GOD THE SANCTIFIER

 

God the Sanctifier

1. There is a supernatural intervention of God in the faculties of the soul, which precedes the free act of the will.
2. There is a supernatural influence of God in the faculties of the soul which coincides in time with man's free act of will.
3. For every salutary act, internal supernatural grace of God (gratia elevans) is absolutely necessary.
4. Internal supernatural grace is absolutely necessary for the beginning of faith and salvation.
5. Without the special help of God, the justified cannot persevere to the end in justification.
6. The justified person is not able for his whole life long to avoid sins, even venial sins, without the special privilege of the grace of God.
7. Even in the fallen state, man can, by his natural intellectual power, know religious and moral truths.
8. For the performance of a morally good action, sanctifying grace is not required.
9. In the state of fallen nature, it is morally impossible for man without supernatural Revelation, to know easily, with absolute certainty, and without admixture of error, all religious and moral truths of the natural order.
10. Grace cannot be merited by natural works either de condigno or de congruo.
11. God gives all the just sufficient grace for the observation of the divine commandments.
12. God, by His eternal resolve of Will, has predetermined certain men to eternal blessedness.
13. God, by an eternal resolve of His Will, predestines certain men, on account of their foreseen sins, to eternal rejection.
14. The human will remains free under the influence of efficacious grace, which is not irresistible.
15. There is grace which is truly sufficient and yet remains inefficacious.
16. The causes of Justification. (Defined by the Council of Trent) :
1. The final cause is the honour of God and of Christ and the eternal life of men.
2. The efficient cause is the mercy of God.
3. The meritorious cause is Jesus Christ, who as mediator between God and men, has made atonement for us and merited the grace by which we are justified.
4. The instrumental cause of the first justification is the Sacrament of Baptism. Thus it defines that Faith is a necessary precondition for justification (of adults).
5. The formal cause is God's Justice, not by which He Himself is just, but which He makes us just, that is, Sanctifying Grace.
17. The sinner can and must prepare himself by the help of actual grace for the reception of the grace by which he is justified.
18. The justification of an adult is not possible without faith.
19. Besides faith, further acts of disposition must be present.
20. Sanctifying grace sanctifies the soul.
21. Sanctifying grace makes the just man a friend of God.
22. Sanctifying grace makes the just man a child of God and gives him a claim to the inheritance of heaven.
23. The three Divine or theological virtues of faith, hope and charity are infused with sanctifying grace.
24. Without special Divine Revelation no one can know with the certainty of faith, if he be in the state of grace.
25. The degree of justifying grace is not identical in all the just.
26. Grace can be increased by good works.
27. The grace by which we are justified may be lost, and is lost by every grievous sin.
28. By his good works, the justified man really acquires a claim to supernatural reward from God.
29. A just man merits for himself through each good work an increase of sanctifying grace, eternal life (if death finds him in the state of grace) and an increase in heavenly glory.