Fides 18 N2 - Revista do Centro Presbiteriano Andrew Jumper

FIDES REFORMATA XVIIi, Nº 2 (2013): 99-115
which he was created. They were performed by Adam through God who was
at work in him both to will and to do them. This performance in dependence
on the Lord enhanced their merit, if we speak of their good moral quality and
praiseworthiness. Adam was righteous and produced righteous works that
merited approval and acceptance. 12
There is another sense of merit, however, that is not applicable to justification.
Merit conceived of as spiritual credits 13 that purchase a reward are
not to be integrated into biblical justification. Justification is not dependent
on a principle of rendering works that receive wages. 14 In the divine order
for relationships in this world there is a principle that a laborer deserves his
wages (cf. 1 Tim 5:18). Justification, the acknowledgment or declaration of
righteousness, however, is not about paying back for work rendered. It is only
the pronouncement of innocence.
An analogy serves to illustrate this point. Joe hires Jim to plough a field
for him for an agreed wage. Jim is hired because he is an honest man and can
be counted on to do a good job. When the work is half done Joe examines it
and praises Jim for his good work and trustworthiness. Joe does not, however,
pay out any money to Jim, nor does Jim think he ought to do so. Jim’s honesty
and the work accomplished are two different things. When the job is done Jim’s
good character and work remain unchanged. He is honest (righteous) whether
the work is done or not. Joe praises Jim for his integrity, but the wages are
12 This concept of merit is reflected in passages such as Luke 6:34.
13 See American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fourth edition. Houghton Mifflin
Company, 2004, “Christianity Spiritual credit granted for good works.”
14 This understanding of merit is defended by R. Scott Clark in Covenant, Justification and
Pastoral Ministry (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 2007), pp. 234-235, “Gijsbertus Voetius (1589-
1676) understood Christ’s merits as a synonym for Christ’s active obedience. ‘Merit,’ he argued, ‘is the
work provided, to which a reward or retribution is due proportionate to the work.’ This is, in effect, a
Protestant version of condign merit, that is, the merit that God rewards because it meets the terms of
divine justice.” Robert L. Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology, p. 625, voices the same commonly
held Reformed view that “... assured eternal life, including all the blessings of perseverance, infallible
rectitude, and sustaining grace...” were held out in the covenant of works “... as the reward to be earned
by obedience....” Similarly, Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. III (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1940), p. 164, writes, “Heaven is always represented as a purchased possession.”
John Murray reflects the contrary stream of thought in Reformed theology, Collected Writings of John
Murray, vol. 2, p. 56, “From the promise of the Adamic administration we must dissociate all notions of
meritorious reward. The promise of confirmed integrity and blessedness was one annexed to an obedience
that Adam owed and therefore, was a promise of grace. All that Adam could have claimed on the basis
of equity was justification and life as long as he perfectly obeyed, but not confirmation so as to insure
indefectibility. Adam could claim the fulfillment of the promise if he stood the probation, but only on
the basis of God’s faithfulness, not on the basis of justice. God is debtor to his own faithfulness. But
justice requires no more than the approbation and life correspondent with the righteousness of perfect
conformity.” It can be pointed out that Robert L. Dabney, Lectures in Systematic Theology, has a section
with the heading, “Covenant of Works Gracious”, p. 302. Thus, some defenders of the idea that eternal
felicity was to be earned in a covenant of works, at the same time regard this covenant as gracious.
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