CCC 2009
Life in Christ›SECTION ONE MAN'S VOCATION LIFE IN THE SPIRIT›CHAPTER THREE GOD'S SALVATION: LAW AND GRACE›III. Merit
Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God's gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making us "co-heirs" with Christ and worthy of obtaining "the promised inheritance of eternal life." The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness. "Grace has gone before us; now we are given what is due.... Our merits are God's gifts."
Footnotes
- Council of Trent (1547): DS 1546.
- Cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1548.
- St. Augustine, Sermo 298, 4-5: PL 38, 1367.
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