the Spirit; they cannot be hung outwardly upon a life like the toys and ornaments on a Christmas tree. Fruitage in the Spirit requires rootage in the Spirit. As it has been well put,
 

Christian character is Christ's excellency reproduced by the Spirit in a renewed life.

To bring forth the fruit of the Spirit is not only the Christian's happy privilege; it is his bound duty as well. In a soul born of the Spirit there is to be fruit borne in the Spirit. The fact that we could do nothing to earn our salvation is by no means to be interpreted as implying that, having been saved by grace, we can do nothing to show our gratitude for the salvation we have received. Dare we be unmindful of the words of our Saviour to the effect that our heavenly Father is glorified when we bring forth much fruit: "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples" (John 15:8)? _{(C. Norman Bartlett: Galatians and You: Studies in the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, 1948)}

Fruit (_{2590)(karpos) can be used in its literal sense to refer to fruit, produce or offspring, which describes that which is produced by the inherent energy of a living organism.}

When used figuratively fruit describes the consequence of physical, mental, or spiritual action. In the NT the figurative use predominates (especially in the Gospels) where human actions and words are viewed as fruit growing out of a person's essential being or character. This is also the way Paul uses karpos in the present passage, as an expression for desirable, righteous qualities in one’s life, the fruit of the Spirit.

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