Merit
Can a good deed earn a reward from God, or does grace only give, never owe wages
Merit is the idea that human acts performed in grace have a value God can reward. Traditions differ on this. Catholic theology affirms merit with careful qualifications, holding that even meritorious acts depend first on God's grace. The Reformers rejected merit as any basis of salvation, insisting salvation is received by grace through faith and never earned. The dispute reaches back through Tertullian, Augustine, and Aquinas.
How it traveled
- The First ApologyRome · c. 165 CEexplains
- Homilies on First CorinthiansConstantinople (Istanbul) · c. 407 CEexplains
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and PhilemonConstantinople (Istanbul) · c. 407 CEapplies
- A Treatise on the Predestination of the SaintsHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- A Treatise Against Two Letters of the PelagiansHippo Regius · c. 430 CEchallenges
- The EnchiridionHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- A Treatise on Grace and Free WillHippo Regius · c. 430 CEapplies
- A Work on the Proceedings of PelagiusHippo Regius · c. 430 CEapplies
- A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original SinHippo Regius · c. 430 CEapplies
- A Treatise on Rebuke and GraceHippo Regius · c. 430 CEapplies
- Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59)Paris · c. 1274 CEexplains
- Treatise on the Angels (qq[50]-64)Paris · c. 1274 CEexplains
- Treatise on The One God (QQ[2-26])Paris · c. 1274 CEexplains
- Treatise on Man (qq[75]-102)Paris · c. 1274 CEexplains
- Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90)Paris · c. 1274 CEexplains
- Commentary on GalatiansWittenberg · c. 1546 CEapplies
- Discussion: Third PartWittenberg · c. 1546 CEchallenges
- Discussion: Second PartWittenberg · c. 1546 CEchallenges
- Discussion: First PartWittenberg · c. 1546 CEredefines
- Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from ItGeneva · c. 1564 CEredefines
- Book Second. of the Knowledge of God the Redeemer, in Christ, as First Manifested to the Fathers, Under the Law, and Thereafter to Us Under the GospelGeneva · c. 1564 CEexplains
- Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic ChurchGeneva · c. 1564 CEchallenges
- XIV Five discourses on the soul's eternal salvationNorthampton, Massachusetts · c. 1758 CEexplains
- a careful and strict inquiry into the prevailing notions of the freedom of willNorthampton, Massachusetts · c. 1758 CEexplains
- A History of the Work of RedemptionNorthampton, Massachusetts · c. 1758 CEexplains
Key passages(20)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
Book Second. of the Knowledge of God the Redeemer, in Christ, as First Manifested to the Fathers, Under the Law, and Thereafter to Us Under the Gospel · John Calvin
CHRIST RIGHTLY AND PROPERLY SAID TO HAVE MERITED GRACE AND SALVATION FOR US. The three leading divisions of this chapter are,—I. A proof from reason and from Scripture that the grace of God and the m
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Discussion: Third Part · Martin Luther
Sect. CXLVIII. — THIS also, is no powerless thunder-bolt where the apostle says, “All have sinned and are without the glory of God: for there is no difference.” (Rom. iii. 23). What, I pray you, coul
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A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 18.—The Desire of Good is God’s Gift. For they have thought that it was to be objected to us that we say “that God inspires into unwilling and resisting man the desire,” not of any very great
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
11. We must strongly insist on these two things: That no believer ever performed one work which, if tested by the strict judgment of God, could escape condemnation; and, moreover, that were this grant
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A History of the Work of Redemption · Jonathan Edwards
THE PURCHASE OF REDEMPTION Having thus considered Christ’s coming into the world, and his taking on him our nature, to put himself in a capacity for the purchase of redemption, I come now to show wha
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
13. But since a great part of mankind imagine a righteousness compounded of faith and works let us here show that there is so wide a difference between justification by faith and by works, that the es
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
THE BOASTED MERIT OF WORKS SUBVERSIVE BOTH OF THE GLORY OF GOD, IN BESTOWING RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND OF THE CERTAINTY OF SALVATION. The divisions of this chapter are,—I. To the doctrine of free justificat
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
3. What all our works can merit Scripture shows when it declares that they cannot stand the view of God, because they are full of impurity; it next shows what the perfect observance of the law (if it
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
4. I know that the Sophists abuse some passages in order to prove that the Scriptures use the term merit with reference to God. They quote a passage from Ecclesiasticus: “Mercy will give place to ever
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
7. In this way the schools of Sorbonne, the parents of all heresies, have deprived us of justification by faith, which lies at the root of all godliness. They confess, indeed, in word, that men are ju
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Book Third. the Mode of Obtaining the Grace of Christ. the Benefits It Confers, and the Effects Resulting from It · John Calvin
6. In a sense similar to the above passages our opponents quote the following: “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting ha
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Commentary on Galatians · Martin Luther
In civil life obedience to the law is severely required. In civil life Gospel, conscience, grace, remission of sins, Christ Himself, do not count, but only Moses with the lawbooks. If we bear in mind
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Discussion: First Part · Martin Luther
Sect. LXXI. — BUT, says the Diatribe — “what then mean all those Scriptures which promise a kingdom and threaten hell? Why is the word reward so often repeated in the Scriptures; as, “Thou hast thy re
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Discussion: Second Part · Martin Luther
Sect. CVII. — BUT let us, I pray you, suppose that God ought to be such an one, who should have respect unto merit in those who are to be damned. Must we not, in like manner; also require and grant, t
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Discussion: Second Part · Martin Luther
Sect. CXX. — AND as to your saying — “Yet every affection of man is not flesh. There is an affection called, soul: there is an affection called, spirit: by which, we aspire to what is meritoriously go
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But lest some suppose, from what has been said by us, that we say that whatever happens, happens by a fatal necessity, because it is foretold as known beforehand, this too we explain. We have learned
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Treatise on The One God (QQ[2-26]) · Thomas Aquinas
Objection 3: Further, "There is no injustice in God" (Rom. 9:14). Now it would seem unjust that unequal things be given to equals. But all men are equal as regards both nature and original sin; and in
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Treatise on the Angels (qq[50]-64) · Thomas Aquinas
I answer that, Although there are conflicting opinions on this point, some holding that the angels were created only in a natural state, while others maintain that they were created in grace; yet it s
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Treatise on the Angels (qq[50]-64) · Thomas Aquinas
Reply to Objection 1: Merit belongs to a subject which is moving towards its end. Now the rational creature is moved towards its end, not merely passively, but also by working actively. If the end is
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Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59) · Thomas Aquinas
Objection 4: Further, the manifestation of Christ's excellence is a good, not of Christ Himself, but of those who know Him. Hence it is promised as a reward to such as love Christ that He will be mani
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