Aquinas on justification

Peter J. Leithart, April 28, 2005

Notes on Thomas Aquinas on The Effects of Grace, ST I-II, q. 113.

1) Article 1: Justification of the ungodly consists in the remission of sins, Aquinas argues, over against the claim that justification must involve some movement toward justice and that the remission of sins is not a movement. Aquinas agrees that �taken passively�Ejustification involves �a movement toward heat,�Ea movement toward justice. But justice can be taken in two ways. First, justice implies �a right order in man�s act,�Ewhether this refers to the virtue of justice or to particular justice that regulates man�s actions toward his fellows, or as legal justice that regulates actions for the common good of society. But justice also means, second, a �rectitude of order in the interior disposition of a man.�E Such interior justice can be in man through generation (which goes �from privation to form�E, as Adam was just through generation. Or, interior justice can come through a movement from one contrary to another, from a state of injustice to a state of justice. This is what justification means: �a transmutation�Efrom one state to another. Movement, further, is named by its �whereto�Erather than its �whence.�E Thus, as movement �justification�Edoes not describe a movement FROM justice, but a movement TOWARD justice, from the sinful state of injustice. The remission of sins is this transmutation, this movement from one state to another, and is properly called the �justification of the ungodly.�E

2) Article 2: Aquinas raises the question of whether an infusion of grace is necessary for the remission of sins and justification. The question is not mainly to do with whether the righteousness is �inherent�Eor �alien.�E The main issue he�s addressing is whether or not the sinner whose sins have been remitted actually enters into a state of grace, or remains in some kind of forgiven but neutral status. He argues that the forgiven/justified sinner does receive God�s grace. His reasoning: An offense is remitted and forgiven only when the offender comes to peace with the offended; when our sins are forgiven, God is at peace with us; this peace �consists in the love whereby God loves us.�E Pardon involves more (he says in reply #1) than the offender no longer be hated; he must be received and accepted. God�s love is not merely His objective love, but implies an effect in us; even when God remits sins, and does not impute them, there is some effect on the one whose sins are not imputed (reply #2); this makes sense in terms of Paul�s use of Ps 32 �Ethe effect of non-imputation of sins is blessedness. The effect of God�s love in us is grace, and therefore �we could not conceive the remission of guilt, without the infusion of grace.�E Along the way, he says that the grace, an effect of divine love, makes a man �worthy of eternal life,�Ea life from which sin has removed him.

3) Article 3: Aquinas asks whether there is a movement of will involved in the movement of justification. His answer is, Yes. �God moves everything in its own manner�E God operates according to the created structures He has made, so that heavy things and light things move differently. Man has free will by nature, and thus God moves sinners toward justice through moving free will. The specific role of the will is to accept the �gift of justifying grace.�E Since infants are not capable of free will, God moves them toward justice by the mere infusion of grace in the soul (reply #1).

4) Article 4-6: A movement of faith is necessary for justification, because in the movement of justification the mind is turned to God and �the first turning to God is by faith.�E He adds in reply #1 that �the movement of faith is not perfect unless it is quickened by charity; hence in the justification of the ungodly, a movement of charity is infused together with the movement of faith.�E Fear and humility also accompany, since �free-will is moved to God by being subject to Him.�E Likewise, in article 5, he argues that there is also a movement in regard to sin in justification: it is clear that in local movement the moving body leaves the term �whence�Eand nears the term �whereto.�E Hence the human mind whilst it is being justified, must, by a movement of its free-will withdraw from sin and draw near to justice.�E Such a movement of free will involves �detestation and desire,�Edesire for God�s justice and hatred of sin.

In article 6, he summarizes the movement of justification in detail: �There are four things which are accounted to be necessary for the justification of the ungodly, viz. the infusion of grace, the movement of the free-will towards God by faith, the movement of the free-will towards sin, and the remission of sins. The reason for this is that, as stated above (1), the justification of the ungodly is a movement whereby the soul is moved by God from a state of sin to a state of justice. Now in the movement whereby one thing is moved by another, three things are required: first, the motion of the mover; secondly, the movement of the moved; thirdly, the consummation of the movement, or the attainment of the end. On the part of the Divine motion, there is the infusion of grace; on the part of the free-will which is moved, there are two movements--of departure from the term �whence,�Eand of approach to the term �whereto�E but the consummation of the movement or the attainment of the end of the movement is implied in the remission of sins; for in this is the justification of the ungodly completed.�E This in answer to the question whether the remission of sins is among those things required for justification.

5) Article 7: In spite of this emphasis on movement, Aquinas argues that justification of the ungodly takes place instantaneously rather than successively. This is rooted in his claim that justification is �caused by the justifying grace of the Holy Spirit,�Eand the gloss that claims that �the grace of the Holy Ghost knows no tardy effects.�E There are two reasons why a form might not be impressed upon a subject: because the subject is not disposed to receive the form, and because the agent needs time to dispose the subject so that it is prepared. Once the matter is disposed by a prior alteration, the form immediately �accrues to the matter.�E Neither of these reasons for delay apply to God. God needs no disposition in a sinner except what He Himself has made; this preparation of a sinner to be disposed to the infusion of grace may take time, but once disposed justification takes place instantaneously. Sometimes, a subject has a resistance too strong for an agent to overcome, but since God�s power is infinite, a sinner cannot resist Him; He can �suddenly dispose any matter whatsoever to its form.�E Thus, the infusion of grace, turn toward God, turn from sin, and remission of sin all takes place simultaneously.

6) Article 8: Since infused grace is the cause of �whatever is required for the justification of the ungodly,�Eand since causes naturally precede effects, infusion of grace is the first thing required for justification. In the light of the preceding discussion, this must refer to a logical rather than temporal priority, or what Aquinas calls �order of nature�Eas opposed to order in time. The natural order is infusion of grace, the will�s turn toward God, the will�s turn away from sin, and the remission of sin. Ultimately, the reason for this priority is that �the motion of the mover is naturally first,�Ethe movement of the moved is second, and the end of the movement, �in which the motion of the mover rests,�Ecomes last. The motion of the mover in justification is God�s infusion of grace.

7) Article 9: Justification is God�s greatest work. A work may be great either because of the �mode of action,�Eand in this sense creation is the greatest work, since there God made something from nothing; or because of the end-product of the action. In this sense, justification of the ungodly is God�s greatest work since it �terminates at the eternal good of a share in the Godhead�Ewhereas creation �terminates at the good of a mutable nature.�E Is the justification of the ungodly greater than the glorification of the just? Aquinas answers similarly: In terms of �absolute quantity,�Ethe gift of glory is greater than the gift of righteousness in justification. Yet, in terms of �proportionate quantity,�Ethe justification of the ungodly is greater, since �the gift of grace exceeds the worthiness of the ungodly, who are worthy of punishment, more than the gift of glory exceeds the worthiness of the just, who by the fact of their justification are worthy of glory.�E