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State of the question. The difficulty here is that the nature of free
will is to be indifferent in its choice. But Christ's will was
determined to be good, because He could not sin. Therefore it seems
that there was not free will in Christ.
Reply. There was free will in Christ. This conclusion is of
faith, just as it is of faith that Christ obeyed His Father and
merited for us; for merit presupposes freedom not only from
compulsion, but also from necessity.
Theological proof. The argument has its foundation in the previous
article. Since there was in Christ not only the will as nature, but
also the will as reason, we must say that He could choose, and
consequently had free will, whose act is choice.
However, there was no doubt in Christ's deliberative judgment as to
what must be chosen, because He had perfect knowledge of things.
Reply to third objection. St. Thomas answers the objection taken
from Christ's impeccability by saying: "The will of Christ,
though determined to good, is not determined to this or that good."
Thus He was free to choose Peter in preference to John, as His
vicar. "Hence it pertains to Christ, even as to the blessed, to
choose with a free will confirmed in good." Thus God Himself cannot
will evil, but most freely chooses this created good in preference to
some other, this passible world in preference to some other.
In the above-quoted text, St. Thomas solves, indeed, the
difficult problem of the compatibility of Christ's impeccability with
His freedom. The words of the text were ever of penetrating clarity
to him because he saw clearly that, just as God Himself is both
impeccable and absolutely free, so also in due proportion is Christ as
man, and it was a profound utterance when he said, "that it pertains
to Christ, even as to the blessed, to choose with a free will
confirmed in good, " who remain free, not only in loving God clearly
seen, but also concerning the possibility of choice as regards
particular goods, and yet there is no fear of their changing their
mind.
Nevertheless afterward, as the history of theology shows, this
problem was very much disputed, especially concerning Christ's
freedom as regards the commands of His Father, which He was not free
to disobey. Therefore this question must be given special
consideration so as to make it clear how Christ's will was free,
though confirmed in good.
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