According to Calvin, only in a qualified sense. McGrath says, “The later Franciscan school, the via moderna and the schola Augustiniana moderna regarded the ratio meriti as lying in the divine good pleasure; nothing was meritorious unless God chose to accept it as such. This teaching was extended to include the work of Christ; the merita Christi were regarded as being grounded in the acceptatio divina .” Calvin likely encountered this perspective at the University of Paris, and thus he is able to write that “apart from God’s good pleasure, Christ could not have merited anything” (nam Christus nonnisi ex Dei beneplacito quidquam mereri potuit, Inst 2.17.1).
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