Under the heading “Scriptural Redemption,” John Owen maintained that:

1. Christ died for the elect only.

2. All those for whom Christ died are certainly saved.

3. Christ by his death purchased all saving grace for them for whom he died.

4. Christ sends the means and reveals the way of life to all them for whom he died.

5. The new covenant of grace was confirmed to all the elect in the blood of Jesus.

6. Christ, by his death, purchased, upon covenant and compact, an assured peculiar people, the pleasure of the Lord prospering to the end in his hand.

7. Christ loved his church, and gave himself for it.

8. Christ died for the infidelity of the elect (302-303).

The end of every free agent is either that which he effecteth, or that for whose sake he doth effect it.

The end which God effected by the death of Christ was the satisfaction of his own justice: the end for whose sake he did it was either supreme, or his own glory; or subordinate, ours with him (John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ,Vol. 10 of the Works of John Owen, 1852 (reprinted, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2007), 50).

. . .

1. The first is the glory of God, or the manifestation of his glorious attributes, especially of his justice, and mercy tempered with justice, unto us (89).

2. There is an end of the death of Christ which is intermediate and subservient to that other, which is the last and most supreme, even the effects which it hath in respect of us, and that is it of which we now treat; which, as we before affirmed, is the bringing of us unto God (90).

From J.I. Packer’s Introductory Essay to John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ(The Banner of Truth Trust, 5).

Calvinism is something much broader than the “five points” indicate. Calvinism is a whole world-view, stemming from a clear vision of God as the whole world’s Maker and King. Calvinism is the consistent endeavor to acknowledge the Creator as the Lord, working all things after the counsel of His will. Calvinism is a theocentric way of thinking about all life under the direction and control of God’s own Word. Calvinism, in other words, is the theology of the Bible viewed from the perspective of the Bible–the God-centered outlook which sees the Creator as the source, and means, and end, of everything that is, both in nature and in grace.

G.K. Chesterton in 1908: “You cannot call up any wilder vision than a city in which men ask themselves if they have any selves. You cannot fancy a more skeptical world that that in which men doubt if there is a world.”

N.D. Wilson in 2009: “Hide behind big words, or listen to a child’s first laugh and know that this world is here, that you are in it, and that its flavors are deep and layered and its lights are bright. Know that it’s real.”

“If it be inquired then by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts , and consequently the whole substance of Christianity, viz., a knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is duly worshipped; and, secondly, of the source from which salvation is to be obtained. When these are kept out of view, though we may glory in the name of Christians, our profession is empty and vain. After these come the Sacraments and the Government of the Church, which as they were instituted for the preservation of these branches of doctrine, ought not to be employed for any other purpose and, indeed, the only means of ascertaining whether they are administered purely and in due form, or otherwise, is to bring them to this test” (John Calvin, The Necessity of Reforming the Church, 13-14).

O. Palmer Robertson introduces The Christ of the Covenants with two aims: To foster a correct understanding of the significance of God’s covenants and the relation of the two testaments. He argues that the various covenants and the testaments are organically unified in Christ; they are unified by the “Immanuel principle”–a principle that “binds the whole of Scripture together” (51). Christ is the fulfillment of that principle; Jesus Christ is the Immanuel–God with us. Below is an extended quote from Robertson’s book:

“Love is the overflow of joy in God that gladly meets the needs of others….[Love] is first a deeply satisfying experience of the fullness of God’s grace, and then a doubly satisfying experience of sharing that grace with another person” (John Piper, Desiring God, 119-120).

“Love is not a bare choice or a mere act. It involves the affections. It does not just do the truth. Nor does it just choose the right. It rejoices in the way of truth” (John Piper, Desiring God, 114-115).

George Weigel’s conclusion from an article about the communist war against the Catholic Church (First Things, April 2011): “The communist war against Christianity was a bloody affair, in which Christian martyrdom reached new heights of sacrifice. That war also involved billions of man-hours of work and billions of dollars of public expenditure and was thus a form of theft form civil society. Deeply committed and politically shrewd Christian pastors and laity eventually won out over communism. The blood of martyrs, however, was the seed of the Church’s victory. Their sacrifice and what we can learn from it about the cardinal virtue of fortitude–courage–must never be forgotten.”

Go here to read commentary on Proverbs 31:10-31 by Peter Leithart. His conclusion: Proverbs 31 is a heroic poem celebrating the domestic labor, that is, the domestic warfare of the virtuous woman.