I was reading in the Catechism of the Catholic Church last night and ran accross this entry for merit. Wow! I think there is some serious misunderstanding from the Protestant perspective on what in fact the Roman Catholic Church teaches on this topic. Here is the section entitled Merit (with my comments set off in [ ] ):
- You are glorified in the assembly of your Holy Ones, for in crowning their merits you are crowning your own gifts. [This is a quote from St. Augustine that every Protestant evangelical should agree with and they set the whole topic of merit within this thought...interesting]
2006 The term “merit” refers in general to the recompense owed by a community or a society for the action of one of its members, experienced either as beneficial or harmful, deserving reward or punishment. Merit is relative to the virtue of justice, in conformity with the principle of equality which governs it. [No problem here. Merit and justice go together; yes we protestant evangelicals agree.]
2007 With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for we have received everything from him, our Creator. ["no strict right to any merit" Why do we always argue against Catholics as though they hold to a "strict" view of merit?]
2008 The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man’s free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man’s merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit. [A clear denial of any kind of Pelagianism or semi-Pelagianism...God is the first to act in grace, we respond to that grace. All "merit" (remember, "not strictly concieved") is to be attributed to the Father's grace first, is accomplished by the believer "in Christ" as a result of the "predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit." Can anyone be more clear that God is the source of all good works that ever come from a Christian?]
2009 Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God’s gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making us “co-heirs” with Christ and worthy of obtaining “the promised inheritance of eternal life.” The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness. “Grace has gone before us; now we are given what is due. . . . Our merits are God’s gifts.” [Umm...do you think that Roman Catholics believe that merit is a gift as opposed to something "earned in accordance with strict justice?"]
2010 Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God’s wisdom. These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions. [This would be the one that Protestants would frown at for sure. But before you light the fire to burn the Catechism or me, let me ask a question regarding the statement that "we can merit for ourselves (the "and for others" part I will deal with separately below) the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life..." Why do some Christian's attain greater degrees of holiness? Is it because God arbitrarily or in some secret way decreed it so, or is it because they applied themselves to the pursuit of it in greater degrees and with greater committment? If you answer in the latter, then what is the difference between that view and the Roman Catholic view? As it relates to "meriting for others" all I can say is that this is indeed "strange" to our Protestant ears, but what do verses like Colossians 1:24; 1Timothy 4:16; Titus 2:10 mean. Please, get your bible and read them.]
2011 The charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God. Grace, by uniting us to Christ in active love, ensures the supernatural quality of our acts and consequently their merit before God and before men. The saints have always had a lively awareness that their merits were pure grace.
- After earth’s exile, I hope to go and enjoy you in the fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for your love alone. . . . In the evening of this life, I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is blemished in your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in your own justice and to receive from your love the eternal possession of yourself.
[What can be said, but Amen. Because Catholics believe (or should believe based on their teachings) that grace unites us to Christ in "active love" any work that is ever done by the Christian issues from that supernatural source. This is in fact teaching the same thing that Calvinistic Protestants do when they declare that salvation is by grace through faith, it is the gift of God... What the Calvinistic Protestant means by quoting this verse from Ephesians is that the whole thing is a gift; the grace and the faith. In the same way, the Catholic says, the gift of "active love" or faith (because after all, they are synonymous--"faith that works through love" Gal 5:6) is given and is the source of all good deeds.]
Comments welcome.
My story is like many who were converted to Christianity in an “Arminian” setting. In those days we were not self-consciously so, we just were because “that’s what the bible says.” I became interested in theology and began reading those who differed with us on the issues of how grace works in the life of the believer. I became a Calvinist…really a neo-baptistic-Calvinist (because I didn’t know anything of Calvin’s doctrine of covenant, sacrament or Church). In this transition, the term sovereignty began to take on very important meanings, the central one being that God predetermined all that would happen. That is what I believed the word sovereignty meant…and I suspect that is what the majority of those in my “Calvinistic” churches believed as well. But that is really not at all what the word means. We should not get our understanding of biblical concepts from modern English dictionaries, but I want to pose a challenge by way of a question using the definition of sovereignty from the American Heritage Dictionary. Here are the four entries for the word sovereignty:
- Supremacy of authority or rule as exercised by a sovereign or sovereign state.
- Royal rank, authority, or power.
- Complete independence and self-government.
- A territory existing as an independent state.
It seems that this view of sovereignty has to do with ability not predetermination. The question I want to pose is this, is the picture of God in the bible primarily one of a God who is sovereign in the sense that He will do what he wants to do when and how he wants to do it? Or is it a picture of a God who predetermined every detail before it was to take place?
Think about it.
Filed under: Ecclesiastical Controversy
Here is a little something to ponder. The most misunderstood, understudied, highly opinionated issue facing the Presbyterian churches in the United States…
