38.According to Catholic understanding, good works, made
possible by grace and the working of the Holy Spirit, contribute to
growth in grace, so that the righteousness that comes from God is
preserved and communion with Christ is deepened. When Catholics
affirm the "meritorious" character of good works, they wish to say
that, according to the biblical witness, a reward in heaven is
promised to these works. Their intention is to emphasize the
responsibility of persons for their actions, not to contest the
character of those works as gifts, or far less to deny that
justification always remains the unmerited gift of grace.
Examine the meaning behind it with Trent Docs.
Canon 32 of Trent:
"If anyone shall say that the good works of the man justified are
in such a way the gifts of God that they are not also the good
merits of him who is justified, or that the one justified by the
good works, which are done by him through the grace of God and the
merit of Jesus Christ (whose living member he is), does not truly
merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that
eternal life (if he should die in grace), and also increase of
glory: let him be anathema."
The Catholic teaching still stands.
Conservative Lutherans rejects this declaration. Most of the
Lutheran synods are liberal and pro-ecunemism hence this led to the
signing haha. POlitics not theology prevailed.
