P. Different Conclusions: Merit
P. Different Conclusions: Merit
Earlier we considered how, in Newman’s schema, the gift of the Spirit produces virtuous “works” in and through a believer. We noted that for Newman these works are meritorious, rooted in the merit achieved by Christ and essential for salvation: “we are absolutely saved by obedience,” he argues, “. . . by what we are . . . [and] we are absolutely saved by faith, or by what Christ is.”1025 In a footnote to this statement, added in Newman’s third edition, he adds the following:
Catholics hold that our good works, as proceeding from the grace of the Holy Ghost, cannot be worthless, but have a real and proper value; on the other hand, that the great reward of eternal life is due to them only in consequence of the promise of God. Good works have on this ground a claim on God’s faithfulness to His promises, and there a claim on His justice, for it would be unjust to promise and not fulfill.1026
Newman’s via media is sufficiently elastic to accommodate the Catholic emphasis on the meritorious character of good works. Because, in Newman’s view, Christians possess two-fold righteousness (forensically imputed and also inchoate, that is, the incipient form of righteousness that resides in the believer) it is natural for him to maintain that the former consists of Christ’s merits while the latter involves merit that belongs to the Christian. This et . . . et approach allows him to say that “the inherent righteousness of a true Christian, viewed as distinct from Christ’s inward presence, is something real.”1027 Part and parcel of this real righteousness is the Christian’s real works which accrue real merit before God. Such meritorious works can increase as one’s apprehension of justification itself increases (by a greater manifestation of the Spirit).1028 Simply put, since justification and sanctification are united in Newman’s doctrine, and grow together in proportion to God’s manifest presence, the believer’s meritorious works likewise grow.1029
Vermigli is absolutely emphatic that works can in no way merit justification.1030 However, because he includes regeneration and sanctification in the broader confines of justification, the production of (non-meritorious) works is a necessary component of justification. This broader view of justification, which Martyr calls “a different kind of justification,” anticipates the final judgment when men and women are finally justified.1031 We have noted that in this sense Vermigli can be said to maintain duplex iustificatio,1032 not that he understands justification to have a double formal cause (what McGrath suggests is the standard form of duplex iustificatio) as was true during the Tridentine proceedings.1033 If there is one thing that Martyr’s locus makes clear, it is, once again, that “works” in no way cause justification (“in reality good works are effects of righteousness, and not causes”).1034 Therefore, justification is never “by” works when we talk about the formal cause. As does his colleague, Martin Bucer, Vermigli understands God to accept1035 and reward1036 works as a necessary constituent of final justification. The regenerates’ works are central to sanctification,1037 which for Vermigli belongs to the doctrine of justification.
On the basis of the above considerations, we can conclude that, for Vermigli, the production of good works by the regenerate indicates that they have received the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.1038 The warp and woof of Martyr’s locus is dedicated to arguing against justification by works in the sense of a prior formal cause. But when we broaden the focus of our question beyond the formal cause to consider the place of works in the future judgment, when God justifies someone “in fact” and not simply in “estimation,” accepting and rewarding such works because they are performed in Christ, there is a sense in which Vermigli affirms justification by works.
In short, for Newman works are meritorious since those who are justified manifest an incipient form of righteousness by their obedience, animated by the adherent presence of God. For Vermigli, works are never meritorious; they constitute the effect (or fruit) of forensic imputation, which is recognized as the proper cause (or root). But since the believer’s works are supplemented by the forensic righteousness of Christ,1039 they are accepted and rewarded by God.