Whether Christ Died Out of Obedience?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ did not die out of obedience.
For obedience is referred to a command. But we do not read that
Christ was commanded to suffer. Therefore He did not suffer out of
obedience.
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 Passion 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 God: hence it is written (Rom. 5:10): "We are
reconciled to God by the death of His Son," in so far as Christ's
death was a most acceptable sacrifice to God, according to Eph. 5:2:
"He delivered Himself for us an oblation and a sacrifice to God 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 Passion 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 God,
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 Passion: 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 Passion 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 Passion 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
God'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 Passion and death, considered in themselves, were
repugnant to the natural will, yet Christ resolved to fulfill God's
will with respect to the same, according to Ps. 39:9: "That I should
do Thy will: O my God, I have desired it." Hence He said (Matt.
26:42): "If this chalice may not pass 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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