In the magazine <30 Days> No. 12, 1994, p. 25, there is an
article "Just a Point of Departure" by Harding Meyer, Lutheran
theologian, founding member of the International Lutheran-
Catholic Dialogue Commission, constituted in 1967.
Meyer asks: 'Publicly and in binding fashion, can both
Churches say and profess: "Only through grace and in the faith
in the salvific action of Christ and not on the basis of our
merits are we welcomed by God and receive the Holy Spirit,
which renews our hearts and enables and exhorts us to good
works"?-- Farther on Meyer said :"The sentence quoted above is
taken from a document of this dialogue. It summarizes the
outcome of the present dialogue... ."
It is very notable that the above statement has moved far from
Luther. He had said we are totally corrupt, and even that we
have no free will: cf. <Bondage of the Will>, p. 273, edition
translated by James I. Packer and O. R. Johnston, published by
F. H. Revell Co., Old Tappan, N. J. 1957.
The Council of Trent would agree with Meyer's statement. It
distinguishes three steps:
Here are the chief texts of the Council of Trent on these
matters:
First Stage
We reach justification with no merit at all. DS 1532 (cited
below)
Second Stage
The fact that we are thus given the status of being adopted
children of God, with a share in the divine nature (2 Peter
1.4), gives us a claim to be in our Father's house. It is as
it were a ticket to Heaven. And a ticket or claim could be
called a merit. Yet it is a special kind of claim: it is a
ticket we get without having earned it at all. DS 1582, cited
below.
Third Stage
One we have the status of children of God and sharers in the
divine nature, which we get without earning it, our good works
make it suitable that God grant an increase in the capacity to
see Him in our Father's house: DS 1582, cited below.
We said "suitable" since in the strict senses, no creature by
its own power can generate any claim on God. Yet in His
goodness, without merit of ours, He sees fits to give us the
status as sons and sharers in the divine nature, which in turn
makes it suitable that He increase our ability to see Him face
to face in His house.
Texts of The Council of Trent
<Capitulum 8 on justification>. DS 1532: "... we are said to
be justified gratuitously for this reason, because nothing of
those things that come before justification, whether faith, or
works, earns the grace of justification itself... ."
<Canon 32 on Justification>. DS 1582: "If any one says that
the works of a man who has been justified [has received first
grace] are in such a way the gifts of God that they are not
also the good merits of the one who is justified, or that the
one who is justified does not really merit by good works,
which are done by him through the grace of God and Jesus
Christ [does not really merit] eternal life and the attainment
of eternal life itself (if however he dies in grace) and even
an increase in glory, let him be anathema." COMMENT: They are
merit in that they are a claim to a reward. The claim is
established since first grace, unearned, makes us children of
God, who as such have a claim to inherit. And we are brothers
of Christ, who did establish a claim albeit on the secondary
level. After we are made children of God, this dignity gives a
ground for merit of additions to grace.
Added Comments:
1. <There is justification by faith, without works>. Examine
each of the three words:
a) <Justification>; Means getting right with God. It makes us
adopted sons (Rom 8.17) and sharers in the divine nature (2
Pt. 1.4) and temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.19). That is
not a spatial presence, spirits do not take up space. A spirit
is present wherever he causes an effect. What effect? The
transformation of the soul making it radically capable of the
vision of God in the next life: 1 Cor 13.12.
2) <Faith> It is itself a gift (Eph 2.8). It includes three
things according to Paul: belief in mind, confidence,
obedience.
3) <Without works>: which works? Not just the ceremonial and
dietary works for that could imply that other works can
justify us. But they cannot do that for no man is just before
God by his own power (Rom 3.24: we are justified gratis).
Abraham had works other than those, but they did not earn
justification, if they did, he would have a boast, but not
before God.
Final salvation is an <inheritance>: 1 Cor 6.9-10. We could
not earn the inheritance, nor need we do it, but we could earn
to lose it:ibid. We are adopted children. But children do not
earn their inheritance, though they could earn to lose it: Rom
6.23. We get a claim not of ourselves, but inasmuch as we are
brothers/members of Christ, who did earn, and are like Him in
all things, including work of rebalancing the objective order:
Rom 8.17. Yet we do have a claim, inasmuch as first grace,
unmerited, makes us children of God, who as such, have a claim
to inherit.
2. Why good works? Because faith includes obedience (Romans
1.5), which calls for them, in obedience. Also, out of
gratitude to so good a Father who even gives us by grace an
inclination to good works. He, being Holiness, loves all that
is good, and so is pleased with our good works. But they do
not at all earn salvation in primary sense (Cf. DS 1532
above): if they did, we would have a boast.
3. What of what the OT calls "justifications"? They did not of
themselves give this grace, but promised temporal reward:
Probably Jews not know eternal reward until time of Antiochus
IV. -- And no OT sacrifice was provided for sins <be yad
ramah,> but only for <sheggagah>.
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