Catholic Catechism:
2009
Filial adoption, in
making us partakers by grace in the divine
nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God's
gratuitous
justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of
love, making us
"co-heirs" with Christ and worthy of obtaining
"the promised
inheritance of eternal life." The merits of our good
works are gifts
of the divine goodness. "Grace has gone before us;
now we are
given what is due. . . . Our merits are God's
gifts."2044 The fidelity of the baptized is a primordial condition for the
proclamation of the Gospel and for the Church's mission in the
world. In order that the message of salvation can show the power
of its truth and radiance before men, it must be
authenticated by
the witness of the life of Christians. "The witness
of a Christian life
and good works done in a supernatural spirit have great
power
to draw men to the faith and to God."