As Pascal has been teaching us:
- God exists always
- God is the author of mathematical truths
- God makes us conscious of our wretchedness
- God awakens us to His mercy
- God makes us incapable of any other end than Himself
But what does Pascal say about seeking this God to arrive at God, Himself?
All who seek God without Jesus Christ, and who rest in nature, either find no light to satisfy them, or come to form for themselves a means of knowing God without a mediator. (Pascal, 556)
Seeking God without seeking Christ is to seek the divine nature without the power of forgiveness and redemption. To use a mathematics analogy, it’s learning how to solve for the unknown variable without knowing why we care. It leaves us wanting, but how are we to understand these things for “There is both evidence and obscurity to enlighten some and confuse others.” (Pascal, 564)
Does God willingly blind us from seeing Him? For Psalm 18 states that “to the pure God appears pure… and to the perverse, God appears perverse” We hear and see and understand what we want to hear and see. We cannot see the truth of God without Him opening our eyes, ears, and hearts to His truth.
Through the study of mathematics, man has sought to understand God from the beginning of time. Although, man has come far, he has yet to arrive at his destination. Eternal life and communion with the infinite cannot be attained by any work of man. We seek, experiment, and strive to enter the cosmos, but only through the grace of Christ will we succeed.
We can turn to nature to see the truth of God, but we cannot rely on nature to reveal every truth of God. For nature is an imperfect reflection of the image of the creator. We must submit ourselves to the authority of Jesus Christ and He will enlighten us to understand the works and will of God. The sovereignty of God peaks in sending, sacrificing, and authorizing his Son, Jesus Christ.
We understand nothing of the works of God, if we do not take as a principle that He has willed to blind some and enlighten others. (Pascal, 566)