the power of the united Word, who operates according
to His will. And consequently, it is not necessary for the effect to
follow at once, but according as the Word of God disposes, namely,
that first of all we be conformed to the suffering and dying Christ
in this suffering and mortal life; and afterwards may come to share
in the likeness of His Resurrection.

Reply Obj. 2: God's justice is the first cause of our resurrection,
whereas Christ's Resurrection is the secondary, and as it were the
instrumental cause. But although the power of the principal cause is
not restricted to one instrument determinately, nevertheless since it
works through this instrument, such instrument causes the effect. So,
then, the Divine justice in itself is not tied down to Christ's
Resurrection as a means of bringing about our resurrection: because
God could deliver us in some other way than through Christ's Passion
and Resurrection, as already stated (Q. 46, A. 2). But having once
decreed to deliver us in this way, it is evident that Christ's
Resurrection is the cause of ours.

Reply Obj. 3: Properly speaking, Christ's Resurrection is not the
meritorious cause, but the efficient and exemplar cause of our
resurrection. It is the efficient cause, inasmuch as Christ's
humanity, according to which He rose again, is as it were the
instrument of His Godhead, and works by Its power, as stated above
(Q. 13, AA. 2, 3). And therefore, just as all other things which
Christ did and endured in His humanity are profitable to our
salvation through the power of the Godhead, as already stated (Q. 48,
A. 6), so also is Christ's Resurrection the efficient cause of ours,
through the Divine power whose office it is to quicken the dead; and
this power by its presence is in touch with all places and times; and
such virtual contact suffices for its efficiency. And since, as was
stated above (ad 2), the primary cause of human resurrection is the
Divine justice, from which Christ has "the power of passing judgment,
because He is the Son of Man" (John 5:27); the efficient power of His
Resurrection extends to the good and wicked alike, who are subject to
His judgment.

But just as the Resurrection of Christ's body, through its personal
union with the Word, is first in point of time, so also is it first
in dignity and perfection; as the gloss says on 1 Cor. 15:20, 23. But
whatever is most perfect is always the exemplar, which the less
perfect copies according to i