Whether This Is True: "Christ As Man Is God"?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ, as Man, is God. For Christ is
God by the grace of union. But Christ, as Man, has the grace of
union. Therefore Christ as Man is God.
Obj. 2: Further, to forgive sins is proper to God, according to Isa.
43:25: "I am He that blot out thy iniquities for My own sake." But
Christ as Man forgives sin, according to Matt. 9:6: "But that you may
know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins," etc.
Therefore Christ as Man is God.
Obj. 3: Further, Christ is not Man in common, but is this particular
Man. Now Christ, as this Man, is God, since by "this Man" we signify
the eternal suppositum which is God naturally. Therefore Christ as
Man is God.
_On the contrary,_ Whatever belongs to Christ as Man belongs to every
man. Now, if Christ as Man is God, it follows that every man is
God--which is clearly false.
_I answer that,_ This term "man" when placed in the reduplication may
be taken in two ways. First as referring to the nature; and in this
way it is not true that Christ as Man is God, because the human
nature is distinct from the Divine by a difference of nature.
Secondly it may be taken as referring to the suppositum; and in this
way, since the suppositum of the human nature in Christ is the Person
of the Son of God, to Whom it essentially belongs to be God, it is
true that Christ, as Man, is God. Nevertheless because the term
placed in the reduplication signifies the nature rather than the
suppositum, as stated above (A. 10), hence this is to be denied
rather than granted: "Christ as Man is God."
Reply Obj. 1: It is not with regard to the same, that a thing moves
towards, and that it is, something; for to move belongs to a thing
because of its matter or subject--and to be in act belongs to it
because of its form. So too it is not with regard to the same, that
it belongs to Christ to be ordained to be God by the grace of union,
and to be God. For the first belongs to Him in His human nature, and
the second, in His Divine Nature. Hence this is true: "Christ as Man
has the grace of union"; yet not this: "Christ as Man is God."
Reply Obj. 2: The Son of Man has on earth the power of forgiving
sins, not by virtue of the human nature, but by virtue of the Divine
Nature, in which Divine Nature resides the power of forgiving sins
authoritatively; whereas in the human nature it resides
instrumentally and ministerially. Hence Chrysostom expounding this
passage says [*Implicitly. Hom. xxx in Matth; cf. St. Thomas, Catena
Aurea on Mk. 2:10]: "He said pointedly 'on earth to forgive sins,' in
order to show that by an indivisible union He united human nature to
the power of the Godhead, since although He was made Man, yet He
remained the Word of God."
Reply Obj. 3: When we say "this man," the demonstrative pronoun
"this" attracts "man" to the suppositum; and hence "Christ as this
Man, is God, is a truer proposition than Christ as Man is God."
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