Whether It Was Necessary for Christ to Suffer for the Deliverance of
the Human Race?
Objection 1: It would seem that it was not necessary for Christ to
suffer for the deliverance of the human race. For the human race
could not be delivered except by God, according to Isa. 45:21: "Am
not I the Lord, and there is no God else besides Me? A just God and a
Saviour, there is none besides Me." But no necessity can compel God,
for this would be repugnant to His omnipotence. Therefore it was not
necessary for Christ to suffer.
Obj. 2: Further, what is necessary is opposed to what is voluntary.
But Christ suffered of His own will; for it is written (Isa. 53:7):
"He was offered because it was His own will." Therefore it was not
necessary for Him to suffer.
Obj. 3: Further, as is written (Ps. 24:10): "All the ways of the Lord
are mercy and truth." But it does not seem necessary that He should
suffer on the part of the Divine mercy, which, as it bestows gifts
freely, so it appears to condone debts without satisfaction: nor,
again, on the part of Divine justice, according to which man had
deserved everlasting condemnation. Therefore it does not seem
necessary that Christ should have suffered for man's deliverance.
Obj. 4: Further, the angelic nature is more excellent than the human,
as appears from Dionysius (Div. Nom. iv). But Christ did not suffer
to repair the angelic nature which had sinned. Therefore, apparently,
neither was it necessary for Him to suffer for the salvation of the
human race.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (John 3:14): "As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that
whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life
everlasting."
_I answer that,_ As the Philosopher teaches (Metaph. v), there are
several acceptations of the word "necessary." In one way it means
anything which of its nature cannot be otherwise; and in this way it
is evident that it was not necessary either on the part of God or on
the part of man for Christ to suffer. In another sense a thing may be
necessary from some cause quite apart from itself; and should this be
either an efficient or a moving cause then it brings about the
necessity of compulsion; as, for instance, when a man cannot get away
owing to the violence of someone else holding him. But if the
external factor which induces necessity be an end, then it will be
said to be necessary from presupposing such end--namely, when some
particular end cannot exist at all, or not conveniently, except such
end be presupposed. It was not necessary, then, for Christ to suffer
from necessity of compulsion, either on God's part, who ruled that
Christ should suffer, or on Christ's own part, who suffered
voluntarily. Yet it was necessary from necessity of the end proposed;
and this can be accepted in three ways. First of all, on our part,
who have been delivered by His Passion, according to John (3:14):
"The Son of man must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him
may not perish, but may have life everlasting." Secondly, on Christ's
part, who merited the glory of being exalted, through the lowliness
of His Passion: and to this must be referred Luke 24:26: "Ought not
Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His
glory?" Thirdly, on God's part, whose determination regarding the
Passion of Christ, foretold in the Scriptures and prefigured in the
observances of the Old Testament, had to be fulfilled. And this is
what St. Luke says (22:22): "The Son of man indeed goeth, according
to that which is determined"; and (Luke 24:44, 46): "These are the
words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all things
must needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in
the prophets, and in the psalms concerning Me: for it is thus
written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again
from the dead."
Reply Obj. 1: This argument is based on the necessity of compulsion
on God's part.
Reply Obj. 2: This argument rests on the necessity of compulsion on
the part of the man Christ.
Reply Obj. 3: That man should be delivered by Christ's Passion was in
keeping with both His mercy and His justice. With His justice,
because by His Passion Christ made satisfaction for the sin of the
human race; and so man was set free by Christ's justice: and with His
mercy, for since man of himself could not satisfy for the sin of all
human nature, as was said above (Q. 1, A. 2), God gave him His Son to
satisfy for him, according to Rom. 3:24, 25: "Being justified freely
by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood."
And this came of more copious mercy than if He had forgiven sins
without satisfaction. Hence it is said (Eph. 2:4): "God, who is rich
in mercy, for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in Christ."
Reply Obj. 4: The sin of the angels was irreparable; not so the sin
of the first man (I, Q. 64, A. 2).
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