Eternal Life: Gift or Reward? Part Two.

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:
Continuing with this same question from last week, this week I will show how it is not a contradiction to say that eternal life is both a free gift and a reward. I am going to quote from a couple of Bible passages to show that what the Church teaches in this area is not some “man-made” teaching of the Catholic Church, but is indeed what Scripture very clearly teaches.

The first passage I want to cite is the Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14-30. In this parable we see that the master freely gives each of three servants a portion of his property as he prepares to go on a journey. The first two servants do something with what the master has given them. They earned a return on what the master had entrusted them with. And to each of these two, the master, upon his return, said, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.”

What do we see here? We see two servants who enter into their master’s joy as a reward for their labor. So, the servants received something from the master that was freely given to them. They then took what was freely given and made a return on it. Did they earn entrance into their master’s joy based solely on what the master had given? No. So, entrance into their master’s joy involved two parts: 1) receiving something from the master; and 2) earning a return on what they were freely given by the master. Those who say we enter into our master’s joy (Heaven; eternal life) because of what the master gives us alone (salvation by faith alone), have a big problem when it comes to this Scripture passage.

Furthermore, what happens to the third servant? He, too, received a free gift from the master. Did that free gift alone allow him to enter into his master’s joy? No! The master returned and upon seeing that the servant had earned no return on what he had given him, said to him, “You wicked and slothful servant…I should have received my own with interest,” (Mt 25:26-27). And what happened to the wicked and slothful servant who had done nothing with what his master gave him? He was cast “into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.”

And this from John 6:27, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you.” This verse fits perfectly with Catholic teaching on merit and with the Parable of the Talents referenced above. Jesus does indeed “give” us the food which endures to eternal life – just as the master gave his three servants the talents - but He also very clearly says that we have to labor for that food. Contradiction? Absolutely not! We have to be just like the “good and faithful servant,” who received a free gift from his master without doing a thing to “earn” it, but then had to go and do something with what his master gave him in order to enter into his master’s joy.

Catholic teaching, perfectly supported by Scripture, says that we are freely justified (saved), through faith, by Jesus Christ when we are baptized. We can do nothing before reception of this free gift, whether faith or works, to “merit” our initial justification through Baptism. But, once we are given this gift, we have to do something (good works) with it. The good works are rightly said to be ours, even though we do them in union with Christ – Christ working in us and through us – by His grace, because we do them of our own free will. Thus, we can be said to truly “merit” the reward of eternal life.

Romans 2:6-7, “For He will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing [good works] seek for glory and honor and immortality, He will give eternal life.”

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.