JI Packer
It cannot be over-emphasised that we have not seen the full meaning of the cross till we have seen it as the divines of Dort display it- as the centre of the Gospel, flanked on the one hand by total inability and unconditional election, and on the other by irresistible grace and final preservation.
For the full meaning of the Cross only appears when atonement is defined in terms of these four truths . Christ died to save a certain company of helpless sinners upon whom God had set his saving love. Christ’s death ensured the calling and keeping – the present and final salvation – of all whose sins He bore . That is what Calvary meant, and means. The cross SAVED ; the Cross SAVES. This is the very heart of true Evangelical faith.
J I Packer from his introduction to a modern edition of ” the Death of Death ” by John Owen