Whether It Is Befitting That Christ Should Be Predestinated?
Objection 1: It would seem unfitting that Christ should be
predestinated. For the term of anyone's predestination seems to be
the adoption of sons, according to Eph. 1:5: "Who hath predestinated
us unto the adoption of children." But it is not befitting to Christ
to be an adopted Son, as stated above (Q. 23, A. 4). Therefore it is
not fitting that Christ be predestinated.
Obj. 2: Further, we may consider two things in Christ: His human
nature and His person. But it cannot be said that Christ is
predestinated by reason of His human nature; for this proposition is
false--"The human nature is Son of God." In like manner neither by
reason of the person; for this person is the Son of God, not by
grace, but by nature: whereas predestination regards what is of
grace, as stated in the First Part, Q. 23, AA. 2, 5. Therefore Christ
was not predestinated to be the Son of God.
Obj. 3: Further, just as that which has been made was not always, so
also that which was predestinated; since predestination implies a
certain antecedence. But, because Christ was always God and the Son
of God, it cannot be said that that Man was "made the Son of God."
Therefore, for a like reason, we ought not to say that Christ was
"predestinated the Son of God."
_On the contrary,_ The Apostle says, speaking of Christ (Rom. 1:4):
"Who was predestinated the Son of God in power."
_I answer that,_ As is clear from what has been said in the First
Part (Q. 23, AA. 1, 2), predestination, in its proper sense, is a
certain Divine preordination from eternity of those things which are
to be done in time by the grace of God. Now, that man is God, and
that God is man, is something done in time by God through the grace
of union. Nor can it be said that God has not from eternity
pre-ordained to do this in time: since it would follow that something
would come anew into the Divine Mind. And we must needs admit that
the union itself of natures in the Person of Christ falls under the
eternal predestination of God. For this reason do we say that Christ
was predestinated.
Reply Obj. 1: The Apostle there speaks of that predestination by
which we are predestinated to be adopted sons. And just as Christ in
a singular manner above all others is the natural Son of God, so in a
singular manner is He predestinated.
Reply Obj. 2: As a gloss [*From St. Augustine, De Praed. Sanct. xv]
says on Rom. 1:4, some understood that predestination to refer to the
nature and not to the Person--that is to say, that on human nature
was bestowed the grace of being united to the Son of God in unity of
Person.
But in that case the phrase of the Apostle would be improper, for two
reasons. First, for a general reason: for we do not speak of a
person's nature, but of his person, as being predestinated: because
to be predestinated is to be directed towards salvation, which
belongs to a suppositum acting for the end of beatitude. Secondly,
for a special reason. Because to be Son of God is not befitting to
human nature; for this proposition is false: "The human nature is the
Son of God": unless one were to force from it such an exposition as:
"Who was predestinated the Son of God in power"--that is, "It was
predestinated that the Human nature should be united to the Son of
God in the Person."
Hence we must attribute predestination to the Person of Christ: not,
indeed, in Himself or as subsisting in the Divine Nature, but as
subsisting in the human nature. Wherefore the Apostle, after saying,
"Who was made to Him of the seed of David according to the flesh,"
added, "Who was predestinated the Son of God in power": so as to give
us to understand that in respect of His being of the seed of David
according to the flesh, He was predestinated the Son of God in power.
For although it is natural to that Person, considered in Himself, to
be the Son of God in power, yet this is not natural to Him,
considered in the human nature, in respect of which this befits Him
according to the grace of union.
Reply Obj. 3: Origen commenting on Rom. 1:4 says that the true
reading of this passage of the Apostle is: "Who was destined to be
the Son of God in power"; so that no antecedence is implied. And so
there would be no difficulty. Others refer the antecedence implied in
the participle "predestinated," not to the fact of being the Son of
God, but to the manifestation thereof, according to the customary way
of speaking in Holy Scripture, by which things are said to take place
when they are made known; so that the sense would be--"Christ was
predestinated to be made known as the Son of God." But this is an
improper signification of predestination. For a person is properly
said to be predestinated by reason of his being directed to the end
of beatitude: but the beatitude of Christ does not depend on our
knowledge thereof.
It is therefore better to say that the antecedence implied in the
participle "predestinated" is to be referred to the Person not in
Himself, but by reason of the human nature: since, although that
Person was the Son of God from eternity, it was not always true that
one subsisting in human nature was the Son of God. Hence Augustine
says (De Praedest. Sanct. xv): "Jesus was predestinated, so that He
Who according to the flesh was to be the son of David, should be
nevertheless Son of God in power."
Moreover, it must be observed that, although the participle
"predestinated," just as this participle "made," implies antecedence,
yet there is a difference. For "to be made" belongs to the thing in
itself: whereas "to be predestinated" belongs to someone as being in
the apprehension of one who pre-ordains. Now that which is the
subject of a form or nature in reality, can be apprehended either as
under that form or absolutely. And since it cannot be said absolutely
of the Person of Christ that He began to be the Son of God, yet this
is becoming to Him as understood or apprehended to exist in human
nature, because at one time it began to be true that one existing in
human nature was the Son of God; therefore this proposition--"Christ
was predestinated the Son of God"--is truer than this--"Christ was
made the Son of God."
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