Eternal Life: Gift or Reward? Part Three.

BY JOHN MARTIGNONI


Question:
An Evangelical friend of mine said the Catholic Church goes against the Bible because it teaches that a person can earn, or “merit,” eternal life as a reward for good works, while the Bible says eternal life is a free and unmerited gift of God to the believer. He quoted the following from the Council of Trent to make his point: “To those who work well right to the end and keep their trust in God, eternal life should be held out, both as a grace promised in his mercy through Jesus Christ to the children of God, and as a reward to be faithfully bestowed, on the promise of God himself, for their good works and merits,” while the Bible says, “For by grace you have been saved by faith…not because of works,” (Eph 2:8-9). Did the Council of Trent really say that and does the Church actually teach that we can “earn” eternal life by our works?

Answer:
(Cont’d from last week)…As we see above, a quote is taken from the Council of Trent to attempt to make the point that the Catholic Church teaches that salvation is essentially based on our works alone, vs. the Evangelical position of salvation by faith alone.

The first thing to note is that the quote cited above (from ch. 16 of Trent’s “Decree on Justification”), states very clearly that eternal life is “both a grace promised in [God’s] mercy through Jesus Christ…and a reward to be faithfully bestowed…for their good works and merits.” In other words, this quote states that salvation is both and gift and a reward - we receive salvation as a free gift by the grace of God, through faith, but we also merit salvation by our works. (The last two columns have explained how and why that is not a contradiction.)

To try and use the Council of Trent to say that the Catholic Church teaches a “works salvation,” one must necessarily misinterpret anything they quote from Trent, as the example above shows. Also, one must ignore some very clear and unambiguous statements from the Council of Trent on justification. For example, in ch. 8 of the “Decree on Justification,” it says this: “We are therefore said to be justified by faith, because ‘faith is the beginning of human salvation,’ the foundation and root of all justification, ‘without which it is impossible to please God,’ [Heb 11:6] and to come to the fellowship of His sons; and are, therefore, said to be justified gratuitously, because none of those things which precede justification, whether faith or works, merit the grace itself of justification.”

Trent states, very clearly, that our justification is gratuitous – a free gift from God (through our Baptism) – because nothing which precedes it – whether faith or works - can merit the grace of justification. Only after we have been justified, only after we have been “saved,” can we then “merit” because it is only then that we are members of the Body of Christ, and Christ is “at work in [us], both to will and to work for His good pleasure,” (Phil 2:13). Christ works in us and through us, but He can only do so with our cooperation, and that cooperation, of our own free will, is what allows us to merit…by the grace of God.

Furthermore, our merit, or reward, is not based on something that God owes us for our good works, as we could never do anything that would be equivalent to the reward of eternal life; rather it is based on His promise to us of salvation if we follow His will for our lives. We are able to merit based solely on His Word to us.

The Scripture verses (Eph 2:8-9) quoted above by the “Evangelical friend,” are used in an attempt to prove the Evangelical belief of salvation by faith alone. Those verses say, “For by grace you have been saved by faith…not because of works,” and they seem, at first glance, to support the Evangelical position. But, there’s a problem here - verse 10 often gets forgotten: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Catholics agree 100% with Eph 2:8-9, that we have been saved by grace through faith, and not because of works. The quote I cited from

Trent states that very thing. But, we also agree 100% with verse 10, that God has prepared a set of works for each one of us, that we should walk in them. It is God’s will, in other words, that we each do the good works He has prepared for us beforehand.

And, if we don’t do these works…if we don’t do God’s will for our lives…does our faith alone still save us? What does Scripture say? Matthew 7:21, “Not every one who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in Heaven.” Salvation, as the Church teaches and the Scriptures plainly show, is by both faith and works, and all by the grace of God.

About John Martignoni John Martignoni is the Director of the Office of Evangelization for the Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama and also the President of the Bible Christian Society. John's column, Apologetics 101, appears regularly in the diocesan newspaper, the One Voice.  If you have a question about the Catholic Faith, please send an email to: jmartignoni@bhmdiocese.org.  And check out John's free audio and written apologetics materials at: www.biblechristiansociety.com.