A Critical Appraisal of Faith as an Instrumental Cause of Justification.

A short appraisal of the Reformed doctrine of justification by faith alone is given using the correct notions of principle and instrumental causation. The doctrine of justification by faith alone, where faith is an instrument of justification is presented below. Following the presentation, the discussion proceeds through two examples using principle and instrumental causation to then highlight some problems with the doctrines propounded by the Westminster confession of faith.

Westminster confession of faith states –

1. Those whom God effectually calleth, He also freely justifieth: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God. 

2. Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification: yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.

3. Christ, by His obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified, and did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to His Father’s justice in their behalf. Yet, in as much as He was given by the Father for them; and His obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead; and both, freely, not for any thing in them; their justification is only of free grace; that both the exact justice, and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners.

4. God did, from all eternity, decree to justify all the elect, and Christ did, in the fulness of time, die for their sins, and rise for their justification: nevertheless, they are not justified, until the Holy Spirit doth, in due time, actually apply Christ unto them. 

5. God doth continue to forgive the sins of those that are justified; and, although they can never fall from the state of justification, yet they may, by their sins, fall under God’s fatherly displeasure, and not have the light of His countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance.

6. The justification of believers under the old testament was, in all these respects, one and the same with the justification of believers under the new testament.

The parts of the Westminster Confession underlined above are relevant to the discussion below.

Definitions

Principal causes - efficient causes which by their own proper power operate unto an effect proportionate to the nature of the agent are called. The effect is produced by the cause or is principally moved by the proper power of the agent, not by a motion received from another cause. Principle cause is defined as -

Prime Principal cause – God acting as the first principle cause. 

Secondary Principal cause, - the principle cause is moved materially (or applied to the actual exercise of its own power) by the prime cause (God). Such as a man is moved by God to carve a statue. God is the prime cause and the man is the principle, secondary cause.

Instrumental cause - the proper and formal reason why something is an instrumental cause consists in this that it operates as moved by a principal agent, forasmuch as the whole power and reason of operating are received after the manner of a fluid entity from a subordinating or principal cause. 

Instrumental cause, has being-moved as the precise cause of the instrument acting. Thereby the effect of the instrumental cause is not conformed to the instrument, but to the principle agent. Consequently, the instrumental cause always only ever has a transient causation when the fluid entity that moves the instrument to move as it is moved by the principle cause acts upon the instrument.


Example 1. The Poet writes the Poem with a Pen –

For example, the pen as the instrument is moved by the poet as the principle cause, to write the poem. The motion of the pen caused by the poet is the fluid entity acting on the pen for the pen to act subordinate to the movement of the poet. The poem written is then not conformed to the pen, but to the poet as the author of the poem. Both the poet and the poem continue to exist as poet and poem after the pen has ceased to act as an instrument. The pen only acts as an instrument whilst the poet acts to write the poem.

In summary -

Principle secondary cause – Poet.

Instrumental cause – pen when a poet uses the pen as an instrument to write the poem.

Fluid move – motion of the pen.

Poem – a thing as an effect which is conformed to the poet as the principle author and not the pen as the author.

Example 2. God justifies the Sinner by the Instrument of Faith alone.

We now apply the same understanding of instrumental cause to the reformed understanding of faith as an instrument. The Westminster confession of faith states faith is the alone instrument of justification. According to the Reformed doctrine, Christ merits justification as a penal substitute, whereby Christ is punished by the Father who imputes men's sins to Christ and Christ's righteousness to men through the instrument of faith alone. Faith is given to men through the Holy Spirit who works in men to cause men to believe. Once the act of faith is made, the man is imputed Christ's righteousness by the Father in a courtroom scene as part of the great exchange.

In summary -

Principle Prime Cause - Trinity, or more particularly the action of 1) the Holy Spirit within men to cause the act of faith. 2) Christ as the meritorious cause of faith and righteousness. 3) The Father who imputes Christ with sin and the sinner with righteousness.

Principle Secondary cause – man moved by the Holy Spirit to make the act of faith.

Instrumental cause – Faith as an act made by man, which also acts as an instrument of justification. The act of faith is the fluid, transient instrumental cause only when the act of faith is made. Faith may also be a habit as a virtue that resides in the human intellect. If faith is a habit, then the habit of faith is an act contrary to the notion of instrumental cause. For instrumental cause is chiefly defined by the fluid move of the principle cause and not an ongoing disposition placed into the efficient cause by the principle cause. 

For example, a blacksmith may change the shape of a piece of metal and give the metal the shape of a horse shoe. The new shape does not cause the metal to become an instrument. The metal is only an instrumental cause when the metal shoe is worn by the horse. The horse’s wearing of the shoe grants the metal shoe the motion from the principle cause to move the shoe as an instrumental cause. When the metal shoe is removed from the horse, the metal is no longer and instrumental cause.

Fluid move – motion of men to make the act of faith. Faith is the act whereby the Holy Spirit as the prime principle cause (Holy Spirit) who acts upon the man as the secondary instrumental cause to move a man to an act of faith.

Justification - a thing (like a poem) as an effect which is conformed to the Holy Spirit as the principle author of faith and not the man who made the act of faith and thereby man is not the author of faith. Justification is also a thing conformed to Christ as the meritorious cause of justification and a thing caused by the Father at the heavenly courtroom to pronounce the sinner righteous.

An appraisal of the above comparison of the two examples of Instrumental causation. 

If faith is both an act and an instrumental cause of justification, faith must act in accord with the nature of an instrument and act with the prime and secondary principle causes to produce an effect as a thing, analogous to the poem. Faith then must cause justification as a fluid motion towards the end, or term of the acts of the prime and secondary principle causes, like the poet acts with the pen to write the poem. Faith is then a fluid act, which passes, but cause justification to remain, similar to the motion of the pen that passes, whilst the poem remains. Consequent to the reformed notion of faith as an instrument, justification must always remain even after the act of faith has stopped. 

But is this notion of justification by the instrumentality of faith alone biblical? We can compare the reformed notion of faith as an instrument and the consequent permanence of justification with the famous parable of the ten virgins. In Matt 25, ten virgins all had faith to meet the bride groom, but only five were able to enter into the wedding banquet (Matt 25:1-13). The five virgins who were excluded from the banquet had faith but lost their justification. The parable of the ten virgins is strong evidence against the permanence of justification by faith alone. Many other passages can be brought forward to demonstrate eternal security is false, such as 1) Matt 10:22 where Christians are saved by endurance to the end. 2) In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Paul says he may become a castaway (adokimos), which is used in 2 Timothy 3:8 and in Romans 1:28 for those who commit sin. 3) Galatians 5:19-21 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 details sin lists that exclude one from the kingdom. Such lists assume faith, but infer many virtues are required to be practiced other than faith alone to enter the kingdom. 4) Christians who have known the way of righteousness can return to the mire of sin in 2 Peter 2:20-22 and thereby lose righteousness.

Furthermore, faith as an instrument is caused by Christ as the meritorious cause and the Holy Spirit as the prime principle cause acting within man. But if faith is an instrument, and the instrument only acts in accord with the motion of the prime and secondary principle causes, like the pen moves by the poet, then how does faith act as an instrumental cause to cause the Father to impute sin to Christ and righteousness to the sinner? For faith to act as an instrument, consistently with the notion of an instrument as that which is moved by the principle cause, does not infer the instrument acts to cause the principle cause to act on another principle cause.

The problem with faith as an instrumental cause may be better clarified by comparison with the example of the poet and pen. If the pen is the instrumental cause, moved by the poet, for the pen to act like faith, the pen would then cause the poet to move after the poet has caused the pen to move. This simple analogy of the pen shows how problematic the reformed notion of faith as an instrument really is. There is no possibility that the pen moved by the poet, then causes the poet to move. The pen as an instrument receives its power only from the poet to move. The pen does not have any power given it from the poet, nor existing at any time within the pen to cause the poet to move. For the pen to cause the poet to move would be 1) contrary to the power within the pen, 2) contrary to the nature of instrumental causation and 3) contrary to the causes which always act proportionately to the power contained within the cause.

If the pen cannot cause the poet to move, for no instrumental cause can cause the principle cause to move, how can the reformed faith claim faith as an instrument causes the Father to move to impute sin to Christ and righteousness to the sinner? If faith is an instrument as claimed by the reformers, faith cannot cause the double imputation and consequently according to the Reformed model, there is insufficient causation to demonstrate how justification occurs. For Reformed theologians to claim faith moves the Father to act means the Holy Spirit as prime principle cause, man as secondary principle cause, cause to move the habit of faith to the act of faith. Faith then acts as an instrument to cause the Father as prime principle cause to impute sin to Christ as another prime principle cause and righteousness to the sinner as the secondary principle cause. Such a series of causation from prime to instrument, then back to the prime, and the secondary prime is simply beyond the correct notions of principle and instrumental causes.

Moreover, if faith is an instrument, justification must be attributed to the Holy Spirit as the prime principle cause and the man as the secondary principle cause and not faith. Just as the poem is attributed to the poet and not the pen, which is only a fluid mover of the poem under the motion of the poet. So, justification cannot be attributed to faith, but to the Holy Spirit and man. The reformed may agree with this analysis and say, yes man is attributed justification through faith as an instrument, just as you say. But the problem here is man acts as principle cause of justification, just as the poet acts as principle cause of the poem. If man is the principle cause of justification, then justification becomes in principle, a humanly caused act. Justification is then not simply only the work of the Trinity, but the work of the Trinity and man, both acting as principle cause. Justification is then never a completed work of the Trinity, but a work of the Trinity made with the work of men. 

To attribute principle causation to men in justification infers Reformed Christianity cannot make any claim to justification as the work of the Trinity alone. Faith is said to be a gift of God, and justification by faith is, according to the Westminster confession, an act of ‘faith they have not of themselves’, it is the gift of God. But the Reformed understanding requires man be the secondary principle cause of faith, and thereby man makes the act of faith of himself, contrary to the Westminster confession and the scriptures. Just as the poet is attributed the poem, for the poem is from the poet, so too justification must also be attributed to man, for man acts to cause justification through the instrument of faith. The problem of attribution of justification to man is enormous. Although the Reformed confessions state faith and justification is the work of God as a gift, logically from the nature of instrumental causation, faith and justification are gifts of God along with the work of man as the principle cause of faith.

One may try to counter claim that even with the above problems, faith still acts as an instrument and the double imputation theory along with the doctrines of the Westminster confession still hold. For the Gospel is the power of God for those who have faith (Rom 1:16). The power of God then acts with faith as an instrument for faith to have a power beyond that of the example of the poet who writes with the pen. The problem with appealing to faith acting with the power of God is that faith would no longer be an instrument under the motion of the principle cause, but a miraculous cause that acts with a divine power beyond that of an instrument. Here the Reformed objection to the above problems runs into trouble, for nowhere in scripture is faith stated to be a miracle, nor have miraculous powers. Faith is stated in scripture to be a gift from God, but not a miracle. Moreover, nowhere in the Reformed confessions s faith ever stated to be a cause of the miraculous action of the Father, nor of Christ as an effect of men’s faith as an instrument of justification.

Conclusion

The short appraisal of the Reformed teaching on faith as an instrument of justification highlights some of the many problems with Reformed theology. The reformed doctrines on justification are taught with the claims of truth in opposition to the Catholic teachings enunciated at the Council of Trent, but such claims are rather well falsified by investigating the notion of instrumental cause in relation to principle cause. When the notions of principle and instrumental causes are clarified with the above two examples of the poem and justification, it becomes rather obvious that there is something wrong with Reformed doctrines on justification.

The best alternative to the problematic nature of the Reformed understanding of justification is to abandon the Reformed confessions of faith and return to the one true faith as proclaimed by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent. Faith is not an instrument of justification, but one of three theological virtues received by men when given by the Holy Spirit. The three virtues are given alone with the four cardinal virtues and about 60 other virtues to make the Christian fully alive as a man to live the Christian life. Justification is not an imputation of the righteousness of Christ as taught by the Reformers, but an infusion of the divine life of grace accompanied by the virtues and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirt. The Catholic teaching on justification need not grapple with the Reformed problems of faith as an instrumental cause of justification, nor the accompanying problems of the double imputation theory, for faith is not an instrument, but correctly taught as only one of three theological virtues. Justification according to Trent is not about imputation of Christ’s righteousness, but about infusing man with the life of God, to then permit men to live within the household of faith as Sons of God.

A Partial Appraisal of the Instrument of Faith in Relation to Formal Cause.

1) The Father's actions of Imputation in relation to the Instrument of Faith.

If we compare faith as an instrument to the formal cause we may discern if faith is well formed in relation to formal cause. The formal cause is placed into the material cause by the principle cause and the efficient cause. Using the example of the poet writing the poem, God (prime principle) moves the poet (secondary principle) to move (efficient) the pen (instrument) to cause the form (formal) of poem in the ink (material) and onto the page (material). Note that the instrumental cause is acted upon by the principle and efficient causes to place the form into the material cause to produce the final effect as the poem written on the page. However, with the Reformed notion of justification, the prime principle cause is the Father who acts to inform both Christ and the sinner -

(2i) The form of sin legally imputed to Christ.

(2ii) The form of Christ's righteousness legally imputed to the sinner's account.

The Father is said (by the Reformed) to act to cause the form within the following series of causes as shown in the quotes below.

1. Father (prime principle) moves
2. to send Christ (prime principle)
3. The Father (prime principle) imputes (efficient) sin (formal) to Christ (material).

Here the Reformed teaching requires the first part of the double exchange. The Father imputes sin to Christ. The act of the Father imputing sin is itself very problematic for reasons already exposed in Problems with the Westminster Confession of Faith Thread, particularly on posts 15 and 18. Two such reasons are the Father is acting unjustly towards the Son as God, who cannot sin and thereby the Father cannot justly impute sin to the Son. The second reason is if the Father does impute sin to the Son, both the Father and the Son are involved in a lie, and thereby God must sin for the Reformed double exchange to occur. Of course God is the prime truth and cannot lie. Take note that even with the problematic nature of the Father imputing sin to the Son, the act of the Father causing the form of sin to Christ, is an act that is only an occasion for faith. The Father in imputing sin to Christ, is not moved by the instrument of faith. Nor is the Father's act of imputation as direct cause of faith in any man. For the Father could impute sin to Christ and no man consequently have faith. 

Even if men have faith after the Father imputed sin to Christ, 1) the Father's act of imputation of sin to Christ is not caused by faith as an instrument, for the Father acts (principle) prior to faith (instrument) in any man. Faith is then only a possible effect of the Father's imputation of sin to Christ. 2) the Father's act causes faith to act as an instrument, and faith in turn is said to instrumentally cause the Father to impute Christ's righteousness to the sinners account. The Father then acts to cause the first imputation of sin to Christ, without the instrument of faith acting, but then faith acts as an instrument to cause the Father to impute Christ's righteousness to the sinner's account. The Father then acts both without the instrumentality of faith and from the instrumentality of faith to act to impute. The diverse manners of the Father's acts indicate the Father's action in relation to faith are both independent of and dependent upon faith as an instrument. 

As the Father acts to impute sin to Christ without faith causing as an instrument, one may question the veracity of the claim that the Father acts from faith as an instrument to impute Christ's righteousness to the sinner's account. Also because of the diversity of the Father's action in relation to faith as an instrument, one may also question the veracity of the claim that the Father does not act from faith as an instrument impute sin to Christ. The diverse action of the Father in relation to faith infers the Reformed soteriological system contains causes that are not well established. For if faith is an instrument that is claimed to cause the Father to act, how can such a claim be established when the same soteriological system also claims the Father acts to impute without faith as an instrumental cause? The problematic nature of faith in relation to the Father's acts of imputation infers faith as an instrument is not well formed in relation to principle causes.

2) The Instrument of Faith in relation to the Father's actions of Imputation.

However, with the Reformed notion of justification, the prime principle cause is the Father who acts to inform both Christ and the sinner -

(2i) The form of sin legally imputed to Christ.

(2ii) The form of Christ's righteousness legally imputed to the sinner's account.

The Father is said (by the Reformed) to act to cause the form within the following series of causes as shown in the quotes below.

1. Father (prime principle) moves
2. to send Christ (prime principle)
3. The Father (prime principle) imputes (efficient) sin (formal) to Christ (material).

4. The Father and Son (prime principle)
5. send the Holy Spirit (prime principle)
6. to cause man (secondary principle) to have faith (instrumental)
7. the Father imputes Christ's righteousness to the sinners account.

Note initially that the above four causes (4-7) are dependent upon the causes previously discussed (1-3). As the prior series of causes 1 to 3 involve the problematic notion of Father imputing sin to Christ, the subsequent causes 4-6 do not have sufficiently well-founded causes in 1-3. Further, here in point 6. in the above quote, the instrument of faith should act to cause a form with a material cause to affect the final outcome. Like the pen acts to place the form (formal) into the ink and paper (material) to affect the poem. But the Reformed notion of justification requires that the instrument of faith act to cause the Father (prime principle) to then cause another cause of imputation of righteousness to the sinners account. However, the instrumental cause as instrument cannot cause the principle cause to cause. For an instrument is only ever caused by the principle cause as an instrument of the principle cause. Therefore, faith as an instrument of the Holy Spirit and the man cannot cause the Father to act as the prime principle cause. 

If according to the Reformed, faith is an instrument, the Father acts to impute righteousness to the sinner's account, but where faith is thought to be an instrument but is only an occasion for the Father to act simultaneously with faith. An occasion is not a cause, but only a circumstance. Like a bird flies past a man and the man says, "look at the bird". The man speaks on the occasion (circumstance) of the bird flying past the man. The bird does not instrumentally cause the man to speak, but only provides the circumstance for the human speech. The bird could fly past the man and the man also remained silent as the same occasion is presented to the man. An occasion then does not necessitate instrumental causation. 

Similarly, because faith as an instrument cannot cause the Father to act as principle, faith can only be an occasion for the Father's consequent act of imputing Christ's righteousness to the sinners account. Moreover, faith as an instrument does not have a proper effect proportionate to the act of faith. The poem written by the poet, using the instrument of the pen, has the effect of the written poem as the proportionate effect of the pen acting under the power of the poet. If faith is an instrument, we would expect faith to cause a similar proportionate effect. If the action of the Father is not the proportionate effect of faith, then the Reformed understanding of faith as an instrument does not have any proportionate effect. Consequently, because an instrument without a proportionate effect, is not an instrument, faith is not an instrument.

Conclusion - The partial appraisal of the instrument of faith in relation to formal cause has shown the Reformed understanding of faith as an instrument is not well formed and is unsound. The Father sends the Holy Spirit, who causes men to act with faith. Faith is only the occassion (and not a cause) for the Father then to act to impute. Faith as an instrument is not well formed in relation to the formal cause of Christ's righteousness caused by the Father's imputation. Finally, as faith as an instrument does not cause the Father to act to impute, faith as an instrument does not have a proper effect. Faith is then not an instrument. For an instrument without a proper effect is only a thing that has not been used by a principle cause. The attribution of faith as an instrument is unsound.

A comparison of the Reformed Causes of Justification with St Thomas Aquinas' Causes of Justification.

The Reformers taught faith is an instrumental cause of justification. But as faith is both an act and a habit, neither can be an instrument. For the act is the efficient cause which moves man to believe, like the efficient move of the pen. The move as efficient  cause is not the pen as the instrumental cause. The habit is a dispositive cause of the intellect as a power, like that of a pen as a power that is well disposed to be moved by the man. The habit of faith allows the man to be well disposed to be moved by God to make the act of faith. But neither the habit, nor the man acting are instruments which are causes associated with the act of faith. The man is a supposit, and not an instrument, who makes the act of faith. Neither faith as an act, nor as a habit is an instrumental cause, for the act and the habit have operations that are outside the species of instrumental causation.

Furthermore, faith as an act and a habit is not an instrument due to the relationships of faith to the principle causes as taught in the great exchange. Faith is said to cause the Father as a prime principle cause to impute Christ’s righteousness to the sinners account. Faith as an instrument, then causes the Father as the prime principle cause to act. But such a causation is not well formed with the notion of an instrument as that which is caused by the principle causes, such as the poet who writes the poem, rather than the instrument which is moved by the principle cause (Holy Spirit) and which moves the principle cause (Father) to act.

The contrast between the Reformers understanding of faith and that of St Thomas is shown below by outlaying the causes.

In summary -

The summary given below includes the causes given in examples (1) and (2) above to provide an ease of comparison. 

(1) indicates the causes of the poem in example 1. 

(2) indicates the causes involved in the Reformed teaching on justification by faith alone. 

(3) indicates the causes as taught by Thomas Aquinas. 

Principle Causes

Prime Principle cause - (1) God as prime mover, or prime cause.

(2) God as the prime principle cause is the Christian Trinity, or more particularly the action of 1) The Father who imputes Christ with sin and the sinner with righteousness. 2) Christ as the penal substitute cause of faith and righteousness. 3) The Holy Spirit within men to cause the habit and act of faith. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three prime principle causes in the great exchange.

(3) God as the prime principle cause is the Christian Trinity. The Father as principle sends the Son. The Son is the meritorious cause of grace. The Father and Son as principle send the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit as prime principle cause, causes grace, the virtues of faith, hope, love, prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, and the gifts - wisdom, knowledge, counsel, understanding, fear of the Lord, piety, and fortitude. Any imputation of righteousness occurs simultaneously with the infusion of sanctifying grace, the infused virtues and the gifts.

Secondary Principle cause – (1) Poet who writes the poem.

(2) man is the secondary principle cause moved by the Holy Spirit to have the habit of faith and make the act of faith.

(3) Man, as a supposit is the secondary principle cause moved by the Holy Spirit to have the habit of faith and to make the act of faith.

Secondary Causes

Efficient cause – (1) The fluid movement in the pen from the poet. The fluid move is extrinsic to the poet, but intrinsic to the pen.

(2i) The action of grace as the gift given by God to provide man with the habit of faith. 

(2ii) The action of grace as the gift given by God to move man to make the act of faith.

(3) The habit and action of grace as the gift given by God to move man to make the act of faith, with the habit of faith.

Instrumental cause – (1) The pen itself as a substance when the poet uses the pen as an instrument to write the poem. The pen as a thing moved by the primary and secondary principle causes to write the poem. The pen as an instrument of the poet is extrinsic to (outside) the poet.

(2) Faith as an instrument.

(3) Faith is not an instrument. There are no instrumental causes of justification attributed to any of the virtues or gifts. The seven sacraments are instrumental, secondary causes of grace, whereby God acts form the divine power to cause the sacrament to cause grace through the correct application of matter and form by the priest. The instrumentality of the sacraments is from God as the prime principle cause, and the priest as the secondary principle cause, which causes grace to be infused into the recipient as the effect of the sacrament. Sacramental causation is sound and well-formed and does not require an instrumental cause to cause a principle cause to act.

According to the Summa of St Thomas -

We must therefore say otherwise, that an efficient cause is twofold, principal and instrumental. The principal cause works by the power of its form, to which form the effect is likened; just as fire by its own heat makes something hot. In this way none but God can cause grace: since grace is nothing else than a participated likeness of the Divine Nature, according to 2 Peter 1:4: "He hath given us most great and precious promises; that we may be [Vulgate: 'you may be made'] partakers of the Divine Nature." But the instrumental cause works not by the power of its form, but only by the motion whereby it is moved by the principal agent: so that the effect is not likened to the instrument but to the principal agent: for instance, the couch is not like the axe, but like the art which is in the craftsman's mind. And it is thus that the sacraments of the New Law cause grace: for they are instituted by God to be employed for the purpose of conferring grace. Hence Augustine says (Contra Faust. xix): "All these things," viz. pertaining to the sacraments, "are done and pass away, but the power," viz. of God, "which works by them, remains ever." Now that is, properly speaking, an instrument by which someone works: wherefore it is written (Titus 3:5): "He saved us by the laver of regeneration."

Formal Cause – (1) The form of poem received by the ink as written on the page.

(2i) The form of sin legally imputed to Christ.

(2ii) The form of Christ's righteousness legally imputed to the sinners account.

(3) form of sanctifying grace, the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Material cause – (1) The ink and page which receive the form of poem.

(2i) Christ, or Christ’s account, which receives the legal imputation of men’s sins.
(2ii) The sinner, or the sinner’s account, which receives the legal imputation of Christ’s righteousness.

(3) Man, who receives the infused virtues and the gifts.

Final Cause – (1) The final end of the poem, such as beauty, goodness, money, etc.

(2i) The glory of God as a motivation for the great exchange.
(2ii) The glorification of men as a motivation for the great exchange.

(3) The glory of God and the beatitude of the elect.

Effect – (1) The poem as a thing caused by the principle, efficient, instrumental, formal, material and final causes.

(2) The beatitude of the elect in heaven as the end product of the great exchange.

(3) The Christianisation of man, along with the ability of man to merit eternal life. The glory of God and the beatitude of the elect.

The Thomistic understanding of justification by faith is to have God as the prime principle cause acting to infuse the Christian life of grace into man. Once grace is received, man can live the Christian life and merit eternal life by free acts performed with grace. The infusion of grace, the theological and cardinal virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit order man's intellect, will and sensitive powers of concupiscence and irascible appetites towards God who is the supernatural Trinity, as the final, ultimate end of the man's moral life.

The union of the divine acts of imputing justification and infusing grace as an act of justification are both performed simultaneously by God as the prime principle cause. The action of God as the prime principle cause does not require that faith act as an instrument to cause God to do anything. The Thomistic understanding of faith as a cause, only causes the intellect to give assent to divinely revealed truths and thereby unite man’s intellect to God according to revealed truth understood. The union of man with God through the infused virtues does not require any infused virtue to act as an instrument, but only as either a dispositive cause in a power, as a habit, or as an efficient cause to enact the power, as through actual grace God gives to man.

The infused theolgical virtues direct man's intellect and will towards God as the object of the powers. The intellect has the habit of faith to know God as God knows himself. The will has the habit of charity to love God as He loves himself, and hope to desire God as a desired difficult good to be obtained. The theolgical virtues act to direct man's powers of intellect and will towards God as the object of the acts of faith, hope and love. As the object of the powers is God as supernatural, then the powers are raised to act in a supernatural manner to direct man to his supernatural ultimate end, as the Trinity in heaven.

All the causes within the Thomistic understanding of justification are sound and well formed.

JM