The Creditor Pays

Did Christ effect salvation by way of redemption? Thomas asks ( ST III, 48, 4). It’s a question about salvation as payment . The first objection states that Christ could not have saved by way of redemption because no one buys or buys back ( emit vel redimit ) what already belongs to him.

Sed contra : 1 Peter 1 speaks of Christ purchasing us with His blood. By His passion, he released from the bondage of sin and also paid the debt of punishment that had been imposed by God. Alternatively, Thomas is willing to speak of Christ’s death as redemption both from bondage to God and to the devil.

By consenting to the devil, men put themselves under the devil. But “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 ( Deo juste hoc permittente ), fell under the devil’s servitude.” Thus, the primary bondage was to God as “sovereign judge” and secondarily to the devil as “torturer.” Both of these “debts” ( reatu ) are paid by the superabundant gift of Jesus’ death ( passio Christi fuit sufficiens et superabundans satisfactio ). By that payment, men are released from bondate to the devil and delivered from the judgment of God.

Thomas sets up for the notion that redemption payment was made to the Father. He says that payment is made “with respect to” the Father ( per respectum ad Deum ), but he uses the same language to describe the payment that released from the devil ( per respectum ad Diabolum ). In the reply to the third objection, he makes the point explicit: “Christ is said to have paid the price of our redemption . . . not to the devil, but to God” ( non . . . Diabolo, sed Deo ).

At the same time, the payment is made by God. In article 5 of the same question, he distinguishes between the “immediate” and the “remote” cause of redemption. The immediate cause is the humanity of the Son ( immediate redemptorem est proprium Christi inquantum est homo ) but the prima causa of redemption is attributed to toti Trinitati . In the following article, he makes a similar distinction between principal and instrumental efficient agency. Christ’s humanity is the instrumental efficient cause of redemption, while God is the principal efficient cause ( efficiens . . . principale ).

For Thomas, then, God is on either end of the transaction. The Trinity is the principal efficient agent of redemption, and “God” is the recipient of the price of release. The humanity of Jesus is the “instrument of the Godhead” ( divinitatis instrumentum ) that brings salvation. Redemption takes place not because the creditor forgives, but because the creditor arranges to have himself paid with a superabundant gift of charity.