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Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's Passion did not effect
our salvation by way of redemption. For no one purchases or redeems
what never ceased to belong to him. But men never ceased to belong to
God according to Ps. 23:1: "The earth is the Lord's and the
fulness thereof: the world and all they that dwell therein."
Therefore it seems that Christ did not redeem us by His Passion.
Objection 2: Further, as Augustine says (De Trin. xiii):
"The devil had to be overthrown by Christ's justice." But justice
requires that the man who has treacherously seized another's property
shall be deprived of it, because deceit and cunning should not benefit
anyone, as even human laws declare. Consequently, since the devil by
treachery deceived and subjugated to himself man, who is God's
creature, it seems that man ought not to be rescued from his power by
way of redemption.
Objection 3: Further, whoever buys or redeems an object pays the
price to the holder. But it was not to the devil, who held us in
bondage, that Christ paid His blood as the price of our redemption.
Therefore Christ did not redeem us by His Passion.
On the contrary, It is written (1 Pt. 1:18): "You were
not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver from your vain
conversation of the tradition of your fathers: but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled." And
(Gal. 3:13): "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the
law, being made a curse for us." Now He is said to be a curse for
us inasmuch as He suffered upon the tree, as stated above (Question
46, Article 4). Therefore He did redeem us by His Passion.
I answer that, Man was held captive on account of sin in two ways:
first of all, by the bondage of sin, because (Jn. 8:34):
"Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin"; and (2 Pt.
2:19): "By whom a man is overcome, of the same also he is the
slave." Since, then, the devil had overcome man by inducing him to
sin, man was subject to the devil's bondage. Secondly, as to the
debt of punishment, to the payment of which man was held fast by
God's justice: and this, too, is a kind of bondage, since it
savors of bondage for a man to suffer what he does not wish, just as it
is the free man's condition to apply himself to what he wills.
Since, then, Christ's Passion was a sufficient and a superabundant
atonement for the sin and the debt of the human race, it was as a price
at the cost of which we were freed from both obligations. For the
atonement by which one satisfies for self or another is called the
price, by which he ransoms himself or someone else from sin and its
penalty, according to Dan. 4:24: "Redeem thou thy sins with
alms." Now Christ made satisfaction, not by giving money or
anything of the sort, but by bestowing what was of greatest
price---Himself---for us. And therefore Christ's Passion is
called our redemption.
Reply to Objection 1: Man is said to belong to God in two ways.
First of all, in so far as he comes under God's power: in which way
he never ceased to belong to God; according to Dan. 4:22:
"The Most High ruleth over the kingdom of men, and giveth it to
whomsoever he will." Secondly, by being united to Him in charity,
according to Rm. 8:9: "If any man have not the Spirit of
Christ, he is none of His." In the first way, then, man never
ceased to belong to God, but in the second way he did cease because of
sin. And therefore in so far as he was delivered from sin by the
satisfaction of Christ's Passion, he is said to be redeemed by the
Passion of Christ.
Reply to Objection 2: Man by sinning became the bondsman both of
God and of the devil. Through guilt he had offended God, and put
himself under the devil by consenting to him; consequently he did not
become God's servant on account of his guilt, but rather, by
withdrawing from God's service, he, by God's just permission,
fell under the devil's servitude on account of the offense
perpetrated. But as to the penalty, man was chiefly bound to God as
his sovereign judge, and to the devil as his torturer, according to
Mt. 5:25: "Lest perhaps the adversary deliver thee to the
judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer"---that is, "to
the relentless avenging angel," as Chrysostom says (Hom. xi).
Consequently, although, after deceiving man, the devil, so far as
in him lay, held him unjustly in bondage as to both sin and penalty,
still it was just that man should suffer it. God so permitting it as
to the sin and ordaining it as to the penalty. And therefore justice
required man's redemption with regard to God, but not with regard to
the devil.
Reply to Objection 3: Because, with regard to God, redemption
was necessary for man's deliverance, but not with regard to the
devil, the price had to be paid not to the devil, but to God. And
therefore Christ is said to have paid the price of our
redemption---His own precious blood---not to the devil, but to
God.
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