Is Grace Necessary? What is the Role of Grace in the Catholic Church? What Does the Catholic Church Have to Say About Grace?
Is it true that the Catholic Church teaches that grace is necessary for salvation, and if so, what is grace, and why is it necessary?
Demonstration from Holy Scripture
Genesis 2:16-17 – “The Lord God gave the man this order: You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die.”
Ephesians 2:4-9 – “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ[e] (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 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.” (NABRE)
John 3:5 – “Jesus answered, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.’” (NABRE)
John 6:53-54 – Jesus said to them, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.’” (NABRE)
Acts 15:10-11 – “Why , then, are you now putting God to the test by placing on the shoulders of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? 11 On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they.”(NABRE)
Romans 3:24 – “They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus” (NABRE)
Romans 5:15,17 – “But the gift is not like the transgression. For if by that one person’s transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one person Jesus Christ overflow for the many… For if, by the transgression of one person, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one person Jesus Christ.” (NABRE)
Romans 5:18-21 – “In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so through one righteous act acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous. The law entered in so that transgression might increase but, where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (NABRE)
Romans 6:14 – “For sin is not to have any power over you, since you are not under the law but under grace.” (NABRE)
Titus 3:5-7 – “…not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, he saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.” (NABRE)
2 Timothy 1:9 – “He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began,” (NABRE)
Galatians 5:4 – “You are separated from Christ, you who are trying to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.” (NABRE)
The Fathers and Doctors of the Church
Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas
“I answer that, Acts conducing to an end must be proportioned to the end. But no act exceeds the proportion of its active principle; and hence we see in natural things, that nothing can by its operation bring about an effect which exceeds its active force, but only such as is proportionate to its power. Now everlasting life is an end exceeding the proportion of human nature, as is clear from what we have said above (I-II:5:5). Hence man, by his natural endowments, cannot produce meritorious works proportionate to everlasting life; and for this a higher force is needed, viz. the force of grace. And thus without grace man cannot merit everlasting life; yet he can perform works conducing to a good which is natural to man, as ‘to toil in the fields, to drink, to eat, or to have friends,’ and the like, as Augustine says in his third Reply to the Pelagians [Hypognosticon iii, among the spurious works of St. Augustine].” [ST I, I-II, Q.109, A.5]
Against Heresies, St. Irenaeus, 3,17,2 [inter A.D. 180/199]
“The Lord promised to send us the Paraclete, who would make us ready for God. Just as dry wheat without moisture cannot become one dough or one loaf, so also, we who are many cannot be made one in Christ Jesus, without the water from heaven. Just as dry earth cannot bring forth fruit unless it receive moisture, so also we, being at first a dry tree, can never bring forth fruit unto life, without the voluntary rain from above. Our bodies achieve unity through the washing which leads to incorruption; our souls, however, through the Spirit. Both, then, are necessary, for both lead us on to the life of God.”(WJ 220)
Homilies on Hannah, St. John Chrysostom, 25,7 [A.D387]
“God awaits occasions to show us His great liberality. Let us not by laziness, then, defraud ourselves of His gifts, but hasten and be eager to begin to take the path that leads back to virtue, so that, enjoying help from above, we may be strengthened to persevere to the end; for unless we are assisted from above it is not possible for us to do right at any time.” (WJ 1153)
Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, St Ambrose of Milan, 2,84 [ca. A.D. 389]
“Fear the Lord and be confident in the Lord. ‘The Lord will station His angels around those who fear Him, and He will deliver them.’ You see indeed, then, how the strength of the Lord is cooperative in human endeavors, so that no one can build without the Lord, no one can preserve without the Lord, no one can undertake anything without the Lord.” (WJ 1302)
Letter of Augustine to Valentine, St. Augustine of Hippo, 215, 4 [A.D. 427]
“As strongly as we could we urged them, your brothers and ours, to persevere in the sound Catholic faith, which neither denies free will, whether to pursue a wicked life or a good one; nor attributes to it such efficacy that it can do anything at all without God’s grace, whether to be converted from evil to good, or to persevere and advance in good, or to attain the eternal good, where there is no longer any fear of falling away.” (WJ 1455)
Various Questions to Simplician, St. Augustine of Hippo, 1,2,2 [ A.D. 396] “In many passages [Paul] often bears witness to this, putting grace of faith before works, not as if he wanted to put an end to works, but so as to show that works are the consequences rather than the precedents of grace. Thus, no man is to suppose that he has received grace because he has done good works but rather that he would not have been able to do those good works if he had not, through faith, received grace.” (WJ 1569)
Sermons, St. Leo I, 38,3 [ante A.D. 461] “Without God there is no virtue, nor does man obtain what is proper to divinity unless he be enlivened by the Spirit of his Author. Since the Lord said to His disciples, ‘Without Me you are able to do nothing,’ there is no doubt that when a man does good works he has from God both the carrying out of the work and the beginning of his will to do so.” (WJ 2200)
The Magisterium of the Church, the Creeds, Conciliar declarations, Popes, other organs of the Magisterium.
Pseudo-Celestine Chapters, or Indiculus, Chap. 1. [435 – 442 A.D.]
“In the transgression of Adam, all men lost their natural capacity and their innocence, and no one can rise from the depths of that collapse through free will unless the grace of the merciful God lifts him up, as Pope Innocent of blessed memory proclaims and says in his letter to the Synod pf Carthage: “For long ago that man, a victim of his free will in making quite rash use of his goods, fell into the depths of transgression and sank and found no means by which he might be able to rise from there; and, deceived forever by his own freedom, he would have lain under the crushing weight of this collapse if the subsequent coming of Christ had not lifted him up again by virtue of the grace of him who, through the purification of the new rebirth, has washed away every past fault in his baptismal bath.” (DZ 239)
Second Synod of Orange, Felix III (IV), Can. 7. [July 3, 529]
If anyone asserts that to be able by one’s natural strength to think as is required or chosen anything good pertaining to one’s eternal salvation or to assent to the saving message of the Gospel without the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who gives to all ease and joy in assenting to the truth and believing it, one is deceived by the heretical spirit and does not understand the word said by God in the Gospel: “Apart from me you can do nothing” [Jn 15:5] or the of the apostle: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our sufficiency is from God” [2 Cor 3:5].” (DZ 377)
Letter Congratulamur vehementer to Peter, Patriarch of Antioch [April 13, 1053]
“I believe and profess that the grace of God precedes and follows man, yet in such a manner that I do not deny free will to the rational creature.” (DZ 685)
Council of Trent, Session 6: Decree on Justification, Cannon 1&2 [January 13, 1547]
“If anyone says that, without divine grace through Jesus Christ, man can be justified before God by his own works, whether they be done by his own natural powers or through the teaching of the law, let him be anathema [cf. *1521].” (DZ 1551)
“If anyone says that divine grace is given through Jesus Christ only in order that man may more easily live justly and merit eternal life, as if by his free will without grace he could do both, although with great difficulty, let him be anathema [cf. *1524f.].” (DZ 1552)
Bull Ex omnibus afflictionibus, Pius V, Error 11 [October 1, 1567]
Errors of Michael Baius on the Nature of Man and Grace
“11. If after having persevered in this mortal life up to the end of life in piety and justice, we obtain eternal life, this is properly attributed, not to the grace of God, but to the natural order established right from the beginning of creation by the just judgment of God; and in this recompense of good, the merit of Christ is not considered but only the first institution of the human race, in which, following the natural law, it was established by the just judgment of God that eternal life should be accorded for the observance of the commandments.” (DZ 1911)
First Vatican Council, Session 3: Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius on Catholic Faith, Ch. 3 [April 24, 1870]
“Though the assent of faith is by no means a blind impulse of the mind, still no man can ‘assent to the Gospel message’, as is necessary to obtain salvation, ‘without the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who gives to all delight in assenting to the truth and believing it’ [Second council of Orange: *377]. Wherefore faith itself, even when it is not working through love [cf. Gal 5:6], is in itself a gift of God, and the act of faith is a work appertaining to salvation by which man yields voluntary obedience to God himself by assenting to and cooperating with grace, which he could resist [cf. *1525f.; can. 5].” (DZ 3010)
Second Vatican Council, Public Session 9: Gaudium et spes [December 7, 1965] “Man Achieves such dignity when, emancipating himself from all captivity to passion, he pursues his goal in a spontaneous choice of what is good and procures for himself, through effective and skillful action, apt helps to that end. Since man’s freedom has been damaged by sin, only by the aid of God’s grace can he bring such a relationship with God into full flower. Before the judgment seat of God, each man must render an account of his own life, whether he has done good or evil.” (DZ 4317)
The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Lutheran World Federation, “The Official Common Statement regarding the Joint Declaration of the Doctrine of Justification” (*5073), 2 [October 31, 1999]
“2. ‘Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works’ (JD 15).” (DZ 5081)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
CCC 375 – “The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original ‘state of holiness and justice’. This grace of original holiness was ‘to share in. . .divine life’.”
CCC 1996 – “Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.”
CCC 1997 – “Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an “adopted son” he can henceforth call God “Father,” in union with the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church.”
CCC 1998 – “This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God’s gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect and will, as that of every other creature.”
CCC 1999 – “The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification:
Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.”
CCC 2000 – “Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God’s call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God’s interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.”
CCC 2001 – “The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace. This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our collaboration in justification through faith, and in sanctification through charity. God brings to completion in us what he has begun, “since he who completes his work by cooperating with our will began by working so that we might will it:”
Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us…”
CCC 2003 – “Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church…”
CCC 2005 – “Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved…”
CCC 2009 – “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.’”
Summary of the Teaching
When Adam fell, he lost his original holiness, which was a life lived in the grace of God. The grace of God is an absolute necessity to overcome the state of sin man found himself in after the fall. The Church holds that no good work can come from man without him first being moved by grace; grace accompanies man while he is engaged in good works, and grace is a result and fruit of good works done. Man cannot be justified without the grace of God which is a free gift from God. Since man is in a fallen state without God, and cannot do good without the grace of God salvation is beyond the reach of man without God’s grace. The Church is, however, careful to assure the faithful that the necessity of God’s grace in no way interferes with man’s free will. The grace of God is present to move us to action, but it is still the free choice of man to cooperate with that grace or not, and we can reject God’s grace and choose against good works. Grace does not generate the good works; the good works are still done by the initiative of man cooperating with the grace of God that prompts him and sees the good work through to completion. Apart from the grace of God, man can do nothing that is good, and, therefore, cannot overcome concupiscence and attain salvation.
My Question
The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification says, “By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works.” It makes sense to say that we do not receive the Holy Spirit through merit. However, it seems odd to use the phrase “grace alone” because the reception of the Holy Spirit still requires an act of our free will in order to be received otherwise unrepentant sinners would be infused with grace and receiving the Holy Spirit. Does the phrase “in faith in Christ’s saving work” imply a free act of the will to cooperate with God’s grace? Can evil men “have faith in Christ’s saving work” but choose to reject that work? And, if they can choose to reject it, despite believing in it, would it not follow that grace and the free choice of man to cooperate with that grace are both required in order to receive the Holy Spirit? Is this word choice intentionally imprecise or a concession to the Lutheran World Federation?