Formal difference between merit and reward?

[TryingToLearn]

Do the Reformed ever give a definition of merit and one of reward? Thomas Aquinas and Rome holds that they are the same thing, so the Reformed have to come up with different definitions for the two in order to distinguish them. Do they ever actually do this?

 

[SeanPatrickCornell]

Why wouldn’t merit and reward be the same thing?

 

[TryingToLearn]

Why wouldn’t merit and reward be the same thing?

Because the Reformed deny that man can merit before God. If they were the same, per Rome, then man merits before God every time they perform a good work that receives a reward. So for instance, a nation living in general obedience to God merits temporal blessings, a man who lives civilly likewise, a Christian who obeys God merits eternal reward, etc.

 

[RamistThomist]

Merit: what I am owed.

Reward: what I am given.

Sometimes they overlap, but not necessarily.

 

[TryingToLearn]

Merit: what I am owed.

Reward: what I am given.

Sometimes they overlap, but not necessarily.

Would that be a formal definition of reward? Wouldn’t that make it equivalent to a gift?

 

[RamistThomist]

Would that be a formal definition of reward? Wouldn’t that make it equivalent to a gift?

As to how formal it is, I don't know. Merit is based on what I am owed. I don't know who would be the proper authority for defining how formal a definition we need for reward. I guess I could consult Muller when I get home.

 

[RamistThomist]

a Christian who obeys God merits eternal reward, etc.

Are you saying this as your position?

 

[SeanPatrickCornell]

Dictionary says that reward means “a thing given in recognition of one's service, effort, or achievement”.

Sounds like merit to me.

 

[SeanPatrickCornell]

And in any case we do have merit before God, don’t we? Merit earned by Christ on our behalf.

 

[RamistThomist]

Merit can either be condign or congruent. Unless we are talking about going above and beyond what God requires, merit will normally be equivalent to the work performed.

Reward, while approaching merit in some areas, lacks that particular nuance.

 

[SeanPatrickCornell]

Merit can either be condign or congruent. Unless we are talking about going above and beyond what God requires, merit will normally be equivalent to the work performed.

Reward, while approaching merit in some areas, lacks that particular nuance.

Are condign and congruent merit terms the Reformed have historically used and agreed with?

 

[RamistThomist]

Are condign and congruent merit terms the Reformed have historically used and agreed with?

No. But Reformed have responded to merit-based theology, usually Rome's, and this is the language that Rome has used, and what the Reformed have understood Rome to have meant by it.

 

[CasualWestminsterEnjoyer]

The key distinction is whether we deserve the reward, or whether it is given freely.
We do believe in some correlation between service rendered and the reward, insofar as evildoers will receive no reward, but we don't believe that the service merits the reward in the way, for example, a worker is due payment for a job he does.

 

[CasualWestminsterEnjoyer]

It's also worth pointing out that the term meritum shifted in meaning over time, and originally it just meant reward. But by the middle ages the term had come to have its present sense.

 

[SeanPatrickCornell]

Good info. Thanks gents.