It begins with the grace of God which touches a sinner’s heart, and calls him to repentance. This grace cannot be merited; it proceeds solely from the love and mercy of God. Man may receive or reject this inspiration of God, he may turn to God or remain in sin. Grace does not constrain man’s free will.
Thus assisted the sinner is disposed for salvation from sin; he believes in the revelation and promises of God, he fears God’s justice, hopes in his mercy, trusts that God will be merciful to him for Christ’s sake, begins to love God as the source of all justice, hates and detests his sins.
This disposition is followed by justification itself, which consists not in the mere remission of sins, but in the sanctification and renewal of the inner man by the voluntary reception of God’s grace and gifts, whence a man becomes just instead of unjust, a friend instead of a foe and so an heir according to hope of eternal life. This change happens either by reason of a perfect act of charity elicited by a well disposed sinner or by virtue of the Sacrament either of Baptism or of Penance according to the condition of the respective subject laden with sin. The Council further indicates the causes of this change. By the merit of the Most Holy Passion through the Holy Spirit, the charity of God is shed abroad in the hearts of those who are justified.
Against the heretical tenets of various times and sects we must hold
that the initial grace is truly gratuitous and supernatural;
that the human will remains free under the influence of this grace;
that man really cooperates in his personal salvation from sin;
that by justification man is really made just, and not merely declared or reputed so;
that justification and sanctification are only two aspects of the same thing, and not ontologically and chronologically distinct realities;
that justification excludes all mortal sin from the soul, so that the just man is no way liable to the sentence of death at God’s judgment-seat.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13407a.htm
[[It begins with the grace of God which touches a sinner’s heart, and calls him to repentance. This grace cannot be merited; it proceeds solely from the love and mercy of God]]
It prioceeds from the Soveriengty of God- A very deep subject- in which unmeritted mercy, and also righteous wrath are wrapped up in- God is NO respector of men- a VERY humbling statement if ever there was one- God didn’t ‘choose me’ because of anything I did to deserve it- He chose me because He is a Soveriegn God who created man to have fellowship with Him- which we promptly threw aside as htough it were nothing, by eating hte apple in the garden.
There is a great theological debate about whether God caqn love htose He knew before they were even born will reject Him- some say No- God did not mean those when He said ‘For God so loved the world’ Some say yes- God means everyone- I think the statement that God is no respector of man plays heavily into htis myself- Jacob hath He loved, Esau hath He hated- and it is His priviledge, as a Soveriegn God, to love and Hate Whom He will- Some clay vessels He creates for glory, some for destruction but htis is a whole other subject
one hting I would point out in those tenants you listed- A man is justified upon Salvation, and THEN, Sanctification happens over time, THROUGH the Holy Spirit- whose job it is to sanctify us— Sanctification does not bring salvation- and hte Holy spirit can not work God’s sanctification in someone who is unsaved.
A man is first re-generated- or given a whole new life- only God can create, only God can give new life, a new life for an old life that has passed away at the very point of salvation- At that point of Salvation, a new child is fully justified in the Eyes of the Lord, as the new man’s sins have all been washed away, and the child, sinless through the justification of salvation, can now stand before the Holy God- Sin and sinlessness in God can not sahare the same space in heaven- only the justified who are sinless through the blood of the sinless One, can stand i nthe presence of God
The Holy Spirit works His sanctification in those who are already set apart frrom sin- there are two sanctifications- one is ‘positional sanctification’ or the ‘drinking into one Holy spirit’- At the point of salvation, we are ‘positionally sanctified’, but there is another sanctification after salvation- the practical, or ongoing sanctification, which, we as Christians participate, or fail to participate in- but even failing, we do not lose our salvation, our regenration, our justificaiton, or our initial sanctification- our ‘set-aopertness’ We, as Christiansd, will ALWAYS be ‘set apart’ from the judgement of sin that will befall a fallen world.