On the Justice of God and Our Merit [FREE]

Brief Notes

There are two species of justice, commutative and distributive. Commutative justice concerns the relationship of those who are equal in the communication of goods between them (in mutua datione et acceptione). Distributive justice concerns the relationship of those who are as superior and inferior. In this, the superior communicates to the inferiors whatever they deserve (dat unicuique secundum suam signitatem).

Justice concerns that which is due, i.e., debt. Hence, the question arises, whether we can speak of justice within God?

It the first sense, it is clear that we cannot speak of justice in God since we cannot give to God anything sufficient to oblige him by that purchase to give back to us payment. As St. Paul teaches, “who has first given to him, and recompense shall be made him?” (Rom. 11:35)

Yet, the case of distributive justice is different since it does not oblige on the basis of some gift given, but on the very order which exists between the dignity and reward. In fact, distributive justice properly denotes some dignity in the rewarder insofar as he upholds the order of justice, e.g., a king upholds the civil order by rewarding on the basis of civic virtue.

Hence, God upholds this order both by punishing the wicked and rewarding the just, “there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also that love his coming...Alexander the coppersmith hath done me much evil: the Lord will reward him according to his works.” (2 Tim. 4:8, 14)

Yet, it is important to investigate more carefully the notion of debt for a more profound understanding of the matter. Debt denotes some sort of order of necessity or “exigency” existing in some thing ordering it toward another (ordo exigentiae vel necessitatis alicuius ad quod ordinatur).

It is necessary to consider the order itself. For, the order itself is something that is created. Order is some sort of relation. Now, relation is an accident that inheres in a subject. Hence, it only arises from the creation of that subject in which the relation of order arises. Whereas it existed fundamentally in the Divine Intellect before the creation of things by the measure of His Wisdom as the eternal law and measure of justice, it only came about formally by the creation of things.

It is for this reason that God, even in paying justice, is not a debtor to things, but to Himself as the author of the order of justice (Debitum enim est Deo, ut impleatur in rebus id quod eius sapientia et voluntas habet...). Hence, St. Thomas proves extensively that the universal production of things cannot proceed from justice since a payment of justice presupposes both the creature to whom the debt is owed and the very order as established.

The same applies to the supernatural order. Whereas we cannot merit our own justification (since no supernatural principle existed that would have a certain exigency for such justice), we can merit increases in justice and the rewards of heaven (as St. Paul mentions above).

Speaking of the matter of creation, St. Thomas says that “If we consider the production of a particular creature, it will be possible to find in it a debt of justice by comparing a subsequent creature to a preceding one...Accordingly, in those divine effects which were to be produced first, we find no debt, but in the subsequent production we find a debt...” (SCG2.C29)

It is for this reason that St. Thomas speaks so frequently of the “ordination” of grace when speaking about merit (meritum hominis apud Deum esse non potest nisi secundum praesuppositionem divinae ordinationis, ita scilicet ut id homo consequatur a Deo per suam operationem quasi mercedem, ad quod Deus ei virtutem operandi deputavit). It is not due to some sort of voluntaristic appraisal of grace as meriting something that is not due to it in distributive justice, but because in the first creation and production of grace there is no preceding merit. Hence, the order of supernatural justice needed to be established by God and ordered to Himself as its reward.