Catechesis: Justification

We do not argue about the term reward. We argue whether good works are of themselves worthy of grace and of eternal life, or whether they please only on account of faith, which takes of Christ as Mediator. Our adversaries not only attribute this to works, namely, that they are worthy of grace and of eternal life, but they also state falsely that works have surplus merits. The adversaries maintain that these merits can be granted to other people to justify them, as when the monks sell to others the merits of their orders.—Ap V:238, 239.