Here is the first point of contact between
conscience and revelation. The Cross is not simply a testimony to the
Father's love, like the flowers at our feet, or the starry sky above our
head. It is the altar of the great sacrifice which restores man to God
and God to man. Christ is for us a Saviour as well as a Revealer.[119]
There is one perfection which can be perceived by neither the eye of the
body nor by that of the soul, unless it be revealed by a supernatural
fact. We mean the mercy of God. Pardon does not consist in the pure and
simple abrogation of condemnation; nor can it restore guilty humanity to
communion with God while the state of revolt lasts. Humanity can only be
saved by returning to God, and it will not return to God until the
divine law has been perfectly filled by it. Christ alone is capable of
completely carrying out the divine law. The obedience must go as far as
sacrifice, for the fall of man demands it. By coming here, Christ took
upon himself the wrath of God. He who was without sin was treated like a
sinner.
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