The Nature of the Mediator

Saying 'seven flaxen lines', the saints, having endured much, suffer in soul under the opposing power, indeed as participating in human nature, but they do not fall from the divine purpose. And David, having become in such a war, sings: 'I was troubled and I did not speak' (Psalm 43:5); and again: 'Why are you dejected, my soul, and why are you disturbed within me?' (Psalm 42:5); and just as his own intellect is being shaken, he encourages them, saying: 'Hope in God, for I shall confess to Him' (Psalm 42:5). Thus also the blessed Job says with gratitude, making manifest to God the sincerity of his intellect: 'For he is not a man according to me, against whom I am judged' (Job 13:15).

The word is thus being smoothed out without following: 'I myself know the things concerning myself. And since the friends, not being moved by right reasoning, and from the distressing ones standing around, think that I have suffered through sin, I am satisfied with Your testing.' Then, through them, in a certain way teaching them again, that the things concerning him are not human, he says: 'He is not a man according to me, against whom I am judged,' as knowing all things concerning him and therefore bearing it, so that the friends might imitate him, considering that the word according to him is a secret, and thus they turn away from the single delusion, so that we may come together in judgment.

As has been said, he teaches the friends to perceive that the conscience is well-situated and ready for judgment; for the conscience does not wish to come to judgment with itself. He says these things not losing boldness toward God, testifying with Him concerning righteousness, but in order to teach, as has been said, the friends that he is not afraid of reproof. For he did not have anything worthy of reproof. David, participating in this boldness, sang: 'My heart is prepared, O God, my heart is prepared' (Psalm 57:7). I wish He were our Mediator, who reproves and discerns in the midst of both. Again, these things are said in a general way, in the manner in which the first things were said, being the clearest evidence of the freedom of his soul. He prays, therefore, that there might exist some examination which demonstrates to the friends that he suffers these things not because of sin, but for the sake of a struggle. And the saint intended these things, not boasting, but first indeed, in order to...

Friends should have correct views regarding these matters, so that they do not sin against God by falling away, which happens often when they do not find or realize the sin within themselves or in others. Since the title of the Mediator is now at issue, it is worthy to understand how the Savior is called 'a mediator of God and men'. Man, therefore—and what am I saying, man—is far removed from the creature of the Creator.

You find in the nature of things that when much is separated into the same, it possesses a middle element. Just as for a simple example the shell of a nut is hard and the food is watery, there lies between us something stronger than the shell and drier than the liquid, and thus they are joined; this is also seen in nuts and in streams. Since God has separated man greatly, the Son, being consubstantial with God, possessed the human in himself, so that by the familiarity toward men and the consubstantiality toward God he might join both sides and 'break the middle wall of the partition, the enmity, in his flesh' (Ephesians 2:14), assuming the rank of a high priest.

And the high priest is a middle between God and the consecrated ones, bringing the things of God to men and the things of men to God; he offers prayers and supplications to God as sacrifices, and provides the knowledge of Him to men. He sends up a prayer, saying: 'just as I and you are one, so that these also may be one in us.' Then this will be, when God becomes 'all in all' (1 Corinthians 15:28), so that the rest may be joined to God without a mediator, becoming one spirit with Him.

For the blessed Job also foresaw this Mediator with divine sight, which is clear from 'he who is about to grasp a great beast' (Job 42:2) and from 'he who walks as if on land upon the sea' (Job 9:8). For when God was being revealed to him, there was no room for doubt that he was fully informed concerning the economy. 'Remove the rod from me, and let his terror not turn me aside' (Job 42:21). The severe discipline is signified by the name of the rod, and especially in rebuke when it is spoken. It is said concerning the sons of David: 'if his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, I will visit their sins with a rod and...'