TULIP is an acronym for the five points of calvinism; they are Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints, and these have become increasingly precious to me.
I do not view Romans 9 as the slam-dunk calvinist passage, although I do think that it teaches unconditional election. Probably what most strongly convinces me of the reality and truth of these five points is Romans 1, which I believe outlines a radical total depravity. Here Paul is speaking of all humanity. To quickly summarize Romans 1:18-32, humanity has committed idolatry; we have worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, and the result is hardness of heart. God's punishment for idolatry is an increasingly wicked heart. God's punishment for idolatry is more idolatry, essentially. "God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts," "God gave them up to dishonorable passions," and "God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done."
This is the result of idolatry, and we are all guilty of idolatry. In fact, this is precisely Paul's point, viz., there is no human being whether Jew or Gentile (3:9) who is not guilty. We are guilty, and the result of our guilt is an inability to love God, and inability to choose God; we are consumed by our pride. As Lewis outlines in The Great Divorce through the words of George Macdonald: "Hell is where God says to man, thy will be done." And he shows in this novel characters like Napoleon, who desperately resist the incessant grace of God towards them in their pride and self-justification.
All humanity is guilty. All humanity is like Napoleon. We desperately resist the grace of God for the sake of our pride.
If all humanity is under the condition that Paul describes in Romans 1, then only the reality of the remaining four points of calvinism could possibly save us:
The Unconditional Election of God the Father, that does not depend on our choosing to love and trust Jesus, but produces it,
The Limited Atonement or Particular Redemption of God, in which Christ crucifies precisely the sin of rejecting him as savior; he has forgiven God's elect precisely for the sin of rejecting Jesus as the Messiah,
The Irresistible Grace of God, in which God the Holy Spirit overwhelms our sinful hearts with the truth of the cross and the heart of God the Father towards humanity in Jesus Christ, and
The Perseverance of the Saints, by which the Holy Spirit sovereignly brings the work he has begun in these elect to completion.
These things ought to drive our personal evangelism, because they mean that the Triune God is able to save any human being we speak to, no matter how hard-hearted and depraved they may be. In fact, it teaches me that all humanity is totally depraved anyway, and so my faith can never be in how good a person may be, but it must be in the work of the Word and the Spirit alone. As Barth outlines so well in his commentary on Romans: with no possibility on our side, God's great possibility comes into view.
Even if you are an arminian, you should evangelize like a calvinist, with no hope at all in the goodness or freewill of humanity, but with a robust faith in a sovereign God who is able to save any human being you are speaking to through the preaching of the Word and the conviction of the Holy Spirit (1 Pet 1:23).
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