Whether Christ Was the Cause of His Own Resurrection?
Objection 1: It seems that Christ was not the cause of His own
Resurrection. For whoever is raised up by another is not the cause of
his own rising. But Christ was raised up by another, according to
Acts 2:24: "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the sorrows of
hell": and Rom. 8:11: "He that raised up Jesus Christ from the dead,
shall quicken also your mortal bodies." Therefore Christ is not the
cause of His own Resurrection.
Obj. 2: Further, no one is said to merit, or ask from another, that
of which he is himself the cause. But Christ by His Passion merited
the Resurrection, as Augustine says (Tract. civ in Joan.): "The
lowliness of the Passion is the meritorious cause of the glory of the
Resurrection." Moreover He asked the Father that He might be raised
up again, according to Ps. 40:11: "But thou, O Lord, have mercy on
me, and raise me up again." Therefore He was not the cause of His
rising again.
Obj. 3: Further, as Damascene proves (De Fide Orth. iv), it is not
the soul that rises again, but the body, which is stricken by death.
But the body could not unite the soul with itself, since the soul is
nobler. Therefore what rose in Christ could not be the cause of His
Resurrection.
_On the contrary,_ Our Lord says (John 10:18): "No one taketh My soul
from Me, but I lay it down, and I take it up again." But to rise is
nothing else than to take the soul up again. Consequently, it appears
that Christ rose again of His own power.
_I answer that,_ As stated above (Q. 50, AA. 2, 3) in consequence of
death Christ's Godhead was not separated from His soul, nor from His
flesh. Consequently, both the soul and the flesh of the dead Christ
can be considered in two respects: first, in respect of His Godhead;
secondly, in respect of His created nature. Therefore, according to
the virtue of the Godhead united to it, the body took back again the
soul which it had laid aside, and the soul took back again the body
which it had abandoned: and thus Christ rose by His own power. And
this is precisely what is written (2 Cor. 13:4): "For although He was
crucified through" our "weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God."
But if we consider the body and soul of the dead Christ according to
the power of created nature, they could not thus be reunited, but it
was necessary for Christ to be raised up by God.
Reply Obj. 1: The Divine power is the same thing as the operation of
the Father and the Son; accordingly these two things are mutually
consequent, that Christ was raised up by the Divine power of the
Father, and by His own power.
Reply Obj. 2: Christ by praying besought and merited His
Resurrection, as man and not as God.
Reply Obj. 3: According to its created nature Christ's body is not
more powerful than His soul; yet according to its Divine power it is
more powerful. Again the soul by reason of the Godhead united to it
is more powerful than the body in respect of its created nature.
Consequently, it was by the Divine power that the body and soul
mutually resumed each other, but not by the power of their created
nature.
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