CHAPTER XXV: QUESTION 23: THE ADOPTION OF CHRIST
The purpose of this question is to refute the heresy of the Adoptionists who, following in the wake of Nestorianism, said in the eighth century that Christ as man is the adoptive son of God.
The Church has defined that the man Christ is the only and natural Son of God,[1579] and nowise the adoptive son.[1580] The Church also declared that it is only allegorically on account of Christ's obedience to His Father that He is called a servant.[1581] He is not the Son of the Holy Spirit,[1582] but truly the Son of the Virgin Mary.[1583] In fact, He has two births, His eternal birth as God, and His temporal birth as man,[1584] but not two sonships, neither adoptive sonship as regards God the Father, nor a real relation of sonship as regards the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The principal definitions of the Church against the errors of the Adoptionists are to be found in the Enchiridion.[1585] The assertion that Christ as man is the adoptive son of the Father is rejected as heretical in both the Council of Frankfort and the Council of Frejus.[1586] This assertion was again condemned in the Second Council of Lyons.[1587]
This error gives St. Thomas the opportunity to explain here more fully what is the nature of divine adoption than in the treatise on grace, although the fundamentals of the doctrine concerning divine adoption are explained in the treatise on grace.
First Article: Whether It Is Fitting That God Should Adopt Sons
State of the question. It seems that it is not fitting, because only strangers are adopted, and nobody is a stranger to God.
Reply. Yet the answer is in the affirmative, for the Apostle says: "Who hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children."[1588]
Theological proof. To adopt is to admit someone to share in another's inheritance. Thus a rich man adopts a poor man's son. But it is fitting that God of His infinite goodness admit His intellectual creatures to share in His inheritance, which is the enjoyment of Himself. For God is rich and happy in Himself, that is to say, in the enjoyment of Himself. Therefore it is indeed fitting for God to adopt sons.
It must be noted that reason alone cannot apodictically prove the possibility of this adoption; for this would be to prove the possibility of grace, which is essentially supernatural in that it is a participation of the divine nature of God's intimate life which therefore transcends the scope of truths that can be proved by reason alone.
But posited the revelation of this truth, God's infinite goodness makes it clear that it befits Him to adopt. Its possibility can neither be proved nor disproved, but we are persuaded of it and it is firmly held by faith alone.
First doubt. What is the difference between divine adoption and human adoption?[1589]
Reply. The difference is that a man in adopting someone, for example, a poor man's son, does not make this son worthy to inherit from him, but in adopting such a person presupposes as worthy him whom he chooses. On the contrary, God makes the man whom He adopts worthy by the gift of His grace to receive the heavenly inheritance. Hence divine adoption is far superior to human adoption and much more real; for it elevates one to the higher order of the divine life and proceeds from uncreated love which is effective and productive of grace. It regenerates the soul so that the adoptive son is said to be "born... of God,"[1590] not indeed by nature as the only-begotten Son, but by grace, that is, regenerated spiritually by infused grace.
Second doubt. What is the difference between adoptive sonship and natural sonship?
Natural sonship is the relation that befits anyone inasmuch as by virtue of birth such a person receives from the generator either the numerically identical nature as in the case of the divine person or specifically the same nature as in created beings. Hence taken in the strict sense it is defined as "the origin of a living being from a living principle in the likeness of nature."[1591] Thus the foundation of natural sonship is passive generation.
Adoptive sonship is a qualified imitation of natural sonship inasmuch as the adopted does not receive the adopter's nature, but a right to the inheritance as if he were the true son. Hence adoption among jurists and theologians is generally defined as being the gratuitous and free assumption of a stranger to the inheritance of the adopter.
The solution of the objections of this article confirms the reply.
Reply to first objection. "Considered in his nature, man is not a stranger in respect to God as to the natural gifts bestowed on him; but he is as to the gifts of grace and glory, " because he has these not by nature, but only by adoption.
Reply to second objection. Adoptive sonship is a participation in the resemblance of divine natural sonship, hence the Apostle says: "He predestinated us to be made conformable to the image of His Son."[1592] In other words, just as the only-begotten Son received from all eternity the whole divine nature from His Father, so the adoptive son receives in time a participation of the divine nature.
Reply to third objection. "Spiritual goods can be possessed by many at the same time, not so material goods. Wherefore none can receive a material inheritance except the successor of a deceased being; whereas all receive the spiritual inheritance at the same time in its entirety without detriment to the ever-living Father."
Second Article: Whether It Is Fitting That The Whole Trinity Should Adopt
State of the question. The difficulty is that, on the one hand, men are made by adoption brethren of Christ rather than His sons, for the Apostle says: "That He might be the first-born among many brethren."[1593] On the other hand, when in the Lord's Prayer we say, "Our Father, " this refers to the entire Trinity, equally with "Thy kingdom come, " and "Thy will be done."
Reply. To adopt is an act that belongs to the whole Trinity.
Authoritative proof. When in the Lord's Prayer we say "Our Father, " the word "Father" connotes the essence and not the person.[1594] The same is to be said of "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done."
Theological proof. Every divine free action ad extra is befitting to the whole Trinity, because it proceeds from omnipotence, which, like the divine nature, is common to the three persons. But to adopt is a divine free action ad extra, for it is the bestowal of grace. Therefore to adopt is befitting to the whole Trinity.
In other words, whereas the natural Son of God is "begotten not made,"[1595] the adoptive son is made, for the Evangelist says: "He gave them power to be made the sons of God."[1596] Nevertheless the adoptive son is said to be "born of God,"[1597] on account of the spiritual regeneration that is gratuitous and not natural.
Reply to second question. "By adoption we are made the brethren of Christ, as having with Him the same Father who, nevertheless, is His Father in one way and ours in another. Whence, pointedly our Lord says, separately: 'My Father, and your Father.'[1598] For He is Christ's Father by natural generation, and this is proper to Him; whereas He is our Father by a voluntary operation, which is common to the three persons." Hence, when we say, "Our Father, " the word "Father" refers to the essence and not to the person. It is the opposite when Christ says, "My Father, " for Christ is not the Son of the Trinity, as we are. Father Lebreton, S. J., in his recent work on the Trinity, insists exegetically very much on this point. This observation is referred to in its proper terms by St. Thomas in the present article, which is seldom quoted.[1599]
Doubt. Is adoption, although common to the whole Trinity, appropriated to the Father?
Reply to third objection. "It is appropriated to the Father as its author, to the Son as its exemplar, to the Holy Ghost as imprinting on us the likeness of this exemplar."
Adoption is here taken in the active sense, and not in the passive sense, which is called "a participated likeness of eternal sonship,"[1600] in a quasi-passive sense.
The reason is that appropriation is a manifestation of the divine persons by means of essential attributes which enter more closely into what constitutes this or that person. Thus to the Father, inasmuch as He is the principle from no principle, omnipotence is appropriated; to the Son, inasmuch as He is the Word, wisdom is appropriated; to the Holy Ghost, inasmuch as He is personal love, is appropriated goodness, sanctification, which is the special effect of infused charity.[1601]
Third Article: Whether It Is Proper To The Rational Nature To Be Adopted
Reply. Every intellectual creature, and only such, can be adopted for only such a creature is capable of grace on which adoption rests, and of happiness in which inheritance consists.
Therefore the angels are adoptive sons of God; likewise our first parents in the state of innocence; the just of the Old Testament; also all who are in the state of grace, as long as they remain so, even though they are not predestined.
Objection. St. Paul introduces a state of opposition between the Christians and the just of the Old Testament,[1602] inasmuch as the latter received the spirit of bondage in fear, whereas the Christians received the spirit of the adoption of sons.
Reply. St. Paul does not introduce opposition between them because of personal justice, but by reason of the difference of state and law in which each class lived; for the Old Law was the law of fear in itself, and of itself it did not have the power to justify; whereas the New Law is the law of grace previously imprinted on the hearts and having the power to justify.[1603] Thus it is sufficient for salvation, although not all the just are actually saved, for some fall away from grace.
Fourth Article: Whether Christ As Man Is The Adopted Son Of God
State of the question. About the end of the eighth century Archbishop Elipandus of Toledo, and Bishop Felix of Urgel, Adoptionists, taught that Christ as man is the adopted son of God. And more probably, whatever Vasquez says, they defended this thesis in the Nestorian sense, namely, by positing two persons in Christ. They were condemned as heretics in the Council of Frankfort (794) under Pope Hadrian I.[1604]
But Durandus and Scotus were unaware of the acts of the Frankfort council, which for a long time remained unknown because of the astuteness of the heretics. These theologians said: The unity of the person being preserved intact, Christ as man is the adopted Son of God, inasmuch as He received habitual grace by which we are adopted sons.
Is this opinion of Scotus and Durandus already condemned by the Council of Frankfort, the acts of which were unknown to these theologians? The answer is that the Council of Frankfort excludes even this opinion, for it says: "Adopted, if indeed this means that Jesus Christ is not the natural Son of God." This council also says: "The unity of person eliminates the insult of adoption." St. Thomas in the counterargument to this article also quotes St. Ambrose as against this opinion.
Theological proof. The argumentative part of this article refutes the adoptive sonship of Christ as follows:
Sonship properly belongs not to the nature, but to the person, and He who is already the natural Son cannot be called the adopted son, because He is not a stranger to His Father according to His nature. Thus a man cannot adopt a boy who is already his son. But Christ is the natural Son of God. Therefore Christ cannot be called the adopted son.
In explanation of this proof, it must be observed that: (1) Adoption cannot apply to the humanity of Christ, both because the humanity is not a person, and only a person can be adopted, and because, on account of the hypostatic union, it already is entitled to the inheritance of God, which is the beatific vision.
2) It must be noted that Christ as man is already in the formal sense the natural Son of God, inasmuch as the Word who subsists in the human nature is the natural Son of God, for by assuming the human nature Christ did not lose His divine natural sonship.
The solution of the objections confirms this answer.
Reply to first objection. If it is said that "carnal humility was adopted by the Word', ; the expression is metaphorical for "was assumed"; for adoption properly belongs only to the person, not to the nature, or to a part of the nature.
Reply to second objection. "Christ, by the grace of union, is the natural Son, whereas a Christian by habitual grace is an adopted son. Habitual grace in Christ does not make one who was not a son to be an adopted son, but is a certain effect of filiation in the soul of Christ."
Adopted sonship is not the formal and primary effect of habitual grace, but only the secondary effect; hence habitual grace can be in the soul without the former. It is present in Christ's soul as a participation of the divine nature rendering Christ more pleasing to God, and it enables Him in a special manner to merit continually by infused charity and the other virtues, of which habitual grace is the source.
Reply to third objection. We may say that Christ according to His human nature is a creature, and is subject to God; but we cannot say that He is the adopted Son of God, because sonship is not said of the nature but only of the person; for we do not say the humanity of Christ is the Son of God.
Corollary. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the first adopted daughter of God.
Footnotes
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