Justification

Question 1

How does Tertullian understand Merit?

Answer 1

Tertullian introduces the word into Christian vocabulary (late 2c).
• No creature has a right to a merit/reward; God owes us nothing; we have no claims on God.
• However, God has freely chosen to allow us to be collaborators and contributors to the work of salvation.

Question 2

How does Augustine understand Merit?

Answer 2

Acknowledges the notion of merit: “God does not crown your merits/good works as yours, but as his own gifts.”
• We are meriting because God chose to allow us to merit.
• Any work we do is the work of God in our lives

Question 3

What does the CCC say about Merit?

Answer 3

“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.” (CCC 2010)
• God allows us to merit.
• God rewards us because this is how he has set it up

Question 4

What is Justification?

Answer 4

The saving gift of righteousness that makes human beings acceptable to God.

Question 5

How does St. Paul understand Justification?

Answer 5

Justification comes through Faith in Jesus Christ
• Rom. 10:9-10 “For if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
• Faith is not merely intellectual/emotional.
• Involves a complete conformity of life.
• Personal encounter demands one to live in relationship.
• No faith without love; and love involves concrete actions.
• Rom. 3 —> Bible must be read in its unity.
• Paul says justification does not come by works of the Law (Mosaic or Laws of Christ).
• Not saved by what I do, but what I do is a part of my faith.
• *Ordinary Means of being Justified = Baptism.
• cf. Acts 3 - “What must we do?” “Repent and be Baptized”

Question 6

What does Trent say in its Decree on Justification (1547)?

Answer 6

Purpose = To respond to, reject, and correct the erroneous teaching of the reformers, and to give a coherent exposition of the Catholic position on grace.
• Rides the via media between: 1) Pelagian Self-sufficiency; and 2) Protestant negativity.
• Justification has “stages” (it is a “process”).
• Protestantism reduces it to a moment.
• Catholicism sees justification as a process, involves stages

Question 7

What are the 13 key teachings of Trent on Justification?

Answer 7

1. Despite the fact that our free will remains, there are no means by which we can liberate ourselves from the state of sin.
2. The Father sent Jesus Christ to be the expiation, the redemption, and the atonement for our sins.
3. Christ died for all, but only those to whom it is imparted receive the merit of his passion. (i.e. universal salvific will, but not a blanket assertion that all are saved.)
4. Justification is the transition from a state of sinfulness to a state of grace and adoption through Jesus Christ. This transition takes place through baptism or the desire for it. Baptism is the instrumental cause of Justification.
5. In adults, the beginning of justification is attributed to God’s grace through Christ, to his call afforded to them without any merit of their own. By grace we are disposed to freely assent to and cooperate with that grace. (God is beginning, middle, end.)
6. There is a disposition and preparation for justification which is awakened and assisted by God’s grace which adults come to Faith, to repent, for their sin, and the determination to receive baptism and begin a new life.
7. This preparation is followed by justification itself which involves not only the forgiveness of sins but the sanctification of the person.
8. Faith is the beginning of the human being’s salvation and is necessary for salvation, and nothing we do merits this salvation.
9. Sins are forgiven by the divine mercy through Jesus Christ. While no person should doubt God’s mercy, we should, in light of our weakness, never presume we are saved.
10. Once justified, we are called to grow in sanctification. Those who are justified are not exempt from the teaching of the 10 commandments.
11. No one living in the mortal condition should be presumption to determine with certainty that they are among the elect. The gift of perseverance is necessary.
12. Mortal sin causes the loss of grace of justification, and those who lose the grace of justification through sin may be restored to that state through the sacrament of penance.
13. Those who are justified can merit for themselves and for others through their good works. The grace of Christ always precedes, accompanies, and follows our good works.