Whether the Remission of Sins Ought to Be Reckoned Amongst the Things
Required for Justification?
Objection 1: It would seem that the remission of sins ought not to be
reckoned amongst the things required for justification. For the
substance of a thing is not reckoned together with those that are
required for a thing; thus a man is not reckoned together with his
body and soul. But the justification of the ungodly is itself the
remission of sins, as stated above (A. 1). Therefore the remission of
sins ought not to be reckoned among the things required for the
justification of the ungodly.
Obj. 2: Further, infusion of grace and remission of sins are the
same; as illumination and expulsion of darkness are the same. But a
thing ought not to be reckoned together with itself; for unity is
opposed to multitude. Therefore the remission of sins ought not to be
reckoned with the infusion of grace.
Obj. 3: Further, the remission of sin follows as effect from cause,
from the free-will's movement towards God and sin; since it is by
faith and contrition that sin is forgiven. But an effect ought not to
be reckoned with its cause; since things thus enumerated together,
and, as it were, condivided, are by nature simultaneous. Hence the
remission of sins ought not to be reckoned with the things required
for the justification of the ungodly.
_On the contrary,_ In reckoning what is required for a thing we ought
not to pass over the end, which is the chief part of everything. Now
the remission of sins is the end of the justification of the ungodly;
for it is written (Isa. 27:9): "This is all the fruit, that the sin
thereof should be taken away." Hence the remission of sins ought to
be reckoned amongst the things required for justification.
_I answer that,_ There are four things which are accounted to be
necessary for the justification of the ungodly, viz. the infusion of
grace, the movement of the free-will towards God by faith, the
movement of the free-will towards sin, and the remission of sins. The
reason for this is that, as stated above (A. 1), the
justification of the ungodly is a movement whereby the soul is moved
by God from a state of sin to a state of justice. Now in the movement
whereby one thing is moved by another, three things are required:
first, the motion of the mover; secondly, the movement of the moved;
thirdly, the consummation of the movement, or the attainment of the
end. On the part of the Divine motion, there is the infusion of grace;
on the part of the free-will which is moved, there are two
movements--of departure from the term _whence,_ and of approach to
the term _whereto_; but the consummation of the movement or the
attainment of the end of the movement is implied in the remission of
sins; for in this is the justification of the ungodly completed.
Reply Obj. 1: The justification of the ungodly is called the
remission of sins, even as every movement has its species from its
term. Nevertheless, many other things are required in order to reach
the term, as stated above (A. 5).
Reply Obj. 2: The infusion of grace and the remission of sin
may be considered in two ways: first, with respect to the substance of
the act, and thus they are the same; for by the same act God bestows
grace and remits sin. Secondly, they may be considered on the part of
the objects; and thus they differ by the difference between guilt,
which is taken away, and grace, which is infused; just as in natural
things generation and corruption differ, although the generation of
one thing is the corruption of another.
Reply Obj. 3: This enumeration is not the division of a genus
into its species, in which the things enumerated must be simultaneous;
but it is division of the things required for the completion of
anything; and in this enumeration we may have what precedes and what
follows, since some of the principles and parts of a composite thing
may precede and some follow.
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