26. Protestants say almost exactly the same things as Roman Catholics do about the rewards we gain for our good works, as is clear from the statements copied from the Formula of Concord above to the effect that, because of the promises made to us and because of grace, our good works are deserving of both physical and spiritual rewards; see §14 i, j, k, m; and that God crowns his gifts with rewards; see §14 h, m.

Very similar statements occur in the Council of Trent, namely, that because of his grace, God makes his gifts our rewards; see §5 f; and that salvation comes not as a result of our good works but as a result of God’s promise and grace, because it is God who produces those good works through the Holy Spirit; see §5 e, f, g, h, i, j.

7. The teachings of the Roman Catholics on justification, as gathered from the decrees of the Council of Trent, can be linked together and summed up as follows:

The sin of Adam was transfused into the entire human race. As a result, the state of the human race and of every individual within it was ruined and alienated from God. People became enemies [of God] and children of wrath. Therefore God the Father as an act of grace sent his Son to reconcile, ritually purge, appease, make satisfaction, and thereby redeem; and to do so by becoming justice.

Christ carried out and fulfilled this task by offering himself to God the Father as a sacrifice on the wood of the cross, that is, through his own suffering and his own blood. Christ alone earned merit. God the Father through the agency of the Holy Spirit assigns, attributes, applies, and transfers this merit of Christ’s to receptive individuals as an act of grace. In this way the sin of Adam is removed from them, although cravings do nonetheless remain and entice them to sin.

Justification is the forgiving of sins, which leads to a renewal of the inner self, by which we turn from an enemy [of God] into a friend and from a child of wrath into a child of grace. This brings us into a union with Christ. We are reborn as a living part of his body.