Pascal on the Excellence of Christ
By Douglas Groothuis
The great French scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) had a keen awareness of Jesus’ centrality in reality, his teachings, his unique identity, and his matchless work for our salvation. Spiritual insights are scattered throughout Pascal’s writings, but they are not merely fragments unrelated to his worldview. For Pascal, Christ was the center of reality, and all things point to him. He gives us a rich feast of truth about Jesus to fortify our spiritual lives and to defend apologetically.
KNOWING REALITY THROUGH JESUS CHRIST
Consider a profound quote from Pascal extolling the comprehensive significance of Christ with respect to our apprehension of reality.
Not only do we only know God through Jesus Christ, but we only know ourselves through Jesus Christ; we only know life and death through Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ we cannot know the meaning of our life or our death, of God or of ourselves. Thus without Scripture, whose only object is Christ, we know nothing and can see nothing but obscurity and confusion in the nature of God and in nature itself.[1]
In Pensées and elsewhere, Pascal strives to gain and to give his readers the knowledge of God through his writing. Whether he explores skepticism, diversion, self-deception, the greatness and misery of being human, miracles, or prophecy, he desires to dispel ignorance and dispense life-changing truth. His aim in all this is to know reality “through Jesus Christ,” as he says. Without that—without him—we remain buried in obscurity and confusion about everything. Nature, the nature of God, the nature of ourselves, and the meaning of our life and our death are all obscured from us. Pitiful state, that is!
Pascal also holds a view we can call “the unity and indivisibility of knowledge” thesis about ultimate matters. “Man’s true nature, his true good and true virtue, and true religion are things which cannot be known separately.”[2] Since all truth is one, since God is the source of all truth, and since our nature, virtue, and religion are all conceptually and existentially intertwined, Pascal’s claim seems to hold. Paul says much the same in his goal for the church. “My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:2-4). However, we may have partial knowledge of our nature, the good, and religion without attaining its fullness through God’s revelation in Christ and Scripture. Nevertheless, I think that Pascal’s point stands: that all of reality is anchored in Christ.
By claiming that we can only know reality “through Jesus Christ,” Pascal means that Christ holds the key to unlocking the meaning of existence. Moreover, for Pascal, Scripture (which is Christ-centered) is the vehicle through which we know Christ. It is the epistemic authority about Christ, and it has credentialed itself through prophecy and miracle (see 2 Tim 3:15-16; 1 Pet 1:20-21). Pascal may have been thinking of passages such as this, in which Paul speaks of Christ.
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Col 1:15-20)
If we believe this testimony—and many others like it in the New Testament—then we can return to Pascal’s quote for answers. We know God through Christ because Christ revealed him, being “the image of the invisible God” and being “the fullness of God.” We know ourselves and all of nature to be God’s creatures and that Christ holds all things together in divine power and meaning. We know that we need to be reconciled to God through Christ’s “blood, shed on the cross.” Since all things were created “through him and by him,” we should live for Christ and we can die in Christ at peace, knowing that, like Christ, we will rise from the dead (1 Cor 15). Thus, without Christ, we can know nothing in its proper perspective, nor can we live life with the proper orientation to God, humans, and the rest of creation.
Pascal’s statements about Christ should not lead us to believe that he marginalizes the two other member of the divine Trinity. Pascal never denies the Trinity. He is an orthodox Catholic and mentions the Trinity five times in Pensées. His most developed comment on the Trinity comes in relation to the meaning of the church as a body of members.[3] Pascal is not a Christo-monist; however, his focus in Pensées is on Christ as the revelator of God, who can restore “deposed kings” to their rightful place before God and others. Thus, his focus on Christ is missiological and apologetically driven, and he did not intend to write a Christology treatise or systematic theology.
THE OFFICES OF CHRIST
Pascal extols and exalts Christ in his recitation of Christ’s unparalleled achievements for his “great people.”
Jesus Christ. Offices. He alone had to produce a great people, elect, holy and chosen, lead them, feed them, bring them into the place of rest and holiness, make them holy for God, make them the temple of God, reconcile them with God, save them from God’s anger, redeem them from the bondage of sin which visibly reigns in man, give laws to this people, write these laws in their hearts, offer himself to God for them, sacrifice himself for them, be a spotless sacrifice, and himself the sacrificer, having himself to offer up his body and blood, and yet offer up bread and wine to God.[4]
Let us briefly savor these offices of Christ, although a book in itself could be written by exegeting and explicating this paragraph. In this, we are “boasting” about Christ, just as Paul did (Rom 15:17; Gal 6:14). Only Christ “produces a great people” (the church) by his agency. These people are especially favored by him in their redeemed status, their prerogatives, and their provision. All this is through Christ, who does the following through his death on the cross. Consider the action verbs Pascal uses as I try to list and consolidate Christ’s stupendous achievements with Scripture texts affixed. He produced “a great people” (2 Pet 2:9) who are
1. elect and chosen (Eph 1:4-5);
2. fed and led by him (Jn 6:35; 8:12);
3. given a place of rest (Mt 11:28);
4. made holy (Col 1:22; 1 Pet 1:15-16);
5. made into the temple of God (1 Cor 6:19-20);
6. reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:17-18);
7. saved from God’s anger (1 Jn 2:2; 4:10; Rom 3:25);
8. redeemed from bondage to sin (Gal 5:1; Col 2:14-15; 1 Jn 3:8); and
9. given laws (Jer 31:33; Jn 14:15; Heb 10:16).
Christ achieved the following:
1. He offered and sacrificed his body and blood to God for them (Jn 1:29; Heb 9:12).
2. He is a spotless sacrifice to God and for them (2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 1:18-19; Heb 4:15; 1 Jn 3:5).
3. He offered up bread and wine to God (1 Cor 11:23-25).
Few paragraphs so richly sum up the work of Christ as Pascal’s 106 words. Part of “knowing Christ” and knowing all things through Christ, as quoted above, is knowing his offices and achievements for his “great people” made great by Christ alone. As the ex-slave trader, abolitionist, pastor, and hymn writer John Newton (1725–1807) said shortly before his death, “My memory is nearly gone. But I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.” Blaise Pascal was a brilliant scientist, mathematician, and philosopher, but he was likewise an insightful spiritual counselor, who loved his Savior deeply.[5]
Notes
[1] Blaise Pascal, Pensées, trans. A. J. Krailsheimer (New York: Penguin, 1995), 120.
[2] Ibid., 121.
[3] Ibid., 108-109.
[4] Ibid., 204-205.
[5] Taken from Groothuis, Douglas. Beyond the Wager: The Christian Brilliance of Blaise Pascal (pp. 129-133). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
— Douglas Groothuis is University Research Professor of Apologetics and Christian Worldview at Cornerstone University and is the author of twenty books, including, most recently, Beyond the Wager: The Christian Brilliance of Blaise Pascal (InterVarsity-Academic, 2024) and Christian Apologetics, 2nd ed. (InterVarsity-Academic, 2022).
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