Section CCCII

Concerning this work of mediation, neither is the mode doubtful nor is the extension ambiguous. For Paul exhibits the mode, the types shadow it forth, the Fathers illustrate it, and the universal doctrine of the Scriptures sets it before the eyes. Paul exhibits it when by the words εἷς καὶ μεσίτης θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, ἄνθρωπος Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς he sets forth the man Christ Jesus as a middle and an umpire¹ between God and men. The types shadow it forth, among whom Moses is eminent², through whose work, as that of a mediator³, the law was given, and concerning whom Basil⁴ relates that he bore the figure of Christ and represented the person of Christ when he stood between God—

—and men as a middle. Nor indeed must the type which preceded in the High Priest of the Jews be passed over, whom Philo⁵ calls μεσίτης and says to be situated in a certain borderland of the divine and human nature, ἵνα διὰ μέσου τινὸς ἄνθρωποι μὲν ἱλάσκωνται θεόν, θεὸς δὲ τὰς χάριτας ἀνθρώποις, ὑποδιακόνῳ τινὶ χρώμενος ὀρέγῃ καὶ χορηγῇ, “that through a certain mediator God may be propitiated to men, and by the ministry of the same may extend and bestow his grace upon them.” The Fathers succeed, from whose number Theodoret⁶ thus describes the mode of mediation: “There is one τῆς εἰρήνης ὁ πρύτανις, arbiter of peace, who joined in himself those things which were disjoined. But he named Christ man because he called him mediator; for having become man, he was mediator. And just as one who wishes to reconcile two persons contending with one another, placing himself in the middle and holding this one with his right hand and that one with his left, joins them in friendship, so he, when he had joined the divine nature to the human, conciliated an inviolable and indissoluble peace.” For he himself, as we are taught by the most splendid testimonies of the Bible⁷, took away the sin of the world; he himself made the purgation of sins; he himself cleansed our conscience from dead works; and he himself became the author of the truth which shone forth, and likewise of the grace which God dispensed and continues further to dispense.

And he willed this office of mediation to be of such breadth that it would embrace absolutely all men. Indeed, Paul calls Christ μεσίτην θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, “mediator of God and men.” But of some only, or plainly of all? This answer contained in the apostolic words is: Christ is the mediator of ἀνθρώπων, men, absolutely and simply; so that whoever is a man and participant in human nature pertains by this name alone to the mediation of Christ. Therefore, the mediation of Christ must be reckoned universal in extension; as is remarkably confirmed—to say nothing now of the things consequent, of the connection with the preceding things, or of the very care with which Paul repeats that there is one God and one Christ the mediator.