G. The Role of Merit
G. The Role of Merit
Related to this question is the matter of whether justification admits a meritorious increase. According to Newman, meritorious works can indeed increase as one’s apprehension of justification itself (by a greater manifestation of the Spirit) increases.1135 On this subject, it is interesting to see that in the first edition of his Lectures, Newman affirmed what he considered to be the perfection of adherent righteousness among those who are justified; but he retracted his statement in his third edition:
[The justified are “perfect”] in relation to the past, as being a simple reversal of the state of guilt, and a bringing into God’s favour; but as God’s favour towards us will grow as we become more holy, so as we become more holy, we may receive a higher justification. The words in the text are inconsistent with an increase of justification, which Catholics hold.1136
For Trent, justification is on account of the merits of Christ being poured into the hearts of those who are justified.1137 In this case, as with Newman’s position, the process of justification entails an ongoing appropriation of divine righteousness by which one is increasingly justified. As the Catholic Catechism puts it, “Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life.”1138
For Vermigli, the notion that one can merit for himself divine favor is unacceptable. He asserts, “Therefore, we must take away all merit, not only in those who are not yet justified, but also in those who have been justified.” It is only by the merit of Christ (solus Christi merito) that one is justified. In this way, justification admits no increase with regard to the ground of our acceptance. However, although Martyr rejects the category of human merit, he affirms that God accepts and rewards Christian works as a necessary constituent of final justification. In this sense, one’s works possess real value and prevail coram deo.1139
The JD, in keeping with Trent, asserts that initial justification is unmerited.1140 Having been justified, the faithful are then expected to produce virtuous fruit and “bring forth the works of love.”1141 The Catholic statement readily affirms that, firstly, such works are made possible “by grace and the working of the Holy Spirit,”1142 and, secondly, that its usage of the word “meritorious” intends to account for the fact that one’s works are rewarded in heaven. In other words, the intention behind the doctrine of meritorious works is a desire “to emphasize the responsibility of persons for the action, not to contest the character of those works as gifts, or far less to deny that justification always remains the unmerited gift of grace.”1143 While Reformed Protestants would prefer to describe virtuous works as the “fruit” of justification,1144 and not our own “merits,” it is in fundamental agreement with the Augustinian logic of the Catholic position—that our merits are in fact God’s gifts.