Justification
- The grace of the Holy Spirit has the power to justify us → to make us holy/just.
- CCC 1989 The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification in accordance with Jesus' proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high. "Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.
- It is acceptance of God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, detaches us from sin, is merited by for us by the passion of Christ, and is conferred in baptism. Establishes cooperation between God’s grace and Man’s freedom.
Grace
- A freely given favor/gift, undeserved, from God that enables us to love him and become his children as adoptive sons and daughters of God, making us partakers of the divine life.
- It is a participation in the life of God → links us to the Trinitarian life of God.
- Effects: Heals and elevates us
- Act according to the three theological virtues: faith, hope, love.
- Types: Sanctifying/Habitual Grace (the stable habit or disposition of grace) and Actual Grace (individual moments of grace/God’s intervention).
- God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him.
Merit
- Merit refers to the recompense owed by a community or person.
- Applied to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man.
- CCC 2008 The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man's free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man's merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit. → The charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God.