A Further Argument for the Cross as the Meritorious Cause of Christ Acting to Create the Universe from the Motive of the Glory of God.

In a previous post entitled 

An Argument for Christ Meriting the Act of Creation of the Universe as through the Cross, 

I argued for the cross as the cause of the new creation as an anti-type fulfilment of the first creation event. The typological union of the first and second creation events through the cross concludes to the cross as the meritorious cause of Christ acting to create the universe. The following argument is proposed to further establish the truth that Christ merited the creation event through the cross.

An argument for Christ Meriting the Creation of the Universe through the Cross as through the common final end of Divine Activity as the Glory of God.

Christ created the universe via a fiat action of God as an act of divine power to bring the universe into existence from nothing (John 1:3). As all actions of God are ordered towards the glory of God, for God is the natural ultimate end of all action, then Christ created the universe for the glory of God. But contained within the notion of the glory of God is the act of the cross, which atones for men's sins and thereby causes the action of the Holy Spirit to act within men to affect justification, sanctification and final glorification of the saints. The final ends of the saints is a work of God that is ordered towards the glory of God. Therefore the sending and work of the Holy Spirit is a work caused by Christ from the cross, for the glory of God.

As both the creation event and the cross are works of Christ ordered towards the final ultimate end as the glory of God, the creation event and the cross are entwined causes of each other. The creation causes the universe and permits the salvation narrative to be carried out. By creating the universe, the creation is a cause of the cross. But because the cross is necessary as part of the salvation narrative as an act of the redemption of man, the cross is a cause of creation. For God never acts in a futile manner and as such, the initial human fall into original sin and the consequent actual sins of men that bring death must be resolved through a divine action to redeem creation and thereby cause the creation event to bear fruit in the glory of God. 

The cross then is a cause of creation and creation is a cause of the cross. As Christ's sacrifice on the cross is a meritorious act that redeems creation from sin, the cross is also a co-natural cause of the creation of the universe to attain the glory of God. But what is co-natural to another is also ordered towards another. For example, an apple is co-natural with an apple tree and thereby an apple tree is ordered towards the apple and the apple towards the apple tree. So too the act of creation is co-natural with the cross, and thereby the cross is for creation and creation is for the cross.

And because the cross as a meritorious act of God is for creation, it is co-natural that the merit of the cross is for creation. The co-naturality of creation and the cross concludes to Christ as the meritorious cause of the creation event as through the cross. The cross is then the beginning, focus and end of human history. For the cross is the source of all merit, and thereby the meritorious cause of the creation event. The cross is also the cause of final glorification of men and the meritorious cause of the restoration of the universe at the end of time.

Conclusion - The creation of the universe and the cross are both ordered towards the glory of God as through divine actions. As God is always consistent with Himself, the creation and cross events are co-natural events ordered towards each other in diverse manners. The co-natural union of the creation and cross infers the cross is required for Christ to merit the function of the creator of the universe.