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Objection 1: It would seem unfitting that Christ should be
predestinated. For the term of anyone's predestination seems to be
the adoption of sons, according to Eph. 1:5: "Who hath
predestinated us unto the adoption of children." But it is not
befitting to Christ to be an adopted Son, as stated above (Question
23, Article 4). Therefore it is not fitting that Christ be
predestinated.
Objection 2: Further, we may consider two things in Christ: His
human nature and His person. But it cannot be said that Christ is
predestinated by reason of His human nature; for this proposition is
false---"The human nature is Son of God." In like manner
neither by reason of the person; for this person is the Son of God,
not by grace, but by nature: whereas predestination regards what is of
grace, as stated in the FP, Question 23, Articles 2,5.
Therefore Christ was not predestinated to be the Son of God.
Objection 3: Further, just as that which has been made was not
always, so also that which was predestinated; since predestination
implies a certain antecedence. But, because Christ was always God
and the Son of God, it cannot be said that that Man was "made the
Son of God." Therefore, for a like reason, we ought not to say
that Christ was "predestinated the Son of God."
On the contrary, The Apostle says, speaking of Christ (Rm.
1:4): "Who was predestinated the Son of God in power."
I answer that, As is clear from what has been said in the FP,
Question 23, Articles 1,2, predestination, in its proper
sense, is a certain Divine preordination from eternity of those things
which are to be done in time by the grace of God. Now, that man is
God, and that God is man, is something done in time by God through
the grace of union. Nor can it be said that God has not from eternity
pre-ordained to do this in time: since it would follow that something
would come anew into the Divine Mind. And we must needs admit that
the union itself of natures in the Person of Christ falls under the
eternal predestination of God. For this reason do we say that Christ
was predestinated.
Reply to Objection 1: The Apostle there speaks of that
predestination by which we are predestinated to be adopted sons. And
just as Christ in a singular manner above all others is the natural
Son of God, so in a singular manner is He predestinated.
Reply to Objection 2: As a gloss [St. Augustine, De Praed.
Sanct. xv] says on Rm. 1:4, some understood that predestination
to refer to the nature and not to the Person---that is to say, that
on human nature was bestowed the grace of being united to the Son of
God in unity of Person.
But in that case the phrase of the Apostle would be improper, for two
reasons. First, for a general reason: for we do not speak of a
person's nature, but of his person, as being predestinated: because
to be predestinated is to be directed towards salvation, which belongs
to a suppositum acting for the end of beatitude. Secondly, for a
special reason. Because to be Son of God is not befitting to human
nature; for this proposition is false: "The human nature is the Son
of God": unless one were to force from it such an exposition as:
"Who was predestinated the Son of God in power"---that is,
"It was predestinated that the Human nature should be united to the
Son of God in the Person."
Hence we must attribute predestination to the Person of Christ:
not, indeed, in Himself or as subsisting in the Divine Nature, but
as subsisting in the human nature. Wherefore the Apostle, after
saying, "Who was made to Him of the seed of David according to the
flesh," added, "Who was predestinated the Son of God in power":
so as to give us to understand that in respect of His being of the seed
of David according to the flesh, He was predestinated the Son of
God in power. For although it is natural to that Person, considered
in Himself, to be the Son of God in power, yet this is not natural
to Him, considered in the human nature, in respect of which this
befits Him according to the grace of union.
Reply to Objection 3: Origen commenting on Rm. 1:4 says that
the true reading of this passage of the Apostle is: "Who was
destined to be the Son of God in power"; so that no antecedence is
implied. And so there would be no difficulty. Others refer the
antecedence implied in the participle "predestinated," not to the
fact of being the Son of God, but to the manifestation thereof,
according to the customary way of speaking in Holy Scripture, by
which things are said to take place when they are made known; so that
the sense would be---"Christ was predestinated to be made known as
the Son of God." But this is an improper signification of
predestination. For a person is properly said to be predestinated by
reason of his being directed to the end of beatitude: but the beatitude
of Christ does not depend on our knowledge thereof.
It is therefore better to say that the antecedence implied in the
participle "predestinated" is to be referred to the Person not in
Himself, but by reason of the human nature: since, although that
Person was the Son of God from eternity, it was not always true that
one subsisting in human nature was the Son of God. Hence Augustine
says (De Praedest. Sanct. xv): "Jesus was predestinated, so
that He Who according to the flesh was to be the son of David,
should be nevertheless Son of God in power."
Moreover, it must be observed that, although the participle
"predestinated," just as this participle "made," implies
antecedence, yet there is a difference. For "to be made" belongs to
the thing in itself: whereas "to be predestinated" belongs to someone
as being in the apprehension of one who pre-ordains. Now that which
is the subject of a form or nature in reality, can be apprehended
either as under that form or absolutely. And since it cannot be said
absolutely of the Person of Christ that He began to be the Son of
God, yet this is becoming to Him as understood or apprehended to
exist in human nature, because at one time it began to be true that one
existing in human nature was the Son of God; therefore this
proposition---"Christ was predestinated the Son of God"---is
truer than this---"Christ was made the Son of God."
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