ARTICLE I

The Question Is about the Grace of Christ, and in the First Article We Ask: IS THERE CREATED GRACE IN CHRIST?

Difficulties:

It seems that there is not, for

1. By created grace a man is said to be an adopted son of God. But according to the saints Christ was not an adopted son. He therefore did not have created grace.

2. Where there is a union of one thing with another through its essence, there is no need of union through a likeness. Thus for knowledge there is required a union of the knower with the thing known; and yet when things are in the soul through their essence, in order to be known they do not need to be in the soul through a likeness. But God is really united to the soul of Christ by His essence in the unity of the person. There is consequently no need of His being united to it through grace, that is, through a likeness.

3. We do not need grace for actions which we can perform by our natural powers. But Christ was able to attain glory by His natural powers; for He is the natural Son, and if the Son, then the heir also. Now since grace is imparted to minds for the purpose of attaining glory, it therefore seems that Christ had no need of created grace.

4. A subject can be understood without an accident. But if grace was in Christ, it was an accident. Christ can therefore be understood without grace; and when He is so understood, either eternal life is due Him or not. If it is, then grace will be added to no purpose. If not, since eternal life is due to adopted sons because they are sons, it seems that adoptive sonship is worth more than natural sonship. But that is untenable.

5. Whatever is good by its essence does not need participated goodness. But Christ is good by His essence, because He is true God. He therefore does not need grace, which is a participated goodness.

6. Uncreated goodness surpasses the goodness of grace more than the light of the sun surpasses that of a candle. But since uncreated goodness was in Christ through the union, it therefore seems that He did not need grace.

7. The union of the divinity to Christ is either sufficient for Him or not. If it is not, the union in question will be imperfect; but if it is sufficient, the addition of grace would be superfluous. Now nothing superfluous is found in God's works. Christ therefore did not have created grace.

8. One who knows something with a nobler kind of knowledge, such as that had through a demonstrative medium, does not need to know the same thing with a less noble kind of knowledge, as through a probable medium. But Christ was good with the noblest goodness, which is uncreated goodness. He therefore did not need to be good by a less noble sort of goodness, namely, created goodness.

9. An instrument does not need a habit for its operation, especially if the agent whose instrument it is has perfect power. But the humanity of Christ is a kind of "instrument of the divinity" which is united to it, as Damascene says. Since the divine power is most perfect, it seems that the humanity of Christ did not need grace.

10. It is not necessary for anything to be added to one who has the fullness of all goodness. But Christ's soul had the fullness of all goodness because the Word, the treasure-house of all goodness, was united to it. It was therefore not necessary for the goodness of grace to be added to it.

11. That by which something is made better is nobler than the thing itself. But no creature is nobler than the soul united to the Word. Then Christ's soul cannot be made better by any created grace; and so created grace would be useless in it.

12. The image of God in us is twofold, as is gathered from the Gloss in its comment upon the words of the Psalm (4:7): "The light of thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us." One is that of creation, which consists in the mind considered as one essence with three powers. The other is that of re-creation, viewed from the standpoint of the light of grace. Now either the image of grace is more like God than the image of Christ's mind, or not. If it is more like God, then grace is a nobler creature than Christ's soul. If it is not more like God, then by its means the mind of Christ would not come any closer to conformity with God--which is the purpose for which grace is infused into the mind. Grace would therefore be held to be in the soul of Christ in vain.

13. If effects are incompatible, they will have incompatible causes. Just as the unifying and the breaking up of a field of vision, for instance, are mutually incompatible, so also are white and black. But natural sonship, whose principle is eternal birth, is incompatible with adoptive sonship, whose principle is the infusion of grace. Then infused grace is also incompatible with eternal birth; and since eternal birth applies to Christ, it therefore seems that He did not have infused grace.

To the Contrary:

1'. It is written in John (1:14): "We saw . . . [Him] full of grace and truth." But in Christ there was created knowledge, to which truth refers. Then there was also created grace.

2'. Merit requires grace. But Christ merited for Himself and us, as the saints say. Christ therefore had created grace, for it is not attributable to the Creator to merit.

3'. Christ was at the same time a wayfarer and a possessor. But the perfection of a wayfarer is created grace. Christ therefore had created grace.

4'. No perfection found in other souls was missing from Christ's, since it is the most perfect of all. But the souls of saints have not only the perfection of nature but also that of grace. Both kinds of perfection were therefore found in Christ.

5'. The relation of grace to the wayfarer is the same as that of glory to the possessor. But in Christ, who was both wayfarer and possessor, there was created glory, because He enjoyed the divinity by a created act. Consequently there was created grace in Him.

REPLY:

It is necessary to hold that there was created grace in Christ. The reason for this necessity can be gathered from the two different kinds of union with God which a soul can have: one consequent upon existence within a single person, which belongs uniquely to the soul of Christ; and another consequent upon an operation, which is common to all who know and love God.

The first kind of union is not sufficient for beatitude without the second, because not even God Himself would be blessed if He did not know and love Himself; for He would not take pleasure in Himself, as is required for beatitude. For the soul of Christ to be blessed, then, it requires besides its personal union with the Word also a union through its operation, that it may see God by His essence and, seeing Him, rejoice. Now this surpasses the natural ability of any creature and is proper to God alone according to His own nature. Something must therefore be added to the nature of Christ's soul by which it is ordained to the beatitude in question. We call this grace. It is therefore necessary to hold that there was created grace in Christ's soul.

This shows the inanity of a certain opinion which affirmed that the higher part of Christ's soul did not have habitual grace but was united immediately to the Word and from this union grace flowed into the lower powers. For if it refers to personal union, then not only the higher part of Christ's soul but the whole soul is united to the Word. But if it refers to union by operation, then habitual grace is required for this kind of union, as has been said.

Answers to Difficulties:

1. Attributes of such a kind as to belong to a person by reason of personality itself cannot be predicated of Christ if they are incompatible with the properties of an eternal person, which is the only kind of person in Him. An example would be the name creature. But things which belong to a person only by reason of his nature or a part of his nature can be predicated of Christ, even though they imply some incompatibility with an eternal person. This is because of the duality of natures. Examples would be to suffer, to die, and the like. Now sonship refers primarily to the person, whereas grace refers to the person only by reason of the mind, which is a part of the nature. Thus adoptive sonship by no means applies to Christ, though having grace does.

2. That argument is valid when union by essence and union by likeness are ordained to the same end. But that is not true in the matter at hand. The real union of the divinity with Christ's soul is ordained to personal unity, whereas the union by the likeness of grace is ordained to the enjoyment of beatitude.

3. Beatitude is natural to Christ according to His divine nature, but not according to His human nature. For this reason He has need of grace.

4. Should it be asserted that Christ's soul did not have grace, then uncreated beatitude will belong to Christ inasmuch as He is the natural Son, but not the created beatitude which is due to adopted sons.

5. Christ is good by His essence in His divine nature but not in His human nature. It is with reference to the latter that He needs the participation of grace.

6. The light of the sun and of a candle are ordained to the same end, but not the union of the divinity to the soul of Christ by nature and that by grace. Thus there is no parallel.

7. The union of the divinity with Christ's soul is sufficient for its purpose. It does not follow, however, that the union of grace is superfluous, because it is ordained to something else.

8. Both the nobler and the less noble knowledge are ordained to the same end, the cognition of a thing. But that is not the case in the question at issue. Hence the conclusion does not follow.

9. An instrument can be of either of two kinds: one inanimate, which is acted upon and does not act, such as an ax, and such an instrument does not need a habit; the other animate, as a slave, which acts and is acted upon, and this kind needs a habit. Christ's humanity is the latter kind of instrument of the divinity.

10. The fullness of all goodness was, by reason of its personal union with the Word, united to Christ's soul, not formally but personally. For this reason it needed to be informed by grace.

11. No creature is better, simply speaking, than the soul united personally to the Word; but if we speak in a qualified way, nothing prevents it. Color was nobler than His body in a certain respect, namely, as being its act. In the same way Christ's grace is better than His soul inasmuch as it is its perfection.

12. Grace is more like God in a certain respect, inasmuch as it is related to Christ's soul as act to potency. From this point of view Christ's soul was conformed to God through grace. But in other respects His mind itself is more like God, that is, from the standpoint of natural properties, in which it imitates God.

13. This is to be answered in the same way as the first difficulty.