I understand that. For I know that we cannot merit justification. However, we are not agreeing on the thing about works being meritous for in fact they are. It is said over again in the bible that people will be rendered judgement according to their works.
It doesn’t follow that good works are meritorious. If they were, we would not need Christ.
The Catholic position is is that good works done in a state of grace, and from a supernatural motive, are meritorious.
That is very close to denying they can be meritorious -
because the character of merit is defined by the character of the motive from which it comes.
That life depends wholly on grace - which means that our very ability to merit, like our very existence, is wholly dependent on God’s undeservable favour. So grace is the atmosphere in which we move, not just a starting point to leave behind; grace is that atmosphere, & not our nature independently of Christ’s reconciling and atoning mercy.
Good works are of no lasting value if they come from unredeemed ungraced nature; & as we are members of Christ’s Body, what we call “our” good works, are far more His than ours. They are meritorious as done by Him - but their merit flows entirely from grace.
How far they are meritorious as done by us, who cannot do them outside of Him, depends on the degree of our union with Him - which depends ultimately (like everything else in creation) on His sovereign good pleasure, who works as He pleases to His greater Glory - and never to ours.
IOW, the merit of Christians flows wholly from the undeservable grace of God, for the honour & glory of Jesus Christ. To Him Alone be all the Glory ! “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Thy Name give the Glory” - the Psalmist could teach Christians who rest upon their good works - and not upon the God Who graciously worksx through them - a few lessons in humility & self-forgetfulness.
Unless the notion of merit is undercut and redefined by an emphasis on its source in grace alone through Christ alone, it becomes a deadly poison which eats away at grace & props up our innate egotism. We are not entitled to any merit but that which comes from Him - if we don’t want merit on the basis of grace, but as a matter of strict right, the only thing we have a right to is damnation. Either we can have mercy we could not deserve - or we can have the wrath of God against those who prefer themselves to Him. We cannot glorify ourselves, because we do not even belong to ourselves - we bel;ong to Christ Our Sovereign Lord & Saviour, and to nobody else, ourselves least of all. If we had created ourselves & saved ourselves, then we could merit without having to be justified first. We didn’t - so we can’t. ##
Doing the Will of God is in fact meritous in the fact that if you do not do them how will one make it to heaven?
By the all-sufficient omnipotent grace of Christ , of course. To be saved by good works without Him is like pulling ourselves up by tugging at our shoe-laces - it can’t work. Since He is Sovereign over all creation, it is impossible to be saved except by a salvation of which He is totally, universally & eternally the Cause. There is nothing in salvation for which the glory is not wholly His.
That is the only possible basis for the CC’s understanding of merit - otherwise, merit becomes anti-Christian & prideful. ##
For we know that goodworks do not cause God to save us but his mercy. This “faith alone” doctrine to some people may mean that they do not need to do good works
They misunderstand “faith alone” - God has prepared good works, for us to do them. St. Paul says this.
in order to get to heaven for we are continually being justified by the Grace of God. We must bear good fruit and then Our Father will reward us according to that work. Good works are meritous all though they are really God’s own works. For works are not the main reason God saves us.
We have come to terms on some things but the fact is in the Pauline letters says we are justified by faith. The James letter says we are justified by works and not by faith alone.
They may have different perspectives.
It is no contradicting so it must mean that a person is justified by both faith and works. We should read the letter of James and understand. Justification is not a one time thing. We are continually justified by grace through faith, but also through works. We are not saved by good works, but we are not justified by dead faith. We are not saved by good works but we are jusified by them. This is what some Protestants mistake about the Catholic Church. She has never taught that a person is saved by just good works.
