text: can someone please explain to me the catholic doctrine of salvation by grace and not works? i know that there's a big misunderstanding in prostestantism as to the catholic teaching on salvation. catholics do indeed believe in salvation by grace, right? hope this helps.  protestants often misunderstand the catholic teaching on merit, thinking that catholics believe that one must do good works to come to god and be saved. this is exactly the opposite of what the church teaches. the council of trent stressed: "[n]one of those things which precede justification, whether faith or works, merit the grace of justification; for if it is by grace, it is not now by works; otherwise, as the apostle [paul] says, grace is no more grace" (decree on justification 8, citing rom. 11:6).   paul tells us: "for [god] will reward every man according to his works: to those who by perseverance in working good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. there will be . . . glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, the jew first and also the greek. for god shows no partiality" (rom. 2:6–11; cf. gal. 6:6–10).   in the second century, the technical latin term for "merit" was introduced as a synonym for the greek word for "reward." thus merit and reward are two sides of the same coin.    the catholic church teaches only christ is capable of meriting in the strict sense—mere man cannot (catechism of the catholic church 2007). the most merit humans can have is condign—when, under the impetus of god’s grace, they perform acts which please him and which he has promised to reward (rom. 2:6–11, gal. 6:6–10). thus god’s grace and his promise form the foundation for all human merit (ccc 2008).   virtually all of this is agreed to by protestants, who recognize that, under the impetus of god’s grace, christians do perform acts which are pleasing to god and which god has promised to reward, meaning that they fit the definition of merit. when faced with this, protestants are forced to admit the truth of the catholic position—although, contrary to paul’s command (2 tim. 2:14), they may still dispute the terminology.   thus the lutheran book of concord admits: "we are not putting forward an empty quibble about the term ‘reward.’ . . . we grant that eternal life is a reward because it is something that is owed—not because of our merits [in the strict sense] but because of the promise [of god]. we have shown above that justification is strictly a gift of god; it is a thing promised. to this gift the promise of eternal life has been added" (p. 162).   the following passages illustrate what the church fathers had to say on the relationship between merit and grace.      ignatius of antioch    "be pleasing to him whose soldiers you are, and whose pay you receive. may none of you be found to be a deserter. let your baptism be your armament, your faith your helmet, your love your spear, your endurance your full suit of armor. let your works be as your deposited withholdings, so that you may receive the back-pay which has accrued to you" (letter to polycarp 6:2 [a.d. 110]).      justin martyr    "we have learned from the prophets and we hold it as true that punishments and chastisements and good rewards are distributed according to the merit of each man’s actions. were this not the case, and were all things to happen according to the decree of fate, there would be nothing at all in our power. if fate decrees that this man is to be good and that one wicked, then neither is the former to be praised nor the latter to be blamed" (first apology 43 [a.d. 151]).      tatian the syrian    "[t]he wicked man is justly punished, having become depraved of himself; and the just man is worthy of praise for his honest deeds, since it was in his free choice that he did not transgress the will of god" (address to the greeks 7 [a.d. 170]).      athenagoras    "and we shall make no mistake in saying, that the [goal] of an intelligent life and rational judgment, is to be occupied uninterruptedly with those objects to which the natural reason is chiefly 