Whether Christ's Death Conduced in Any Way to Our Salvation?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's death did not conduce in any
way to our salvation. For death is a sort of privation, since it is
the privation of life. But privation has not any power of activity,
because it is nothing positive. Therefore it could not work anything
for our salvation.
Obj. 2: Further, Christ's Passion wrought our salvation by way of
merit. But Christ's death could not operate in this way, because in
death the body is separated from the soul, which is the principle of
meriting. Consequently, Christ's death did not accomplish anything
towards our salvation.
Obj. 3: Further, what is corporeal is not the cause of what is
spiritual. But Christ's death was corporeal. Therefore it could not
be the cause of our salvation, which is something spiritual.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Trin. iv): "The one death of
our Saviour," namely, that of the body, "saved us from our two
deaths," that is, of the soul and the body.
_I answer that,_ We may speak of Christ's death in two ways, "in
becoming" and "in fact." Death is said to be "in becoming" when
anyone from natural or enforced suffering is tending towards death:
and in this way it is the same thing to speak of Christ's death as of
His Passion: so that in this sense Christ's death is the cause of our
salvation, according to what has been already said of the Passion (Q.
48). But death is considered in fact, inasmuch as the separation of
soul and body has already taken place: and it is in this sense that
we are now speaking of Christ's death. In this way Christ's death
cannot be the cause of our salvation by way of merit, but only by way
of causality, that is to say, inasmuch as the Godhead was not
separated from Christ's flesh by death; and therefore, whatever
befell Christ's flesh, even when the soul was departed, was conducive
to salvation in virtue of the Godhead united. But the effect of any
cause is properly estimated according to its resemblance to the
cause. Consequently, since death is a kind of privation of one's own
life, the effect of Christ's death is considered in relation to the
removal of the obstacles to our salvation: and these are the death of
the soul and of the body. Hence Christ's death is said to have
destroyed in us both the death of the soul, caused by sin, according
to Rom. 4:25: "He was delivered up [namely unto death] for our sins":
and the death of the body, consisting in the separation of the soul,
according to 1 Cor. 15:54: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
Reply Obj. 1: Christ's death wrought our salvation from the power of
the Godhead united, and not considered merely as His death.
Reply Obj. 2: Though Christ's death, considered "in fact" did not
effect our salvation by way of merit, yet it did so by way of
causality, as stated above.
Reply Obj. 3: Christ's death was indeed corporeal; but the body was
the instrument of the Godhead united to Him, working by Its power,
although dead.
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