289. Grace, Sin, and the Need for Divine Aid

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Article 8: Can Man Avoid Sin Without Grace? #

• The Core Question: Whether a man in mortal sin can avoid all sin without grace
• Thomas’s Key Distinction: Man can avoid individual acts of sin, but cannot avoid all sin without grace
• The Problem of Disordered Nature: When reason is not subject to God, disorder follows in all human acts; the lower appetite must be subject to reason, and reason must be subject to God
• In Corrupt Nature: Man needs habitual grace to abstain from mortal sin; he cannot avoid all venial sins due to corruption of the lower sensual appetite and inability to maintain constant vigilance
• Sin as Defect: Man’s failure to prepare himself for grace, or to seek divine aid, is itself sinful—not merely his inability to avoid sin without grace

Article 9: Does Habitual Grace Suffice Without Further Divine Aid? #

• The Question: Whether one who has received grace can do good and avoid sin without further aid of grace
• Critical Response: Habitual grace is not given so that no further divine aid is needed
• Two Distinct Kinds of Divine Aid:
  1. Habitual Grace (forma): The infused gift that heals and elevates human nature
  2. Divine Motion (motio): God’s continuous movement of the created will toward good action
• The Analogy of Being: Just as all creatures need God’s conservation to continue existing, they need God’s motion to continue acting well; this is not a defect in grace
• The Condition of Corrupt Human Nature: Although grace heals the higher powers (intellect and will in their capacity for grace), corruption remains in the flesh; obscurity remains in understanding regarding what is expedient for us

Article 10: Does Man Need Special Grace for Perseverance? #

• The Question: Whether one constituted in grace needs special grace to persevere until death
• Three Senses of Perseverance:
  1. A habit by which man stands firm against sadness (analogous to continence against pleasure)
  2. A habit giving man the proposal or intention to persevere in good
  3. The actual continuation of good all the way to the end of life
• For the Third Sense: Man needs divine aid directing and protecting him against temptations; this is not another habitual grace but divine motion
• The Gift of Perseverance: Not all who receive grace receive the gift to persevere; this must be asked from God in prayer
• Comparison to Adam’s State: Adam in innocence received the ability to persevere but not the certainty; through Christ’s grace, many receive both the ability and the certainty to persevere

Key Arguments #

Objection and Response Pattern (Article 8) #

Objection 1: “No one sins in that which he is not able to avoid” (Augustine, De Libero Arbitrio). If man cannot avoid sin without grace, he does not sin by sinning.

• Response: Man can avoid individual acts but not all sin without grace; his failure to seek grace is itself sinful

Objection 2: Correction would be in vain if man in mortal sin cannot avoid sin.

• Response: Correction works through sadness, which God uses to inspire regeneration; God operates both extrinsically (through rebuke) and intrinsically (through hidden inspiration). However, this is not sufficient without God’s continued aid.

Objection 3: Man has free will to choose good or evil; therefore he can avoid sin without grace.

• Response: This principle applies only to integral nature (before sin); in corrupt nature, the statement “whatever pleases man will be given to him” applies only insofar as grace helps the will wish the good

Objection and Response Pattern (Article 9) #

Objection 1: Grace is given in vain if further aid is needed.

• Response: This confuses habitual grace with divine motion; both are necessary, just as being requires God’s conservation. Even in the state of glory, man will need divine assistance.

Objection 2: The Holy Spirit is omnipotent and dwells in the justified; therefore He is sufficient.

• Response: The operation of the Holy Spirit is not circumscribed by habitual grace alone; He continuously moves and protects us alongside the Father and the Son

Objection 3: This leads to infinite regress—if man needs another aid of grace, he would need another after that, and so on.

• Response: This confuses habitual grace with divine motion; there is no infinite regress because God is the first mover whose motion does not presuppose another motion

Objection and Response Pattern (Article 10) #

Objection 1: Perseverance is less than virtue; man does not need grace for virtue, so much less for perseverance.

• Response: The objection conflates different senses of perseverance; habitual perseverance may be given with grace, but the actual gift to persevere to the end requires divine aid

Objection 2: All virtues are poured in together with grace; therefore perseverance should be too.

• Response: Again, a distinction between habitual perseverance and the gift of actual perseverance is necessary

Objection 3: Christ’s grace restores more than was lost through Adam’s sin; therefore man should be able to persevere as Adam was.

• Response: True, but Adam’s state in innocence lacked the rebellion of flesh against spirit that exists in corrupt nature; our state requires ongoing healing and protection despite the superiority of Christ’s gift

Important Definitions #

Grace (Multiple Senses) #

Berquist notes that Augustine and Thomas use “grace” (gratia) in different senses that must be distinguished:

1. Gratuitous Love: God’s favor toward someone (e.g., “Joseph had grace in the sight of the prison keeper”)
2. Habitual Grace (gratia habitualis): An infused gift that heals and elevates human nature; a form or quality in the soul
3. Divine Motion (motio Dei): God’s continuous movement of the created will toward good action

Berquist emphasizes that the distinction in the latter part of the lecture involves grace being used “in difficulty”—that is, in different senses that can be confusing without careful analysis.

The Four Causes Applied to Grace and Divine Action #

Berquist connects Aristotle’s four causes to the distinction between habitual grace and divine motion:

• Matter: Prime matter
• Form: Habitual grace acts as a form in the soul (like the soul giving life to the body)
• Mover: God’s motion toward action
• Maker: God creating things and giving them their nature (Second Book of Summa Contra Gentiles)

Berquist notes that in the Third Book of Summa Contra Gentiles, Thomas discusses God as the end of all things and the mover moving everything toward that end—a different causality than the maker’s causality.

States of Human Nature #

• Integral Nature: Before sin; capable of avoiding all sin without habitual grace (but needing God’s conservation and motion); man had the ability to persevere but not the certainty
• Corrupt Nature (present state): After original sin; needs habitual grace to avoid mortal sin; cannot avoid all venial sins; remains subject to “rebellion of flesh to the spirit”
• Glorified Nature (state of glory): In eternal life; cannot sin; does not need further healing but still depends on God for conservation and motion; man both is able to persevere and cannot stop loving God

Examples & Illustrations #

The Habit of Sin and Vigilance #

Thomas explains that when a man has a preconceived habit of sin (praecogitata inclinatio), he tends to act according to that habit unless he maintains constant vigilance through reason. However, man cannot always maintain such vigilance; therefore, he inevitably falls into sin according to his disordered inclination. This is why even the justified person cannot avoid all venial sins.

The Disordered Soul and Obscurity of Will #

Berquist illustrates the problem: if a man’s heart is not firmly fixed in God, he will not know how to achieve good or avoid evil. He will often violate God’s precepts and thus sin mortally, especially in sudden circumstances where he acts “according to his preconceived inclination and according to his pre-existing habit,” as Aristotle notes in Nicomachean Ethics, Book III.

The Eye and Light (Augustine’s Analogy) #

Augustine: “Just as the eye of the body, fully healthy, needs to be edited by the candor, brightness of light, is not able to discern things, right? So also man, most perfectly justified, unless he be aided by the eternal light of divine justice, divinely, he cannot live rightly.”

This illustrates why habitual grace (the healing of the eye) alone is insufficient without divine motion (the light).

The Flesh and the Spirit #

Berquist cites St. Paul (Romans 7): “In my mind I serve the law of God, but in my flesh I serve the law of sin.” This shows that even the justified person experiences the corruption of the lower appetite and cannot achieve perfect freedom from venial sin due to the persistence of bodily resistance.

Perseverance of Species vs. Individual Perseverance #

Berquist offers an analogy from natural philosophy: Can a reproducing animal ensure the perseverance of its species? No—an individual animal can generate its offspring, but it cannot ensure the continuation of the species across time. Similarly, a man cannot choose to ensure his own perseverance in good throughout his entire life; this requires a superior cause (God’s special grace of perseverance).

Notable Quotes #

“Whoever denies that we ought to pray, lest we enter into temptation…should be removed from the ears of all, right? And the mouth of all.” — Augustine, cited by Thomas on the necessity of prayer

“Consider the works of God that no one can be corrected whom he despises.” — Ecclesiastes 7:14, cited in response to objection on correction

“In my mind I serve the law of God, but in my flesh I serve the law of sin.” — St. Paul, Romans 7, cited to show the partial corruption of human nature even after justification

“The sin that is not at once wiped out by penance by its weight draws into another.” — Gregory the Great on Ezekiel, cited by Thomas on the tendency of sin to perpetuate itself

Questions Addressed #

Q1: Can a man in mortal sin avoid all sin without grace? #

Answer: No, in corrupt nature. Man can avoid individual acts of sin, but he cannot avoid all sin without habitual grace. The lower sensual appetite remains corrupted, and the will, not being subject to God, inevitably falls into disorder. Venial sins in particular cannot be avoided because reason cannot always vigilantly restrain the motions of the lower appetite.

Q2: Is habitual grace sufficient for right action without further divine aid? #

Answer: No. Habitual grace is necessary and good, but man also needs the continuous motion (motio) of God to act rightly. This is because: (1) all created things need God’s power to act, and (2) human nature remains partially corrupted in the flesh and obscured in understanding regarding what is expedient. The eye may be healed, but it still needs light to see.

Q3: Must man ask God for perseverance to the end of life? #

Answer: Yes. While habitual perseverance (the virtue) may be given with grace, not all who receive grace receive the gift to actually persevere to the end of life. This must be asked from God through prayer, as Christ taught: “Lead us not into temptation” and “Thy will be done.”

Q4: Why does infinite regress not follow from needing continuous divine aid? #

Answer: Infinite regress does not follow because God is the first mover (primum movens). God’s motion of the creature to act does not itself require another motion; it is the ultimate source of all motion. The distinction is between habitual grace (a form given once) and divine motion (God’s continuous causality).