Crossing the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver, BC gets my adrenaline pumping. After winding through the tall, sheltering trees of Stanley Park, traffic streams onto the soaring orange bridge arching over the Burrard Inlet. Suddenly substantial ground drops away, and even ocean-going freighters look like bathtub toys beneath me. I am above the high- rise buildings on the North Shore, eye level with the mountains beyond. I am exhilarated by the view, yet relieved to reach the other side.
A bridge is a structure designed and built to span a gap or connect two independent parts. Without the Lions Gate and other bridges, Vancouver’s North Shore would be difficult to reach. The bridge provides a way to get to a desired destination.
Jesus Christ is mankind’s bridge over the chasm which separates us from God. That chasm is caused by sin. On one side is God, absolutely holy and perfect, unable to tolerate any wrongdoing. Mankind is on the other side, disconnected from God because of the entrance of sin through the disobedience of the first man, Adam. Sin shook the world like an earthquake, the mighty force of evil opening a fissure wider than mankind could cross. For creatures designed for fellowship with their Creator, there is always a yearning to cross the gap, but your iniquities have separated you from your God. (Isaiah 59:2)
God knew the laws He set out for His people would be broken again and again by their sinfulness. Attempts to walk uprightly before God are like structures of twigs set up across the chasm. They are too weak to hold the weight of sinful man, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
God, the master bridge builder, knew how He would cross the gap before it even occurred. He spared no cost, choosing His only precious Son, Jesus, to provide the way. Only perfection would do, and only Jesus, sent to earth as a man, lived a perfect life. On the rough-hewn timber of a cruel cross, Jesus laid His life down across the chasm of sin. And when He rose from the dead He provided the way for men to be reconciled to God. The unreachable distance between man and God was finally spanned. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men.(1 Timothy 2:5)
Some bridges require a toll fee to be paid before they can be crossed, but not the bridge to salvation. Jesus has paid all the cost necessary to get to the other side, and has freed us from our sins by His blood. (Revelation 1:5) Jesus Christ voluntarily laid down His life as a bridge to connect us with God. We need only believe in Him, accept Him as our Savior and Lord, and the way is provided across the chasm. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”(John 14:6) There is only one bridge to peace, joy, and eternal life. Cross at the cross of Jesus to reach the other side.