Merit

Wages and gift

A worker's wages are not a present; they are owed. Paul explains salvation by exactly this contrast:

Now the wages of the worker are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

Romans 4:4-5

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). Jesus told his disciples that when they had done all they were commanded, they should say, "We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty" (Luke 17:10). Matthew Henry drew the lesson that God "cannot be in debt to them for their services, nor do they deserve any return from him" Matthew Henry.

The merit that saves is Christ's: "through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19). Yet Scripture also speaks of reward: "each will be rewarded according to his own labor" (1 Corinthians 3:8), and Paul looks for "the crown of righteousness" (2 Timothy 4:8). How to understand the good works and rewards of people saved by grace is the question the word raises.

What the church has said

The Latin word ‘meritum’ was used in the Western church from early times. In the Middle Ages Thomas Aquinas taught that no one can merit the first grace, but that good works done in grace, moved by the Holy Spirit, merit eternal life Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae. The idea that the church could dispense the surplus merits of the saints was bound up with indulgences, and Luther answered in his Ninety-five Theses that the true treasure of the church is the gospel of God's glory and grace Luther, The Ninety-five Theses.

The Reformation churches confessed that good works are the fruit of faith, not merit. The Westminster Confession says we cannot by our best works "merit pardon of sin, or eternal life at the hand of God" Westminster Confession 16.5. The Heidelberg Catechism, asked why our works merit nothing though God rewards them, answers:

The reward comes not of merit, but of grace.

Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 63

The Belgic Confession, likewise, does not deny that God rewards good works, "but it is through his grace that he crowns his gifts" Belgic Confession, art. 24.

Where the traditions differ

The Catholic Church teaches that justification itself cannot be merited by anything, but that the good works of the justified, done in grace, truly merit an increase of grace and eternal life. The Council of Trent said that God's goodness is such that he wills his own gifts to be our merits Council of Trent, Decree on Justification. Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican and Wesleyan Christians rest on Christ's merit alone and receive even the rewards promised to good works as gifts of grace. The Orthodox churches seldom speak of merit, preferring to describe a life of cooperation with God and growth into his likeness.

In the 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, Lutherans and Catholics confessed together that we are accepted by God by grace alone, not because of any merit. Catholics explained that when they speak of the merit of good works, they mean that Scripture promises those works a reward in heaven, without denying that justification always remains the unmerited gift of grace Joint Declaration. See also the lesson Thomas Aquinas, and How do Catholics and Protestants differ?