Whether We Were Reconciled to God Through Christ's Passion?
Objection 1: It would seem that we were not reconciled to God through
Christ's Passion. For there is no need of reconciliation between
friends. But God always loved us, according to Wis. 11:25: "Thou
lovest all the things that are, and hatest none of the things which
Thou hast made." Therefore Christ's Passion did not reconcile us to
God.
Obj. 2: Further, the same thing cannot be cause and effect: hence
grace, which is the cause of meriting, does not come under merit. But
God's love is the cause of Christ's Passion, according to John 3:16:
"God so loved the world, as to give His only-begotten Son." It does
not appear, then, that we were reconciled to God through Christ's
Passion, so that He began to love us anew.
Obj. 3: Further, Christ's Passion was completed by men slaying Him;
and thereby they offended God grievously. Therefore Christ's Passion
is rather the cause of wrath than of reconciliation to God.
_On the contrary,_ The Apostle says (Rom. 5:10): "We are reconciled
to God by the death of His Son."
_I answer that,_ Christ's Passion is in two ways the cause of our
reconciliation to God. In the first way, inasmuch as it takes away
sin by which men became God's enemies, according to Wis. 14:9: "To
God the wicked and his wickedness are hateful alike"; and Ps. 5:7:
"Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity." In another way, inasmuch
as it is a most acceptable sacrifice to God. Now it is the proper
effect of sacrifice to appease God: just as man likewise overlooks an
offense committed against him on account of some pleasing act of
homage shown him. Hence it is written (1 Kings 26:19): "If the Lord
stir thee up against me, let Him accept of sacrifice." And in like
fashion Christ's voluntary suffering was such a good act that,
because of its being found in human nature, God was appeased for
every offense of the human race with regard to those who are made one
with the crucified Christ in the aforesaid manner (A. 1, ad 4).
Reply Obj. 1: God loves all men as to their nature, which He Himself
made; yet He hates them with respect to the crimes they commit
against Him, according to Ecclus. 12:3: "The Highest hateth sinners."
Reply Obj. 2: Christ is not said to have reconciled us with God, as
if God had begun anew to love us, since it is written (Jer. 31:3): "I
have loved thee with an everlasting love"; but because the source of
hatred was taken away by Christ's Passion, both through sin being
washed away and through compensation being made in the shape of a
more pleasing offering.
Reply Obj. 3: As Christ's slayers were men, so also was the Christ
slain. Now the charity of the suffering Christ surpassed the
wickedness of His slayers. Accordingly Christ's Passion prevailed
more in reconciling God to the whole human race than in provoking Him
to wrath.
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