In the
teaching of the Catholic Church, there is a sort of spiritual “bank” called the
Treasury of Merit. In it are the merits
(good works, righteousness) of Christ and of Mary and of the “saints.” These merits are obtained through something
called indulgences, which can only be granted through the authority of the pope
(CCC 1478), and are offered to man so that all who partake of them might be “set
free from sin and attain communion with the Father.”
In other
words, the Treasury of Merit exists to help people by applying its contents
toward their salvation, i.e., to pay for their sins.
The Catechism
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
“We also
call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints ‘the Church’s treasury’,
which is not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during
the course of the centuries. On the
contrary the ‘treasury of the Church’ is the infinite value, which can never be
exhausted, which Christ’s merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of
mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer himself, the
satisfactions and merits of his Redemption exist and find their efficacy.” (CCC
1476)
Furthermore,
it says:
“This
treasury includes, as well, the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin
Mary. They are truly immense,
unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and
good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of
Christ the Lord… In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same
time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body.”
(CCC 1477)
The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia
First of
all, is this an authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church? Indeed, according to the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, the Treasury of Merit is a
dogmatic teaching, and therefore, an “infallible” doctrine of the Catholic
Church. See here:
This same
link admits that Christ’s satisfaction / payment for sins is “infinite”:
“Since the satisfaction
of Christ is infinite, it constitutes an inexhaustible fund which is more than
sufficient to cover the indebtedness contracted by sin.”
Yet, the
Catholic Church adds the “merits” of Mary and the “saints” to this treasury, as
well. But if Christ’s merits are infinite, why add the merits of anyone
else? If they are adding anything, they must not really believe that His merits are
“more than sufficient,” after all. So, is
there something lacking in the work
of the Savior on the cross so that the merits of others must be added? It would seem so in the Catholic system of
salvation.
Nowhere does
Scripture describe or even imply a
“treasury” in which human merit is mixed with the merit of Jesus Christ to
bring about justification / salvation.
The Catholic Treasury of Merit offers a false hope. Salvation cannot be purchased with money,
human merit, or good works. It comes
only from a surrender to Jesus Christ and trusting in His work on the cross,
which results in a changed heart.
The Great Insult
Imagine that
you owed someone a hundred million dollars (in other words, an impossible
debt). But a generous billionaire felt
sorry for you and offered to fully pay that debt for you. But let’s say that you wanted to “chip in”
and you added five cents to the billionaire’s payment, then you went around
bragging to your friends that you “participated” in paying your incredibly
enormous debt. But this would be an
awful insult to the billionaire, whose ample wealth more than covered your
debt, and he (not you) had every reason to boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
It is the
same thing with salvation. Trying to add
human merits (even from the “saints” or from Mary) to the perfect and completely
sufficient merit of Jesus’ work on the cross is an incredible insult to
God. It would be poisoning the pure and
infinite well of salvation that Jesus provided.
No Mixture Allowed
If anyone
appears before God on Judgment Day with the hope of such mixed merit, he will be rejected! Only the pure merit of Jesus Christ will be
sufficient to allow us to enter glory, and He needed no help from anyone to do it.
If you
attempt to add anything (any work,
any merit) to the cross, you bring upon yourself the curse of the Judaizers (Acts
15:1, 5; Galatians 1:8-9). See
this link:
A Catholic Objection
But the
Catholic may say, “But there are two
types of punishments for sins: One is
eternal punishment (which has to do with the guilt of sin – CCC 1472, 1473).
In this case, a person is forgiven the guilt, yet still requires work,
effort, or suffering by the sinner. That
is, he is still required to satisfy some temporal
punishment (CCC 1471, 1472, and 1473), which is satisfied either by suffering
and / or good deeds done here in this life, or suffering in Purgatory. This Treasury of Merit is to provide
remission (forgiveness) only for the temporal
punishments for sin.”
But isn’t
this Treasury supposed to contain Christ’s
merits? And isn’t His merit “inexhaustible”
and “more than sufficient to cover the indebtedness contracted by sin”? So why would this “treasury” not be enough to
take care of ALL punishment for sin, both temporal and eternal?
Again, the
following are the phrases that the Catholic Church itself uses in describing
the contents of the Treasury of Merit:
Its merits supposedly “set [a person] free from sin,” they “attain
communion with the Father,” they are “truly immense, unfathomable, and even
pristine in their value,” they are “an inexhaustible fund which is more than
sufficient to cover the indebtedness contracted by sin,” and they consist of
Christ’s merits, which are “the infinite value, which can never be
exhausted.”
All this,
yet this treasury’s merits can only satisfy the so-called temporal punishments of sin?!!!
The best we can say is that it is only partially effective in setting one “free from [his] sin.” The Catholic Church speaks highly of this
treasury’s “efficacy,” but apparently, it is not effective against the eternal penalty for sins, i.e., it is
not enough to satisfy one’s guilt.
Therefore, it cannot be of Christ (John 1:29; 19:30; 1 John 2:2; 4:10).
There is a
great contradiction here!
Conclusion
One last
thing. Note that CCC 1477 above says
that Mary and the “saints,” through their own merits, have not only attained
their own salvation, but have merit left over to apply to others in need of
merit. This would mean that they were
able to obtain for themselves excess righteousness! They were able to earn more than enough to be saved!
This is an absurd and absolutely unbiblical concept. According to Scripture, we can’t pay for our
own salvation (Romans chapters 3 and 4; Galatians 2:16; Titus 3:5), and if
we can’t even pay for our own, then
how in the world could we get “extra” merit to pay for others?!!! If anyone could merit salvation for himself,
then Jesus came and died for nothing! (Galatians 2:21)
This concept
of the Treasury of Merit totally nullifies the sufficiency of the Savior’s
suffering and work on the cross. And not
only that, according to Indulgentiarum
Doctrina (an Apostolic Constitution of Pope Paul VI – Chapter 4, Section 8)
the Catholic Church threatens an anathema (condemnation) for anyone who says
that indulgences are useless, or for anyone who denies the power of the
Catholic Church to grant them. So the
Catholic is obligated to believe in
this false “treasury.”
It is obvious
that the Treasury of Merit is part of a system designed to make its members
totally dependent on a man-centered, works-based salvation… which is no salvation
at all.
See also this
article on indulgences:
