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Justification in Catholic Teaching (part 2)
Difference between Christians and Catholics? (Melody Ong)
Fundamentalist (Protestant Christians or Catholic?) (Benedict Tang)
Response to Benedict (Christopher K H Yip)
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Chapter 11 develops a corollary of the teaching in chapter 10. If we progress in righteousness as we obey the commandments, then a corollary to this is that it is possible, in a very real sense, to obey the commandments. This does not mean we never sin (indeed, this chapter of Trent mentions the daily or venial sins that we commit all the time, and future sections deal with mortal sins), but it does mean that it is possible to keep the commandments in a substantive sense, through the grace which God gives us and the love he pours out in our hearts, and we may in this sense increase in righteousness (justification). Although Trent does not quote this passage, we know of the possibility of substantive keeping of the commandments because the Apostle Paul tells us, "God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." (1Cor. 10:13) IV. Returning to Righteousness: Re-justification Chapters 12 through 15 deal with the possibility of losing and regaining one's salvation. The regaining of it involves a subsequent, re-justification through which one returns to a state of righteousness. First, chapter 12 echoes a theme similar to that dealt with in chapter 9. Here we are told that, without special revelation, one should not claim to know with infallible certitude that one is among those predestined for eternal life. The reason, of course, is that none of the sources of faith single us out by name and tell us that we are for certain among those God has chosen for himself. Instead, we must infer our predestination from the evidence with which we have been presented and, since human reason is fallible, we cannot know with infallible certainty nty of faith" Chapter 13 draws out a corollary to chapter 12. Since only those who finally persevere are those predestined for life, if one cannot know with infallible certainty that one is predestined then one also cannot know with infallible certainty that one has the gift of final perseverance, which is the point of chapter 12. Chapter 14 affirms that it is possible to regain justification after having lost it through mortal sin (see below). The normal method by which this is done is through the sacrament of penance, which is taught in Jesus' words to the disciples: "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." (John 20:23) The possibility of restoration is also taught in passages of Scripture such as the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), where one starts as son, departs and lives a life of sin (which is described by the father as death, cf. Luke 15:32) and then return to the father and be re-accepted (described by the father as being alive again, cf. Luke 15:32), and it is taught by many other passages of Scripture (for example, "Return unto me and I will return unto you"). Chapter 15 establishes the conditions that must obtain if one is to lose one's justification (that is, one must commit mortal sin). A good catalogue of mortal sins, explicitly identified as those which result in damnation, is found in 1st Corinthians, where Paul says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God." (1Cor. 6:9-10). And the real possibility of a Christian committing mortal sin is indicated in numerous places, such as John 15:2, 6, 10, Rom. 11:17-24. Assurance Chapter nine brings to a close the discussion of our initial justification, and makes the very simple point that a person is not saved simply because he thinks he is. Furthermore, no one is required to believe with absolute certitude that they are forgiven in order to be forgiven. You do not have to screw yourself up into an absolute, unflinching certainty of your salvation in order to be in a state of salvation. In fact, this chapter teaches, no one should presume claim to believe "with the certainty of faith, which cannot be subject to error, that he" is in a state of grace. This last point is often misunderstood by Protestants because they are very big on teaching that we can have an assurance of our salvation. This is true: we can have assurance that we are in a state of grace. However, what Trent is forbidding is the presumption to know "with the certainty of faith, which cannot be subject to error." That this is the case. "The certainty of faith," is a technical term which means, as Trent indicates, is subject to no possibility of error whatsoever. We can know with the certainty of faith that if we do what Jesus says to do in order to be justified (i.e., repent, believe, etc.) that we will be in a state of grace, but since it nowhere says in the Bible, "James Akin has done what is necessary to be justified," I cannot know with the certainty of faith that I have done what is required. By examining myself, I can have very good reason to think that I have done so, and can thus have very great confidence in the fact that I am justified. But I always have to infer my justification, and since the human process of inference is fallible, I cannot know with infallible certainty that I am justified. This point is borne out by the fact that many people think they are justified who are in fact not. They think they have fulfilled the conditions on justification, but in reality they have not. The point is that, apart from a special revelation from God, I have no infallible means of knowing that I am not one of these people, and so even though I can have very great assurance of my justification, I cannot have infallible, no-possibility-of-error, certainty of faith that I am justified. This is something that thoughtful Protestants admit, even though it often rubs against the grain of a lot of Protestant rhetoric. This concludes Trent's discussion of our initial justification. The Council now turns its attention to our the progressive justification which takes place once we have been justified. This is discussed in chapters nine and ten. V. Finishing in Righteousness: Final Justification This deals with the possibility of falling from and subsequently regaining justification, which leaves us with chapter 16, which deals with the subject of merit and rewards, which implicitly deals with the subject of our final justification on the Last Day. The subject of merit is an extremely difficult one to discuss because Protestants have an extreme hang-up about the word merit and read into it all kinds of meanings which it does not have in Catholic theology. For this reason, it is advisable to begin by selecting a couple of typical quotes from well-respected Catholic theologians on what the idea of merit does not mean. First, consider the statements of Michael Schmaus, "In this connection, it must be remembered that man cannot make any valid claim on God. Since the 'reward' give by God always infinitely exceeds what is due man, the word 'merit' can only be used analogously. Because of God's transcendence and the resultant inequality between God and man, merit in the strict sense of the word cannot occur in the relationship between God and man." "We would not dare to hope that God would reward the actions of the justified man if he had not promised it; our hope is based on his word. At the same time, the reward is a grace . . . . What is meant [by merit and reward] is not an extrinsic, material repayment for the pain and trouble endured in the accomplishment of good works; it is rather the intrinsic fruit of the action itself." "All of this does not, of course, mean that like all good things, the promise of a reward from God cannot be misunderstood and misused. There is a danger that the ill-instructed Christian may hope to gather merit as a basis for bargaining with God, to use his good works as a kind of pledge which God must at once redeem. Needless to say, notions of this sort are very far from the meaning of the scriptural texts and the Church's teaching" . . . . [That God rewards our merits] "rests on his free decision: he has promised that he will do so, and he keeps his word. Except for this divine promise, no one could flatter himself that his good works would have such an effect." Now consider the words of Ludwig Ott, "Merit is dependent on the free ordinance of God to reward with everlasting bliss the good works performed by His grace. On account of the infinite distance between Creator and creature, man cannot of himself make God his debtor, if God does not do so by His own free ordinance. That God has made such an ordinance, is clearly from His promise of eternal reward . . . . St. Augustine says: 'The Lord has made Himself a debtor, not by receiving, but by promising. Man cannot say to Him, 'give back what thou hast received' but only, 'Give what thou has promised'" (Enarr. in Ps. 83, 15). One can see from these quotations that Catholicism does not teach that merit would be possible apart from God's promise to reward our acts of love. In fact, the idea of merit and reward are two sides of the same coin in Catholic theology. A proper definition of a merit would simply be "a good action which God has promised to reward." Since Protestants themselves believe that God will reward our acts of love, Protestants themselves believe in the idea of merit as the term is here defined. They believe that we do good acts, and that God has promised to give rewards for these acts, therefore they believe in merits; they simply do not use the term to describe them. Of course, modern Protestants feel the term "merit" should not be used to describe such actions, since in the Protestant mind the term has very legalistic overtones and connotes the idea of earning something before God through force of effort which then places God in our debt so that he owes us salvation. However, this is not the Catholic teaching. As the passages we quoted above indicate, Catholics do not believe that our toil and efforts place any kind of claim on God. The benefit he gives us always infinitely exceeds the amount of effort we expend, and the only kind of claim we have on him whatsoever is based on his free promise to reward us when we do acts of love. All our rewards are given by the overflowing bounty of God, which is why Catholics teach that rewards are both a merit and a grace at the same time. They are a grace in the sense that apart from the promise of God we would have no claim on them, but in what sense, a Protestant might ask, can we say that they have been merited if they have not been strictly earned? In this sense: When a Catholic says that something has been merited, he means that the human action in some sense makes it "fitting" that the reward be bestowed. But one action may make another action "fitting" in one of two ways. First, one action may make another fitting because there is some similarity between the two actions. For example, if I act generously toward others then that makes it fitting that others act generously toward me. There is a correspondence between the qualities of the two actions. In the most general terms, if a person does something good then that makes it fitting that something good happen to him. Second, one action may make another fitting if it fulfills the conditions on which the second act is promised. For example, if someone promises to give me a million dollars for wearing a blue shirt to work one day, then if I wear a blue shirt my action makes it fitting that the other person give me the million dollars, not because wearing the blue shirt somehow earned the million dollars, but in the sense that I have fulfilled the conditions the other person laid out in his promise. It is fitting for him to keep his word, and since I have fulfilled his conditions, my action makes it fitting that he give me what he promised. In Catholic theology, these two kinds of fittingness play a very important role in the concept of merit. An action is said to be an example of congruent merit if it has the first kind of fittingness but not the second (that is, if it makes the reward fitting because of their similarity of quality, but not on the basis of a promise). An action is said to be an example of condign merit if it has both kinds of fittingness (that is, if it both makes the reward fitting because of their similarity of quality and because of a divine promise). To put it another way, a person congruently merits that something good happen to them if they do something good but there is no promise in view, and a person merits something condignly if they do something good and there is a promise attached to that action. It is the latter form of merit which the Council of Trent is concerned with when it discusses merit, but neither one of these forms implies that the reward given is not an act of grace on God's part. For example, consider two human analogies: Suppose that a criminal comes before a judge and begs for mercy, expresses true, genuine sorrow for what he has done. In this case, the judge has not promised to forgive penitent criminals (so condign merit is not in view), and the judge would be perfectly fair to punish the criminal to the full extent of the law. But if the judge chooses to forgive the man then the man's sorrow over his crimes makes it fitting that he be forgiven, whereas if he were not sorry it would not be fitting in this way. As a result, the man may be said to have congruently merited the forgiveness he received for, even though he had no title to it and no promise of it, there was still a congruence between the quality of his act (penitence) and the quality of the response (forgiveness). On the other hand, to give an example of condign merit among humans, suppose that someone promised to give me a million dollars if I do them a small favor. In this case, even though there is a vast disparity between the thing promised and the condition on the promise, there is still a kind of correspondence between the two things, because they are both good (all things being equal, doing someone a favor and receiving a million dollars are both good things). However, since there is a promise involved in this case, it is also fitting that I get the million dollars if I fulfill the conditions on the promise. This does not mean that the giving of a million dollars is not an obvious act of grace As a result, the term "to merit" in Catholic theology simply means "to make fitting." It does not mean to earn by force of effort or anything like that. In the strict sense, the only person who can merit anything is Christ; we are only capable of meriting in the limited, analogous, relative sense outlined above. Given this understanding of merit, there is no reason that a Protestant needs to object to the doctrine of merit. In fact, some Protestants have been willing to use the term. For example, to quote the definite Protestant work answering the Council of Trent, the Lutheran Martin Chemnitz says, "For this we understand that how pleasing to the heavenly Father is that obedience of His children which they begin under the leading of the Holy Spirit in this life, while they are under this corruptible burden of the flesh, that He wants to adorn it out of grace and mercy for His Son's sake with spiritual and temporal rewards which it does not merit by its own worthiness. And in this sense also our own people [Protestants] do not shrink back from the word 'merit,' as it was used also by the fathers [in the early Church]. For the reward are promised by grace and mercy; nevertheless, they are not given to the idle or to those who do evil but to those who labor in the vineyard of the Lord. And so the word 'merit' is used in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Wuerttemberg Confession, and in other writings of our men. In this way and in this sense, we set forth the statements of Scripture in our churches about the rewards of good works." And Chemnitz is not the only Protestant capable of using the word "merit" when it is properly understood. In private conversations, a staunch Presbyterian teaching elder once agreed with me (long before I considered becoming Catholic) that the term "merit," properly understood, could be rightly applied to idea of heavenly rewards. In fact, given the Catholic understanding merits (good actions that God has promised to reward), it is necessary to say that heavenly rewards are given in response to merits. Therefore, Protestants and Catholics need not fight over whether there are such things as merits. And they need not fight over the term "merit" (remember Paul's command in 2Tim. 2:14 to avoid quarrels about terminology). They also need not fight about which phase of justification the idea of merit applies to since Catholics admit that merit is impossible before one is initially justified and since the primary time merits are going to be rewarded is in the Last Day, at our final justification. The only thing Protestants and Catholics might fight about is what specific things God has promised to reward. One point of potential conflict on this issue is the Catholic claim, stated in Trent's sixteenth chapter, that eternal life can itself be merited by our acts of love. Remember the sense of the word "merit" that is being used here: Trent is not claiming that we can by force of effort earn eternal life on the Last Day; it is simply claiming that God has promised to reward our acts of love by giving us eternal life when we stand before him. This is something Scripture teaches quite clearly. For example, in Romans 2:6-7 the Apostle Paul states, that God "'will give to each person according to what he has done.' To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life." (NIV). We can cut out the terms "glory" and "honor" since these deal with things other than eternal life, but look at what Paul says, "To those who by persistence in doing good seek . . . immortality, he will give eternal life." There is therefore a sense in which we seek after immortality by persistence in doing good, and it is a sense which will be rewarded, because in response for persistence in doing good God gives eternal life on the Last Day. As a result, God has promised to give eternal life in response to good works, or persistence in doing good. The same truth is taught elsewhere in Scripture. For example, St. James says, "Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." (James 1:12) Here God has promised to give a crown of life (a symbol for eternal life) to those who love him. Therefore, God has promised to give eternal life in response to love. Of course, God himself gives us the love, but this does not change the fact that eternal life is promised in response to it. Similarly, in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, the sheep are given eternal life (Matt. 25:46) because they performed acts of love (25:35-40). There are therefore abundant grounds in Scripture for saying that God has promised eternal life in response to act of love/good works. The teaching of Trent's sixteenth chapter is thus vindicated upon an examination of Scripture. Trent also issues some very forceful warnings about how the doctrine of merit it to be understood. For example, it states that "Christ Jesus Himself, as the head into the members and the vine into the branches, continually infuses strength into those justified, which strength always precedes, accompanies and follows their good works, and without which they could not in any manner be pleasing or meritorious before God." Trent thus teaches that merit is only possible because of the strength Christ gives us, which is part of the process of doing acts of love from beginning to end. Trent also forbids anyone to boast in himself rather than in the Lord, saying, "[F]ar be it that a Christian should either trust or glory in himself and not in the Lord, whose bounty toward all amen is so great that He wishes the things that are His gifts to be their merits. And since in many things we all offend, each one of us ought to have before his eyes not only the mercy and goodness but also the severity and judgment [of God]; neither ought anyone to judge himself, even though he be not conscious of anything; because the whole life is to be examined and judged not by the judgment of man but of God, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shall every man have praise from God . . . " Therefore, Trent very forcefully exhorts us not to become self-confident or glory or trust in ourselves, but only in the Lord. |
Messages
Outline:
The Crux of the Issue (Cont'd) by Christopher K H Yip, 9/23/99
Justification by Benedict Tang, 9/24/99
Yup, That's Exactly the Catholic View by Christopher K H Yip, 9/24/99
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