Salvation And The World

OBJ. IX. Quod non pro totius mundi redemptione Salvator sit crucifixus. RESP. Nullus omnino est ex omnibus hominibus, cujus natura in Christo Domino nostro suscepta non fuerit: quamvis ille natus sit in similitudine carnis peccati, omnis autem homo nascatur in carne peccati. Deus ergo Dei Filius mortalitatis humanae particeps factus absque peccato, hoc peccatoribus et mortalibus contulit, ut qui nativitatis ejus consortes fuissent, vinculum peccati et mortis evaderent. Sicut itaque non sufficit hominum renovationi, natum esse hominem Jesum Christum, nisi in ipso eodem, de quo ipse ortus est, Spiritu renascantur: sic non sufficit hominum redemptioni, crucifixum esse Dominum Christum, nisi commoriantur ei et consepeliantur in Baptismo. Alioquin nato Salvatore in carne substantiae nostrae, et crucifixo pro omnibus nobis, non fuerat necessarium ut renasceremur, et similitudini mortis ejus complantaremur. Sed cum sine hoc Sacramento nemo hominum consequatur vitam aeternam; non est salvatus cruce Christi, qui non est crucifixus in Christo. Non est autem crucifixus in Christo, qui non est membrum corporis Christi; nec est membrum corporis Christi, qui non per aquam et Spiritum sanctum induit Christum. Qui ideo in infirmitate nostra communionem subiit mortis, ut nos in virtute ejus haberemus consortium resurrectionis. Cum itaque rectissime dicatur Salvator pro totius mundi redemptione crucifixus, propter veram humanae naturae susceptionem, et propter communem in primo homine omnium perditionem: potest tamen dici pro his tantum crucifixus, quibus mors ipsius profuit. Dicit enim Evangelista, Quia Jesus moriturus erat pro gente; et non tantum pro gente, sed etiam ut filios Dei dispersos congregaret in unum. In sua enim venit, et sui eum non receperunt. Quotquot autem receperunt eum, dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fieri: qui non ex sanguinibus, neque ex voluntate carnis, neque ex voluntate viri, sed ex Deo nati sunt. Diversa ergo ab istis sors eorum est, qui inter illos censentur, de quibus dicitur, Mundus eum non cognovit. Ut possit secundum hoc dici redemptor mundi: dedit pro mundo sanguinem suum, et mundus redimi noluit; quia lucem tenebrae non receperunt, et tenebrae receperunt, quibus dicit Apostolus, Fuistis aliquando tenebrae, nunc autem lux in Domino. Ipse vero Dominus Jesus, qui dixit se venisse quaerere et salvare quod perierat: Non veni, inquit, nisi ad oves quae perierant domus Israel. Sed quae sint istae oves domus Israel, apostolus Paulus exponat, dicens: Non omnes qui ex Israel, hi sunt Israel; neque quia sunt semen Abrahae, omnes filii, sed in Isaac vocabitur tibi semen: id est, non qui filii carnis, hi filii Dei; sed qui filii promissionis, aestimantur in semine. In istis ergo sunt illi, de quibus dictum supra memoravimus: Quia Jesus moriturus erat pro gente; et non tantum pro gente, sed etiam ut filios Dei dispersos congregaret in unum. Quia non solum ex Judaeis, sed etiam ex gentibus, per eum qui vocat quae non sunt, tanquam quae sunt, et qui dispersos Israel congregat, filii Dei filii promissionis in unam Ecclesiam congregantur: ut impleatur quod promissum est Abrahae, cui dictum est, quod in semine ejus benedicendae essent omnes tribus terrae. Sanctus Prosperus Aquitanus, Pro Augustino Responsiones ad Capitula Calumiatum Gallorum, Capitulum IX Source: Migne PL 51.164c-166b

Objection 9: That the Saviour was not crucified for the redemption of the whole world. Response: Our Lord Christ did not assume everything of the whole nature of man, although since every man is born in the sinful flesh He was born in the likeness of the sinful flesh. 1 God, the Son of God, therefore, participated in humanity without sin, bearing sin and mortality as consorts of His nativity, so that men might escape the chains of sin and death. As it does not suffice for the renewal of men that Jesus Christ was born man, unless in Him men, for whom He was born, is reborn in the Spirit, so it does not suffice for the redemption of man that Christ was crucified, unless we die with Him and are buried with Him in baptism. Besides, the birth of our Saviour in the substance of our flesh and His crucifixion for all of us was not necessary that we be renewed and that we be planted with Him in the likeness of His death. 2 But when no man may come to eternal life without this sacrament, so a man is not saved by the cross of Christ unless he is crucified with Christ. And he is not cruficied with Christ, who is not a member of His body, nor is a man a member of the body of Christ unless he has been endowed with Christ through water and the Holy Spirit. He, then, in our infirmity undergoes the communion of death, so that we by His power might be associates in His resurrection. Whence it is rightly said that the Saviour was crucified for the whole world, because of the taking up of our true nature and because of the common ruin of all men in the first man. But one can say that He was crucified only for those who profit by his death. For the Evangelist says that Jesus was to die for the people, and not only the people, but even so that the scattered sons of God be brought back to unity. 3 'He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. But as many as did receive Him, He gave power to be sons of God, who not through blood, nor from the will of the flesh, nor from the will of man, but who are born from God.' 4 Therefore there is a difference in the fates of these who are reckoned to be among those of whom it is said, 'The world did not know Him.' 5 Thus according to this one can speak of the Redeemer of the world, for He gave His blood for the world and the world was unwilling to be redeemed, because there is a darkness that did not receive the light and a darkness that did, 6 concerning which the Apostle says: 'You were once in darkness, now in the light of the Lord.' 7 However Jesus Christ Himself said that He had come to seek and save that which was lost. 'I have not come,' He said, 'but for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' 8 But who are these lost sheep of the house of Israel Paul explains, saying, 'Not all who are from Israel are of Israel, not all the seed of Abraham are the sons of God, but through Isaac your seed shall be named.' 9 That is, it is not those who are sons of the flesh that are sons of God but the sons of the promise are reckoned in the seed. In these, then, they are, concerning which it is said above, we recall, that Jesus was to die for the people, and not only for the people, but even that the scattered sons of God be gathered into one, 3 Because they are not only from the Jews, but even from the Gentiles, through Him who calls things which are not as there were, 10 and who gathers the scattered ones of Israel, 11 and the sons of God who are the sons of the promise are gathered into one Church, that what was promised to Abraham be fufilled, to whom it was said that in his seed all the tribes of the earth will bless themselves. 12 Saint Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers For Augustine Against the Chapters of the Fault Finding Gauls, Chapter 9 1 Rom 8.3 2 Rom 6.5 3 Jn 11.51 4 Jn 1.11 5 Jn 1.10 6 Jn 1.5 7 Ephes 5.8 8 Mt 15.24 9 Rom 9.6-7 10 Rom 4.17 11 Ps 142.2 12 Gen 12.3