Posted on 07/03/2008 10:41:56 PM PDT by Gamecock
“’Tis grace, ‘tis all of grace...”
“’Tis grace, ‘tis all of grace...”
Thisd passage does not teach faith alone; it teaches grace alone, the Catholic doctrine. We are saved by grace alone, but not by faith alone.
In Romans 4, Paul reaches the heart of his argument, appealing to the example of Abraham. 'What then shall we say that Abraham our forefather discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about--but not before God. What does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.' In other words, a salary isn't a gift; the company owes it to you. Rome actually argues that we merit (de congruo) justification by cooperating with grace. But merit is precisely what Paul is excluding here. 'However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.' In one fell swoop, Paul destroys every plank in the Roman doctrine of justification. Rome says that justification is merited; Paul says it is a gift. Rome says that it is given to those who work for it; Paul says it is given to those who do not work for it. Rome says that God only justifies those who are truly holy inherently; Paul says that God only justifies those who are truly wicked inherently. Rome says that justification is a process of attaining righteousness; Paul says that justification is a declaration of imputed or 'credited' righteousness.
This is simply misunderstanding of merit as salary. Pardon a lengthy quote:
A subject which is misunderstood by Protestant apologists just as much as the Catholic view of righteousness is the Catholic view of merit. A lot of this is due to the connotations the term "merit" has in Protestant minds. Normally this is taken to be a synonym in Protestant vocabulary for "earn," however as we will see this is nothing like what the term means in Catholic theology.In fact, it has never been what the term meant. It has only gained that connotation from its usage in post-Reformation anti-Catholic polemics. From the very beginning the term was used differently. Thus in the second century the Latin term meritum was introduced as a translation of the Greek term for "reward."[6] In fact, it was picked over another term (merces) precisely because it lacked the legalistic connotations of meritum. Thus a document released by the German conferences of Catholic and Lutheran bishops states: "[T]he dispute about merit also rests largely on a misunderstanding. The Tridentine fathers ask: How can anyone have doubts about the concept of merit, when Jesus himself talks about 'reward' and when, moreover, it is only a question here of acts that a Christian performs as member of Christ? . . . Many antitheses could be overcome if the misleading word 'merit' were simply to be viewed and thought about in connection with the true sense of the biblical term 'wage' or reward (cf., among other passages, Matt. 20:1-16; 5:12; John 4:36; 1 Cor. 3:8, 14; Col. 3:24). There are strong indications, incidentally—and a linguistic analysis could provide the evidence—that the language of the liturgy does not merely reflect the true meaning of the concept of merit stressed here, but—quite contrary to the Reformers' fears—prefers to explain what was meant through the word meritum rather than through the term merces (reward), for the very reason that merit sounds less 'materialistic' than reward."[7]
The term merces does in fact have very materialistic connotations. In fact, there is a joke among Latinists concerning Jesus' statements in the Vulgate of Matthew 6, Receperunt mercedem suam which is jokingly translated "They have received their Mercedes"—the car brand name "Mercedes" being derived from merces.
Because meritum is simply the Latin translation of the theological term "reward," this reveals to us a fundamental unity of the doctrine of merit and the doctrine of reward, a doctrine which even (most) Protestants acknowledge since the Bible uses the term. In fact, the Bible uses very "materialistic" terms in this regard. The three key terms for reward the New Testament uses—misthos, apodidomai, and misthapodosia mean respectively "wages," "to deliver or pay off," "payment of wages due." It kind of puts a new feel on things when one brings this forward into English and one sees Jesus saying: "Rejoice and be glad, for your wages are great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:12).
"He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet's wage, and he who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's wage" (Matthew 10:41).
"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your wage will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish" (Luke 6:35).
This kind of puts a different slant on it, and the New Testament is chocked full of this kind of "profit motive" language (see C. S. Lewis' excellent essay, The Weight of Glory for a Protestant exposition of this point), though translations often obscure the fact. In fact, one may note that Protestant translations tend to translate misthos inconsistently, as "wage" whenever the context is worldly-economic and "reward" whenever it is something promised to believers by God.
Nevertheless, though the New Testament uses highly economic language in speaking of the believer's rewards (e.g., "He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor," 1Co. 3:8; "The Lord will repay everyone accord to his works," Rom. 2:6), it does not in any way intend this language to be taken to mean that Christians earn their place before God.
Thus in Catholic theology, merit is in no way earning, but identical with the concept of reward. Brought about by God's grace, acts which please God are done by Christians (Phil. 4:18, Col. 1:9-10, 1Th. 4:1, Heb. 13:16, 13:20-21) and God chooses to reward them (Rom. 2:6, 1 Cor. 3:8, 4:6, 2 Cor. 5:10, Gal. 6:6-10, Rev. 2:23, 22:12). These elements, God's grace, the acts pleasing to God that they bring about, and the reward God chooses to give, are the key elements in the Catholic theology of merit, as we shall see.
The doctrine of merit is thus the same as the doctrine of rewards. To help Protestant readers grasp this and cut through the linguistic confusion experienced on this point because of the associations of the term "merit" in the Protestant vocabulary, they should try substituting "reward" or "rewardable action" or "to perform a rewardable action" for "merit" in what follows. This should cut through the confusion.
Except for this part: not of works
That removes our own works/merit/efforts, etc. from the equation.
I agree that it is a useful article, which would be better if it didn’t pick up unnecessary fights with “Rome”. Not everything is bridgeable between what the Church teaches and the Protestant opinions on Justification, but a lot is bridgeable if the other side’s terminology is understood.
Grace is a gift from God and does not come of works. Catholic teaching.
You guys apparently think that no one before Luther has read Ephesians 2.
Grace does not come though works. I typed as slow as I could.
As am I.
I can see already that simplicity which is in Christ will be under attack.
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3)
You am?
You can’t am. I am.
Well, there were people by the millions who believed the substance of this article before 1400. I don’t think it is a Catholic versus Protestant thing at all.
This brings painful memories. "Misthos" is "wage" or "salary" in modern Greek, and as a refugee without a work permit I was constantly told that they did not have a good misthos for me. This was one of the words I learned from life rather than from the Scripture, over 20 years ago.
Please post more articles like this one as you find them. Many will declare that making comparisons is the same as “picking a fight,” but of course it is not, and I saw no “fight picking.”
That is because the article describes a certain fringe of Catholic thought. It is not at its center, but it does not go substantionally un-Catholic, except in the author’s delusionally Protestant-bracketed mind.
Er, is that unecumenical? I apologize. Let's replace with
That is because the article describes a certain fringe of Catholic thought. It is not at its center, but it does not go substantionally un-Catholic, despite the authors's apparent intention
“Well, there were people by the millions who believed the substance of this article before 1400. I don’t think it is a Catholic versus Protestant thing at all.”
In light of what you have written, JL, you three might find “Beyond Justification: An Orthodox Perspective,” by Dr. Valerie Karras, an interesting study in what hundreds of millions of Orthodox Christians believe and have believed for about 1700 years. Karras is a respected if a bit left wing, by Orthodox standards, Greek Orthodox American theologian.
http://www.stpaulsirvine.org/html/Justification.htm
As she notes, like with so many other distinctly Western theological controversies, the East is mildly bemused and just a bit puzzled by what all the fuss is about.
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