Part IV (Tertia Pars) Part 80 (2/2)
Obj. 2: Further, a man is said to do from obedience what he does from necessity of precept. But Christ did not suffer necessarily, but voluntarily. Therefore He did not suffer out of obedience.
Obj. 3: Further, charity is a more excellent virtue than obedience.
But we read that Christ suffered out of charity, according to Eph.
5:2: ”Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and delivered Himself up for us.” Therefore Christ's Pa.s.sion ought to be ascribed rather to charity than to obedience.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Phil. 2:8): ”He became obedient” to the Father ”unto death.”
_I answer that,_ It was befitting that Christ should suffer out of obedience. First of all, because it was in keeping with human justification, that ”as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners: so also by the obedience of one, many shall be made just,” as is written Rom. 5:19. Secondly, it was suitable for reconciling man with G.o.d: hence it is written (Rom. 5:10): ”We are reconciled to G.o.d by the death of His Son,” in so far as Christ's death was a most acceptable sacrifice to G.o.d, according to Eph. 5:2: ”He delivered Himself for us an oblation and a sacrifice to G.o.d for an odor of sweetness.” Now obedience is preferred to all sacrifices.
according to 1 Kings 15:22: ”Obedience is better than sacrifices.”
Therefore it was fitting that the sacrifice of Christ's Pa.s.sion and death should proceed from obedience. Thirdly, it was in keeping with His victory whereby He triumphed over death and its author; because a soldier cannot conquer unless he obey his captain. And so the Man-Christ secured the victory through being obedient to G.o.d, according to Prov. 21:28: ”An obedient man shall speak of victory.”
Reply Obj. 1: Christ received a command from the Father to suffer.
For it is written (John 10:18): ”I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it up again: (and) this commandment have I received of My Father”--namely, of laying down His life and of resuming it again. ”From which,” as Chrysostom says (Hom. lix in Joan.), it is not to be understood ”that at first He awaited the command, and that He had need to be told, but He showed the proceeding to be a voluntary one, and destroyed suspicion of opposition” to the Father. Yet because the Old Law was ended by Christ's death, according to His dying words, ”It is consummated”
(John 19:30), it may be understood that by His suffering He fulfilled all the precepts of the Old Law. He fulfilled those of the moral order which are founded on the precepts of charity, inasmuch as He suffered both out of love of the Father, according to John 14:31: ”That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father hath given Me commandment, so do I: arise, let us go hence”--namely, to the place of His Pa.s.sion: and out of love of His neighbor, according to Gal. 2:20: ”He loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” Christ likewise by His Pa.s.sion fulfilled the ceremonial precepts of the Law, which are chiefly ordained for sacrifices and oblations, in so far as all the ancient sacrifices were figures of that true sacrifice which the dying Christ offered for us. Hence it is written (Col. 2:16, 17): ”Let no man judge you in meat or drink, or in respect of a festival day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ's,” for the reason that Christ is compared to them as a body is to a shadow.
Christ also by His Pa.s.sion fulfilled the judicial precepts of the Law, which are chiefly ordained for making compensation to them who have suffered wrong, since, as is written Ps. 68:5: He ”paid that which” He ”took not away,” suffering Himself to be fastened to a tree on account of the apple which man had plucked from the tree against G.o.d's command.
Reply Obj. 2: Although obedience implies necessity with regard to the thing commanded, nevertheless it implies free-will with regard to the fulfilling of the precept. And, indeed, such was Christ's obedience, for, although His Pa.s.sion and death, considered in themselves, were repugnant to the natural will, yet Christ resolved to fulfill G.o.d's will with respect to the same, according to Ps. 39:9: ”That I should do Thy will: O my G.o.d, I have desired it.” Hence He said (Matt.
26:42): ”If this chalice may not pa.s.s away, but I must drink it, Thy will be done.”
Reply Obj. 3: For the same reason Christ suffered out of charity and out of obedience; because He fulfilled even the precepts of charity out of obedience only; and was obedient, out of love, to the Father's command.
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THIRD ARTICLE [III, Q. 47, Art. 3]
Whether G.o.d the Father Delivered Up Christ to the Pa.s.sion?
Objection 1: It would seem that G.o.d the Father did not deliver up Christ to the Pa.s.sion. For it is a wicked and cruel act to hand over an innocent man to torment and death. But, as it is written (Deut.
32:4): ”G.o.d is faithful, and without any iniquity.” Therefore He did not hand over the innocent Christ to His Pa.s.sion and death.
Obj. 2: Further, it is not likely that a man be given over to death by himself and by another also. But Christ gave Himself up for us, as it is written (Isa. 53:12): ”He hath delivered His soul unto death.”
Consequently it does not appear that G.o.d the Father delivered Him up.
Obj. 3: Further, Judas is held to be guilty because he betrayed Christ to the Jews, according to John 6:71: ”One of you is a devil,”
alluding to Judas, who was to betray Him. The Jews are likewise reviled for delivering Him up to Pilate; as we read in John 18:35: ”Thy own nation, and the chief priests have delivered Thee up to me.”
Moreover, as is related in John 19:16: Pilate ”delivered Him to them to be crucified”; and according to 2 Cor. 6:14: there is no ”partic.i.p.ation of justice with injustice.” It seems, therefore, that G.o.d the Father did not deliver up Christ to His Pa.s.sion.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Rom. 8:32): ”G.o.d hath not spared His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.”
_I answer that,_ As observed above (A. 2), Christ suffered voluntarily out of obedience to the Father. Hence in three respects G.o.d the Father did deliver up Christ to the Pa.s.sion. In the first way, because by His eternal will He preordained Christ's Pa.s.sion for the deliverance of the human race, according to the words of Isaias (53:6): ”The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all”; and again (Isa. 53:10): ”The Lord was pleased to bruise Him in infirmity.” Secondly, inasmuch as, by the infusion of charity, He inspired Him with the will to suffer for us; hence we read in the same pa.s.sage: ”He was offered because it was His own will” (Isa.
53:7). Thirdly, by not s.h.i.+elding Him from the Pa.s.sion, but abandoning Him to His persecutors: thus we read (Matt. 27:46) that Christ, while hanging upon the cross, cried out: ”My G.o.d, My G.o.d, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” because, to wit, He left Him to the power of His persecutors, as Augustine says (Ep. cxl).
Reply Obj. 1: It is indeed a wicked and cruel act to hand over an innocent man to torment and to death against his will. Yet G.o.d the Father did not so deliver up Christ, but inspired Him with the will to suffer for us. G.o.d's ”severity” (cf. Rom. 11:22) is thereby shown, for He would not remit sin without penalty: and the Apostle indicates this when (Rom. 8:32) he says: ”G.o.d spared not even His own Son.”
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