Whether Christ's Passion Brought About Our Salvation Efficiently?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's Passion did not bring about
our salvation efficiently. For the efficient cause of our salvation
is the greatness of the Divine power, according to Isa. 59:1: "Behold
the hand of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot save." But
"Christ was crucified through weakness," as it is written (2 Cor.
13:4). Therefore, Christ's Passion did not bring about our salvation
efficiently.
Obj. 2: Further, no corporeal agency acts efficiently except by
contact: hence even Christ cleansed the leper by touching him "in
order to show that His flesh had saving power," as Chrysostom
[*Theophylact, Enarr. in Luc.] says. But Christ's Passion could not
touch all mankind. Therefore it could not efficiently bring about the
salvation of all men.
Obj. 3: Further, it does not seem to be consistent for the same agent
to operate by way of merit and by way of efficiency, since he who
merits awaits the result from someone else. But it was by way of
merit that Christ's Passion accomplished our salvation. Therefore it
was not by way of efficiency.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (1 Cor. 1:18) that "the word of the
cross to them that are saved . . . is the power of God." But God's
power brings about our salvation efficiently. Therefore Christ's
Passion on the cross accomplished our salvation efficiently.
_I answer that,_ There is a twofold efficient agency--namely, the
principal and the instrumental. Now the principal efficient cause of
man's salvation is God. But since Christ's humanity is the
"instrument of the Godhead," as stated above (Q. 43, A. 2), therefore
all Christ's actions and sufferings operate instrumentally in virtue
of His Godhead for the salvation of men. Consequently, then, Christ's
Passion accomplishes man's salvation efficiently.
Reply Obj. 1: Christ's Passion in relation to His flesh is consistent
with the infirmity which He took upon Himself, but in relation to the
Godhead it draws infinite might from It, according to 1 Cor. 1:25:
"The weakness of God is stronger than men"; because Christ's
weakness, inasmuch as He is God, has a might exceeding all human
power.
Reply Obj. 2: Christ's Passion, although corporeal, has yet a
spiritual effect from the Godhead united: and therefore it secures
its efficacy by spiritual contact--namely, by faith and the
sacraments of faith, as the Apostle says (Rom. 3:25): "Whom God hath
proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood."
Reply Obj. 3: Christ's Passion, according as it is compared with His
Godhead, operates in an efficient manner: but in so far as it is
compared with the will of Christ's soul it acts in a meritorious
manner: considered as being within Christ's very flesh, it acts by
way of satisfaction, inasmuch as we are liberated by it from the debt
of punishment; while inasmuch as we are freed from the servitude of
guilt, it acts by way of redemption: but in so far as we are
reconciled with God it acts by way of sacrifice, as shall be shown
farther on (Q. 49).
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