Works and earnings generally

[joemccarron]

When thinking about Grace alone faith alone and works generally in relation to passages like Ephesians 2:8-9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.”

I often like think of an analogy. Let me give it to you and tell me what you think.

Assume there are certain laws that say if you conduct yourself a certain way then you will owe a certain debt. You understand this law and agree it’s a just law yet you still do the actions that lead to you incurring a debt to someone. Let’s say they end up with a judgment of 4 million dollars. Now you agree that the judgment is fair and just. There is no dispute. But let’s say the person to whom you owe the money says “Pay 3 dollars I will dismiss the judgment.” His offering this would certainly be a gift. It was not required.

Now if you work and earn the three dollars and then pay it did you “earn” the right to have the Judgment dismissed? Not really. It was really the forgiveness of your creditor that accounts for the dismissal. Should you be able to “boast” that you earned the right to have a 4 million dollar judgment dismissed? Again no.

Yet actions on your part are still required – just not sufficient on their own. You still need to pay the 3 dollars but without the forgiveness of the person this would not be sufficient to earn a dismissal.

So to spell it out, our sins are what brings about the debt. We can’t repay it. It’s by the Gods grace that we are relieved of the debt. But we still must cooperate with God’s grace. Hence we still must do something.

Maybe the analogy would be better if instead of saying “pay 3 dollars”, the creditor said “apologize” and he would dismiss the judgment. We still must apologize. Our actions are still important to our being released from the debt. Even though they do not “earn” the release. Instead it is truly due to the good graces of our creditor that we are released by that action.

Hence our actions are important but they do not “earn” what God offers for them.

Are there any church teachings or scripture that would indicate this analogy is flawed?

 

[adv1sor]

I’m no expert but I think you may have a small misunderstanding about grace.

Take a look at Deuteronomy 6:5. Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27.

We are not called to “cooperate” we are called to love.

Now, I wish that I could say that I can’t wait for Sunday mornings so that I can go to Mass, instead it often feels like an obligation rather than a privilege.

But my hope is to grow in such a way so as to truly love the Lord so that anything I do, like attending Mass, is not done out of obligation or cooperation, but done only out of love.

Pray for me.

 

[thistle]

I’m no expert but I think you may have a small misunderstanding about grace.

Take a look at Deuteronomy 6:5. Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27.

We are not called to “cooperate” we are called to love.

Now, I wish that I could say that I can’t wait for Sunday mornings so that I can go to Mass, instead it often feels like an obligation rather than a privilege.

But my hope is to grow in such a way so as to truly love the Lord so that anything I do, like attending Mass, is not done out of obligation or cooperation, but done only out of love.

Pray for me.

I would not agree with that.
We are called to cooperate and we do that by loving Christ and our neighbour.

CCC 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.

CCC 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.

CCC 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.”

CCC 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.

 

[Third_Day]

I believe that scripture supports the teaching that we can cooperate with God’s grace.

2 Cor. 6 “Working together with him, then, we also urge you not to accept the grace of God in vain.”

The grace of God can be accepted in vain when we do not cooperate with the grace he has given us to do good works

1 Cor. 15:10: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

God’s grace will have a great effect when we cooperate and work with it.

1 Cor. 3:8-9:
The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor for we are God’s fellow workers.

God doesn’t work alone, He works with us through His grace.

Philippians 2:12
Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

This verse doesn’t make sense unless we have the free will to either cooperate with God’s grace and allow it to work in us or reject His grace and the fact that we can freely reject His grace should bring fear and trembling into our hearts.