Grace, Merit, and Reward: Engaging Protestants on Salvation

To merit something is to be worthy of it—to deserve it. Rewards and punishments are thus merited. But Sacred Scripture teaches that we are made just in God’s sight and saved not by the merits of our works, but by God’s grace:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8–9 NABRE

Because we have been saved by grace through faith, there is no room for boasting. We did not earn or deserve our salvation by anything we have done.

St. Paul writes:

What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?
1 Corinthians 4:7 NABRE

And yet, Sacred Scripture also commonly speaks as if entrance into the Kingdom of God at the last judgment is a matter of reward for good works performed. The Lord’s account of the last judgment, in which he separates “the sheep from the goats,” is one important example (see Matthew 25). Another is when the Lord exhorts us to “strive to enter through the narrow door,” lest we be “cast out” of the Kingdom (see Luke 13).

Protestant Christians—our separated brethren—typically resolve this tension differently than Catholics do. Because of this difference, they sometimes accuse Catholics of believing that we are “saved by works.” In their view, Catholics think they can stand before God, point to their works, and rely on them as proof of righteousness—even boasting in them.

But this is not what the Church teaches. Catholics, just as much as Protestants, reject any idea that we can put God in our debt or boast in our works. We agree that we have nothing good apart from Him.

More informed Protestants recognize this. They understand that Catholics fully affirm salvation by grace through faith. They know that we reject reliance on works (as if they were independent achievements), because we believe—like them—that every good thing comes from God. All is grace.

So, what is the problem? Where does the disagreement actually lie?

Initial Salvation and Final Salvation

Reading the Scriptures carefully, Catholics distinguish between what may be called initial salvation and final salvation.

Passages like Ephesians 2:8–9, which exclude any role for meriting works, refer to initial salvation—our first entry into the state of justification. By pure grace, without any prior merit, a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ and is baptized. In that moment, he is made just in God’s sight.

After this initial justification, however, Catholics hold that a person can truly merit growth in holiness, and even eternal life, through good works. This follows from the many passages that describe salvation at the final judgment as being according to works.

But does this mean we can rely on or boast in our works before God? Not at all! These works are themselves produced by God’s grace active within us and are grounded in faith: “The just man lives by faith.”

Immediately after affirming salvation by grace apart from works, St. Paul writes,

For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.
Ephesians 2:10 NABRE

And St. James states plainly,

You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works… You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
James 2:22–24 RSVCE

And throughout Scripture, the final judgment is consistently described as being according to works:

For he will render to every man according to his works…
Romans 2:6–8; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 16:27; 25:31–34

Grace and Merit: Not Opposed, but Ordered

At this point, more careful Protestant critiques focus on how Catholics interpret these passages. A common argument is that grace and merit are mutually exclusive. They appeal to texts such as,

Now to one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due.
Romans 4:4 RSVCE

or

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
Romans 11:6 RSVCE

But these passages (both in the context of initial salvation) establish a distinction—not a strict contradiction. They show that gift and merit cannot both be the simple explanation of something. They do not prove that grace and merit cannot both be involved in different ways.

The key is to recognize different levels of explanation.

To clarify, consider two scenarios.

Scenario 1: A preschool teacher rewards any child who remains quiet during naptime with a sticker. A child who succeeds does so on her own and can justly demand the reward if it is held back. She may even boast a little. This is straightforward merit.

Scenario 2: The same teacher offers the same reward. But now a child has a condition that prevents her from staying quiet on her own. The teacher sits with her, calming and assisting her the entire time. The child still participates—she really does something. But given the circumstances, in which her success is made possible at every moment by the teacher’s help, she needs the teacher’s special consent to receive the reward for her efforts. If given, the reward is a gift of generosity.

In this second case, the child truly merits the reward, but only at the pleasure of the teacher. She cannot demand the reward, as if the accomplishment were entirely her own doing, nor can she boast in herself, because she’s powerless to merit the reward on her own. The deeper explanation of her success, and of the reward, is the teacher’s help.

This second scenario reflects the Catholic understanding.

At the deepest level, everything—our good works, our merit, and our reward—is a gift of grace. Yet at a subordinate level, our cooperation is real, and our works are truly ours. Grace and human freedom are not in competition. Merit is not eliminated but transformed.

This is why Scripture insists both that,

we must act, strive, and persevere, and

everything comes from God.

As St. Paul writes,

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work.
Philippians 2:12–13 NABRE

Too often, Protestant critiques assume the Catholic position corresponds to Scenario 1—self-generated merit. But in reality, it corresponds to Scenario 2—grace-enabled cooperation, where God remains the primary cause.

As St. Augustine put it,

You are glorified in the assembly of your Holy Ones, for in crowning their merits you are crowning your own gifts.
En. in Ps. 102,7: PL 37,1321-1322 (quoted in CCC before par. 2006)

Are the “Judgment According to Works” Passages Hypothetical?

Another common objection is that passages describing judgment according to works are merely hypothetical: if someone could persevere in good works, then they would receive eternal life—but since no one does, all must rely solely on grace without any real role for merit.

This objection fails on at least two fronts.

First, relying solely on grace and expecting eternal life as a reward for perseverance in good works are not mutually exclusive. Expectation, perseverance, and reliance are different things. In light of the framework above—and given that the entire system of grace, works, and reward is established and sustained by God—we can rely entirely on grace for salvation while still needing to strive to persevere in that grace with good works, lest we fall from grace. We need not rely on our efforts but only make those efforts.

Second, this interpretation does not match the actual function of these passages in Scripture. In context, they are presented as straightforward descriptions of reality, not hypotheticals. Even in Romans 2, where this objection seems to find its origin, a close reading and the broader scriptural context weigh against a purely hypothetical interpretation.

A fuller treatment of Romans 2 will follow in a future post.

Practical Implications for Evangelization

For now, the essential point is this: Catholics are not disregarding Scripture, nor is our interpretation careless or unintelligent. The disagreement is not about fidelity to the Bible, but about how to interpret it—along with deeper philosophical questions about grace, causality, and human cooperation (which are interesting but shouldn’t dominate an argument about the interpretation of Scripture).

Moreover, the Catholic position reflects the dominant pattern of interpretation in the pre-Reformation Church.

For those engaged in evangelization, especially in conversations with Protestants, all this has practical importance. These distinctions should be clearly understood and confidently explained.

Catholics are just as concerned as Protestants that all glory belongs to God. We do not approach Him with our works as if they were independent achievements, demanding reward. We approach in humility, knowing that even our good works are His gifts.

And yet we take seriously the Lord’s command:

Strive to enter by the narrow door.
Luke 13:24 RSVCE

We do so in hope, trusting that by His mercy we may hear,

Well done, my good and faithful servant… Come, share your master’s joy.
Matthew 25:23 NABRE

But in the end, the principle remains:

Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.
2 Corinthians 10:17 NABRE

For the Church’s teaching on grace, merit, and reward, see Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§1987–2029.