Sect. 207Effects of Christ’s Satisfaction on MankindEffects of Christ’s Satisfaction on Mankind
I. The object or fruit of Christ’s atonement is the freeing of mankind from sin and its consequences, and the imparting of all the supernatural graces necessary to man’s salvation. The work of the Redeemer won back for us the essential prerogative of the state of original justice, i.e. sanctifying grace (Rom. 5:12 sqq.). Restoration of the minor prerogatives will take place at the resurrection. In the meanwhile, by a wise dispensation Christ has ordained that His followers should sanctify themselves by bearing the ills of life as He bore them (Council of Trent, sess. v. can. 5).
II. Christ’s saving work did not at once blot out every individual sin, and transform every sinner into a saint: it only procured the means thereto. The death on the Cross propitiated God, broke the power of the devil, and founded the kingdom of grace; but the reconciliation to God and the sanctification of the individual are effected by special acts, partly Divine, partly human. This is plainly implied in the language of Scripture speaking of a Redemption already accomplished, and of a Redemption still to come. Natural generation makes us participators of the sin of Adam, because it makes us members of a family spiritually ruined, the head of which has no power over the consequences of his act; it does not make us participators of the grace of Christ, because Christ has not willed that it should. To become members of His kingdom it is indeed necessary to be born of man; but this is not sufficient. Admission under the Headship of Christ—i.e. participation in His redeeming work—depends on His will, and is regulated by laws of a freely established supernatural order. Man “puts on” Christ, is incorporated into Christ, by his acts of faith and charity divinely inspired, or by the reception of sacraments divinely instituted, for that purpose. The fact that we must “draw nigh to Christ” (Heb. 7:19) to become His, accounts for the applicability of His merits to those who lived before the Redemption: they approached Him by faith in the coming of “the Lamb that was slain from the beginning of the world” (Apoc. 13:8).
III. As the salvation of individuals depends on conditions which many do not fulfil, a question arises as to the extent of Christ’s saving will. On this point the Church teaches that He intended the salvation of all sinful mankind living on earth, without any exception whatever. Those, however, who die in mortal sin, and of course the fallen angels, reap no actual benefit from the Redemption.
1. It is defined that Christ offered His death for the salvation of those who are joined to Him by faith or baptism, and it is a condemned heresy to say that He died only for the predestinated (Pope Innocent X.’s condemnation of the five propositions of Jansenius). Similar definitions were given against the Predestinarians of the fifth and ninth centuries, and the doctrine is already contained in the Nicene Creed: “Who for us and for our salvation descended from heaven” (cf. John 3:14–18; 6:37–40; Rom. 8:31, etc.). Infra, p. 239.
2. Although not expressly defined by the Church, it is yet of faith—because clearly contained in Scripture, and taught by the Fathers—that Christ died not only for such as actually come to the faith, but for all men without exception, so that at least a distant possibility of salvation is given to all. Further, the Fathers and theologians teach, as fidei proximum, that, as regards adults, this possibility of salvation is such that its non-realization is due solely to their own fault. As regards those who die before attaining the use of reason, God’s will to save them must also be considered sincere; i.e. the common means of salvation are also intended for them, and God wishes and commands that they should be used. Just as the Divine intention of saving adults is not to be deemed devoid of sincerity because God does not remove the obstacles which through their own fault men put in His way, in like manner the Divine will to save infants must not be thought insincere because God does not remove by miraculous interference the natural obstacles to their salvation. Scripture abounds in texts implying the universality of Christ’s saving will: “He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (περὶ ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου)” (1 John 2:2). The classical text is 1 Tim. 2:1–4: “… God our Saviour, Who will have all men (πάντας ἀνθρώπους) to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
IV. Jansenists and Protestants often accuse Catholics of Semi-Pelagianism on account of the above doctrine. The Semi-Pelagians taught: (a) That God (and Christ) grant the means of Salvation only to such as, on their own account, and previous to any Divine motion, desire to be saved. (b) That the Divine will to save is entirely circumscribed and ruled by the independent behaviour of man: it succeeds or fails according to acts of the human will not coming from God. (c) Hence the Divine will to save all men is absolute, God doing all that is necessary to save every individual: failure is due solely to insuperable resistance on the part of man.
The Catholic doctrine is, and always has been, totally different. (a) God’s saving will is not subordinate to any independent act of man’s will: He is the first mover in the process of salvation. (b) God freely regulates the motions of the human will, assisting it to co-operate with His grace, or permitting it to resist. (c) The will to save all men is not absolute on the part of God, i.e. God does not use all His power to save man, but freely allows obstacles to salvation to remain, although He could overcome them.
V. Another article of faith is that any sin, however great, if duly repented of before death, can be forgiven by the merits of Christ. This is a necessary consequence of the universality of God’s saving will. There are, however, certain sins which, by their own nature, make repentance very difficult, and even impossible, e.g. unbelief in the means of grace, final impenitence, etc. “The blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven” (Matt. 12:31), not on account of God’s unwillingness, but on account of the nature of the sin which consists in an obstinate resistance to the Light and Grace of God.
VI. The redeeming work of Christ is of no benefit to the devils (defined against Origen in the Second Council of Constantinople, can. 7, 12).
I. The object or fruit of Christ’s atonement is the freeing of mankind from sin and its consequences, and the imparting of all the supernatural graces necessary to man’s salvation. The work of the Redeemer won back for us the essential prerogative of the state of original justice, i.e. sanctifying grace (Rom. 5:12 sqq.). Restoration of the minor prerogatives will take place at the resurrection. In the meanwhile, by a wise dispensation Christ has ordained that His followers should sanctify themselves by bearing the ills of life as He bore them (Council of Trent, sess. v. can. 5).
II. Christ’s saving work did not at once blot out every individual sin, and transform every sinner into a saint: it only procured the means thereto. The death on the Cross propitiated God, broke the power of the devil, and founded the kingdom of grace; but the reconciliation to God and the sanctification of the individual are effected by special acts, partly Divine, partly human. This is plainly implied in the language of Scripture speaking of a Redemption already accomplished, and of a Redemption still to come. Natural generation makes us participators of the sin of Adam, because it makes us members of a family spiritually ruined, the head of which has no power over the consequences of his act; it does not make us participators of the grace of Christ, because Christ has not willed that it should. To become members of His kingdom it is indeed necessary to be born of man; but this is not sufficient. Admission under the Headship of Christ—i.e. participation in His redeeming work—depends on His will, and is regulated by laws of a freely established supernatural order. Man “puts on” Christ, is incorporated into Christ, by his acts of faith and charity divinely inspired, or by the reception of sacraments divinely instituted, for that purpose. The fact that we must “draw nigh to Christ” (Heb. 7:19) to become His, accounts for the applicability of His merits to those who lived before the Redemption: they approached Him by faith in the coming of “the Lamb that was slain from the beginning of the world” (Apoc. 13:8).
III. As the salvation of individuals depends on conditions which many do not fulfil, a question arises as to the extent of Christ’s saving will. On this point the Church teaches that He intended the salvation of all sinful mankind living on earth, without any exception whatever. Those, however, who die in mortal sin, and of course the fallen angels, reap no actual benefit from the Redemption.
1. It is defined that Christ offered His death for the salvation of those who are joined to Him by faith or baptism, and it is a condemned heresy to say that He died only for the predestinated (Pope Innocent X.’s condemnation of the five propositions of Jansenius). Similar definitions were given against the Predestinarians of the fifth and ninth centuries, and the doctrine is already contained in the Nicene Creed: “Who for us and for our salvation descended from heaven” (cf. John 3:14–18; 6:37–40; Rom. 8:31, etc.). Infra, p. 239.
2. Although not expressly defined by the Church, it is yet of faith—because clearly contained in Scripture, and taught by the Fathers—that Christ died not only for such as actually come to the faith, but for all men without exception, so that at least a distant possibility of salvation is given to all. Further, the Fathers and theologians teach, as fidei proximum, that, as regards adults, this possibility of salvation is such that its non-realization is due solely to their own fault. As regards those who die before attaining the use of reason, God’s will to save them must also be considered sincere; i.e. the common means of salvation are also intended for them, and God wishes and commands that they should be used. Just as the Divine intention of saving adults is not to be deemed devoid of sincerity because God does not remove the obstacles which through their own fault men put in His way, in like manner the Divine will to save infants must not be thought insincere because God does not remove by miraculous interference the natural obstacles to their salvation. Scripture abounds in texts implying the universality of Christ’s saving will: “He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (περὶ ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου)” (1 John 2:2). The classical text is 1 Tim. 2:1–4: “… God our Saviour, Who will have all men (πάντας ἀνθρώπους) to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
IV. Jansenists and Protestants often accuse Catholics of Semi-Pelagianism on account of the above doctrine. The Semi-Pelagians taught: (a) That God (and Christ) grant the means of Salvation only to such as, on their own account, and previous to any Divine motion, desire to be saved. (b) That the Divine will to save is entirely circumscribed and ruled by the independent behaviour of man: it succeeds or fails according to acts of the human will not coming from God. (c) Hence the Divine will to save all men is absolute, God doing all that is necessary to save every individual: failure is due solely to insuperable resistance on the part of man.
The Catholic doctrine is, and always has been, totally different. (a) God’s saving will is not subordinate to any independent act of man’s will: He is the first mover in the process of salvation. (b) God freely regulates the motions of the human will, assisting it to co-operate with His grace, or permitting it to resist. (c) The will to save all men is not absolute on the part of God, i.e. God does not use all His power to save man, but freely allows obstacles to salvation to remain, although He could overcome them.
V. Another article of faith is that any sin, however great, if duly repented of before death, can be forgiven by the merits of Christ. This is a necessary consequence of the universality of God’s saving will. There are, however, certain sins which, by their own nature, make repentance very difficult, and even impossible, e.g. unbelief in the means of grace, final impenitence, etc. “The blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven” (Matt. 12:31), not on account of God’s unwillingness, but on account of the nature of the sin which consists in an obstinate resistance to the Light and Grace of God.
VI. The redeeming work of Christ is of no benefit to the devils (defined against Origen in the Second Council of Constantinople, can. 7, 12).
Seção 70% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.