The Psalmist says, “Our God is a God of salvation, and to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death” (Ps 68:20; ESV). Salvation does not belong to us. It is not ours to actuate, if only we will. It is ours to receive with an empty, open hand, which the Spirit of God freely gives to his elect (Eph 2:8–10). “And this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Salvation does not belong to the Lord and to us. It belongs to him. He accomplished it. He administers it. It is a free gift from beginning to end.

In their second head of doctrine, the Remonstrants confessed, in 1610:

ART. II. That, agreeably thereto, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, died for all men and for every man, so that he has obtained for them all, by his death on the cross, redemption, and the forgiveness of sins; yet that no one actually enjoys this forgiveness of sins, except the believer, according to the word of the Gospel of John iii. 16: “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”; and in the First Epistle of John ii. 2: “And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only. but also for the sins of the whole world.”

According to the Arminian construction of the gospel, the good news is that Christ died for all and one can benefit from his death if one believes, obeys, and perseveres (see also their 1st head and their 5th). In short, for the Remonstrants, the gospel is that Christ’s death created the possibility, the potential of salvation but by it he did not actually save anyone. For the Remonstrants, the gospel is not “Christ has saved you” but rather, “Christ has made it possible for you to be saved.” This was the predominant medieval message which the Protestants rejected.

Consider the paradigmatic biblical salvation event: the Red Sea. According to the Remonstrants, it is as if Yahweh said to the Israelites, “I have created the potential of deliverance from the Pharaoh and his armies but you must do your part.” Of course Yahweh never said any such thing. What he did say is “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent” (Ex 14:13–14; ESV). The Psalmist says, “Our God is a God of salvation, and to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death” (Ps 68:20; ESV). Salvation does not belong to us. It is not ours to actuate, if only we will. It is ours to receive with an empty, open hand, which the Spirit of God freely gives to his elect (Eph 2:8–10). “And this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Salvation does not belong to the Lord and to us. It belongs to him. He accomplished it. He administers it. It is a free gift from beginning to end.

Under this head, in their Opinions Remonstrants confessed:

Only those are obliged to believe that Christ died for them for whom Christ has died. The reprobates, however, as they are called, for whom Christ has not died, are not obligated to such faith, nor can they be justly condemned on account of the contrary refusal to believe this. In fact, if there should be such reprobates, they would be obliged to believe that Christ has not died for them.

In their view, the only way that their gospel of the possibility of salvation to those who do their part can be announced is on the basis of a universal atonement. Short of that God could not justly oblige anyone to believe in Christ, obey him, and persevere for salvation. This is, as I have been arguing, a form of rationalism. It sets up a standard of justice to which both God and man are obligated. Rather than bowing the neck before God’s Word and the mystery of election and reprobation, it privileges (as people say now) reason over special revelation. Here we see that the line between the Remonstrants and the Socinians was thin. Indeed, more than a few of the Remonstrants crossed this line into a flat denial of the atonement at all, of the deity of Christ, and of the Trinity.

Another implicit assumption of the Remonstrants was their denial of the distinction between the substanceof the covenant of grace and its outward administration. In effect, the external administration is abrogated since, according to the Remonstrants, Christ has already accomplished salvation for “all men and every man” and all men and every man may, if he will, actuate that salvation by believing, obeying, and persevering. In their scheme, the Holy Spirit is not using what the Reformed call the “due use of ordinary means” to bring his elect to new life and to true faith.

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