The Knowledge of God and the Mediator
True knowledge of God is not attainable through mere contemplation of the mutable creation. The mind must pass beyond all changeable things to the unchangeable Substance, learning that God alone is the Creator of all that is not divine. But this ascent is blocked by vice. The human mind, though naturally rational, is incapacitated from enduring the pure light of God. Therefore, purification by faith is required, and this faith is established by the God-man, Christ Jesus.
Christ is the Mediator between God and men, not merely as teacher but as the very Way and the End. As the Way, He is the path by which the disabled mind is healed; as the End, He is the goal. The necessity of this Mediator arises from the chasm between the unchangeable God and changeable, sinful man. Only a Mediator who is both God and man can effect reconciliation. “Since, if the way lieth between him who goes, and the place whither he goes, there is hope of his reaching it; but if there be no way, or if he know not where it is, what boots it to know whither he should go?” The Incarnation provides that sure and infallible way.
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