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Let us interact with Rome.
What exactly is God’s gift of salvation?
Roman Catholic Claim
Even though only God’s
grace enables us to love others, these acts
of love please him, and he promises to reward
them with eternal life (Rom. 2:6–7,
Gal. 6:6–10). Thus good works are meritorious.
When we first come to God in faith, we have
nothing in our hands to offer him. Then he
gives us grace to obey his commandments in
love, and he rewards us with salvation when
we offer these acts of love back to him (Rom.
2:6–11, Gal. 6:6–10, Matt. 25:34–40).
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Christian Response
Here we arrive at
a watershed issue with Rome. Rome believes that God’s
grace enables good works which are then considered
by God to be meritorious. Hence, man can truly merit
justification. But, Rome softens this “crass
righteousness of man” by attributing the engagement
of merit to God’s grace. To the Christian this
is a hopeless paradox. For if God “enables”
a man to perform a work then the work is of God and
cannot be meritorious. If man must cooperate with
God in order for him to do the work then it is of
man and not of God. The whole concept of “gracious
merit” is foreign to Christian theology. Salvation
is not a reward for good works. It is a gift based
upon the merit of Christ alone and is the gracious
gift of God.
TIT 3:5 He saved
us, not on the basis of deeds which we
have done in righteousness, but according
to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and
renewing by the Holy Spirit, TIT 3:6 whom He poured
out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
EPH 2:8 For by
grace you have been saved through faith; and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; EPH 2:9
not as a result of works,
that no one should boast.
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