Whether Christ's Predestination Is the Cause of Ours?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's predestination is not the
cause of ours. For that which is eternal has no cause. But our
predestination is eternal. Therefore Christ's predestination is not
the cause of ours.
Obj. 2: Further, that which depends on the simple will of God has no
other cause but God's will. Now, our predestination depends on the
simple will of God, for it is written (Eph. 1:11): "Being
predestinated according to the purpose of Him, Who worketh all things
according to the counsel of His will." Therefore Christ's
predestination is not the cause of ours.
Obj. 3: Further, if the cause be taken away, the effect is also taken
away. But if we take away Christ's predestination, ours is not taken
away; since even if the Son of God were not incarnate, our salvation
might yet have been achieved in a different manner, as Augustine says
(De Trin. xiii, 10). Therefore Christ's predestination is not the
cause of ours.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Eph. 1:5): "(Who) hath
predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ."
_I answer that,_ if we consider predestination on the part of the
very act of predestinating, then Christ's predestination is not the
cause of ours; because by one and the same act God predestinated both
Christ and us. But if we consider predestination on the part of its
term, thus Christ's predestination is the cause of ours: for God, by
predestinating from eternity, so decreed our salvation, that it
should be achieved through Jesus Christ. For eternal predestination
covers not only that which is to be accomplished in time, but also
the mode and order in which it is to be accomplished in time.
Replies Obj. 1 and 2: These arguments consider predestination on the
part of the act of predestinating.
Reply Obj. 3: If Christ were not to have been incarnate, God would
have decreed men's salvation by other means. But since He decreed the
Incarnation of Christ, He decreed at the same time that He should be
the cause of our salvation.
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