Thomas and moral influence

Explaining the fittingness of Christ’s passion as the means for salvation, Thomas says “In the first place, man knows thereby how much God loves him, and is thereby stirred to love him in return, and therein lies the perfection of human salvation.” The “second” reason is that Christ by His humble obedience “set us an example of obedience.” Only in the third place does Aquinas get to the view that Christ’s passion is a symmetrical response to Adam’s fall.