I’ve been thinking recently about bridges. They bring two things together, cross chasms, and make a way where there previously was no way. I’ve been thinking about how they are built and when I researched bridges and bridge construction, I discovered something interesting. The arch-style bridge design is one of the oldest bridge designs in the world and was used for the aqueducts of Rome. It is known for its natural strength and durability. But for an arch-style bridge to be constructed, it must be built from both sides across the void to meet in the middle. It cannot be built from one side to the other. We often think about our relationships in this way as well. Every relationship involves two parties and when a relationship is broken, both parties have to come together, accept responsibility for the part they played, and work to repair the break and mend the rift in the relationship. This is true of our relationships with one another here on earth, but what about the bridge God built to us through His work on the cross?
Romans 5:10 says, “For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” When sin came into this world, it produced a chasm between us and God and the relationship was broken and separated by that sin. We could not be in right relationship with God in our sinful state. But God. Our God, the Great Bridge Builder, sent His Son to this earth to be rejected, mocked, beaten and crucified so that God could make a way back to His children. We did nothing and could do nothing to earn or work towards our salvation. We did not meet God halfway or build our side of the bridge to meet Him in the middle. God built the entire bridge, paved in Jesus’ blood, from His Holy Self, all the way across the abyss to us sinful children, to make a way to restore His relationship with us. One of the most striking things about this is that He built the bridge for the sake of every single person here on this earth, no matter how unworthy and no matter how many of us never choose to walk across it to be restored in our relationship with Him.
Romans 5:6-8 says, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” When we think of all the most heinous and evil things that have been done in this world and the people who have done them, it is almost unfathomable to think that God would have chosen to make the ultimate sacrifice for their sake, our sake. But that’s who our God is. That’s how beautiful He is. That even for ones so ungodly and so undeserving, as we all are, He built that bridge. The lyrics of the song Beautiful One ring true: “Beautiful One, I love. Beautiful One, I adore. Beautiful One, my soul must sing.” Beauty such as this drives the only right response: to accept this breathtaking gift and walk across the bridge into the loving arms of our Saviour, who made the ultimate sacrifice because of His great love for us. And as we go on from there, we fall back on the end of verse 10, “much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” He didn’t stay in the grave and simply pay the cost of our ticket to heaven to save us one day, but He rose again to send His Spirit to us, to save us now by living His life through us.
The last words of the song sing, “And You opened my eyes to Your wonders anew. You captured my heart with this love. Because nothing on earth is as beautiful as You.”
By: Lauren Wagner
