their head, as
stated above (A. 1). Now the members must be conformed to their head.
Consequently, as Christ first had grace in His soul with bodily
passibility, and through the Passion attained to the glory of
immortality, so we likewise, who are His members, are freed by His
Passion from all debt of punishment, yet so that we first receive in
our souls "the spirit of adoption of sons," whereby our names are
written down for the inheritance of immortal glory, while we yet have
a passible and mortal body: but afterwards, "being made conformable"
to the sufferings and death of Christ, we are brought into immortal
glory, according to the saying of the Apostle (Rom. 8:17): "And if
sons, heirs also: heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ;
yet so if we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him."
_______________________

FOURTH ARTICLE [III, Q. 49, Art. 4]

Whether We Were Reconciled to God Through Christ's Passion?

Objection 1: It would seem that we were not reconciled to God through
Christ's Passion. For there is no need of reconciliation between
friends. But God always loved us, according to Wis. 11:25: "Thou
lovest all the things that are, and hatest none of the things which
Thou hast made." Therefore Christ's Passion did not reconcile us to
God.

Obj. 2: Further, the same thing cannot be cause and effect: hence
grace, which is the cause of meriting, does not come under merit. But
God's love is the cause of Christ's Passion, according to John 3:16:
"God so loved the world, as to give His only-begotten Son." It does
not appear, then, that we were reconciled to God through Christ's
Passion, so that He began to love us anew.

Obj. 3: Further, Christ's Passion was completed by men slaying Him;
and thereby they offended God grievously. Therefore Christ's Passion
is rather the cause of wrath than of reconciliation to God.

_On the contrary,_ The Apostle says (Rom. 5:10): "We are reconciled
to God by the death of His Son."

_I answer that,_ Christ's Passion is in two ways the cause of our
reconciliation to God. In the first way, inasmuch as it takes away
sin by which men became God's enemies, according to Wis. 14:9: "To
God the wicked and his wickedness are hateful alike"; and Ps. 5:7:
"Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity." In another way, inasmuch
as it is a most acceptable sacrifice to God. Now it is the proper
effect of sacrifice to appease God: just as man likewise overlooks an
offense