257. Objections. 1.
From 1 Cor. 13:8: Love never ends. But charity is inseparable from
grace. Therefore grace is never lost.
I distinguish the major.
Charity of itself continues also in heaven, as contrasted with what happens to
other gifts, v.gr., prophecies, which come to an end with mortal life, conceded;
charity, once acquired, now cannot be lost even by reason of the subject in
which it is found, denied. I concede the minor and distinguish the
consequent. Grace of itself continues also in heaven, conceded; it
cannot be lost because of sin, during this life, denied.
2. From Mark 16:16: He who
believes and it baptized will be saved. Therefore justice, once acquired,
cannot be lost.
I distinguish the antecedent.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved, if he perseveres to death in
faith and the acquired justice, conceded; otherwise, denied.
3. Grace is a spiritual being. But
the soul and the light of glory, spiritual beings, are indestructible.
Therefore also grace is indestructible.
I deny the parity.
For the soul is a spiritual substance, but grace is a spiritual accident. The light
of glory, although it is an accident, is given in the next life, not in this
life, like grace about which we are speaking.
4. Though grace a just man
acquires the right to glory. Therefore God would be unjust if he did not grant
it; therefore grace cannot be lost.
I distinguish the antecedent.
Through grace a just man acquires a true right to glory, but provided that he
perseveres in grace to death, so that glory can be given to him, conceded;
otherwise, denied. Therefore that right, although it is a true right,
can still be lost by sin, just like grace itself, which is its foundation.
5. From 1 John 3:9: No one born
of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because
he is born of God. Therefore, justice, once acquired, seems to be something
that cannot be lost.
I respond that
here the inability of grace to be lost is not expressed; for in the same letter
(2:1) it is assumed that the just can sin. Therefore, the meaning here seem to
be Divine grace and sin mutually exclude each other; therefore the justified
person, either does not sin or, if he does sin, by that fact he ceases to be
just. On this point St. Thomas says: “For thus it was said: No one born of
God commits sin, as if it were said that what is hot cannot become cold (however
what which is hot can become cold, and thus it will be cooled), or as if it
were said: ‘A just man does not do anything unjust, that is, inasmuch as he is
just’” (4 CG 70). (Severino González Rivas, Sacrae Theologiae Summa, 4
vols. [trans. Kenneth Baker; Keep the Faith, Inc., 2014], 3-B: 167-68)
