Redemption, according to some, secured for God a right to make this offer, but did not of itself ensure that anyone
would ever accept it; for faith, being a work of man’s own, is not a gift that comes to him from
Calvary. Christ’s death created an opportunity for the exercise of saving faith, but that is all it
did. Calvinists, however, define redemption as Christ’s substitutionary endurance of the penalty of sin in the place of certain specified sinners, through which God was reconciled to them, their liability to punishment was for ever destroyed, and a title to eternal life was secured for them.
In consequence of this, they now have in God’s sight a right to the gift of faith, as the means of
entry into the enjoyment of their inheritance. Calvary, in other words, not merely made possible
the salvation of those for whom Christ died; it ensured that they would be brought to faith and
their salvation made actual. The cross saves. Where some will only say; ‘I could not have
gained my salvation without Calvary’, the Calvinist will say, ‘Christ gained my salvation for me
at Calvary.’ --Packer