Some of the greatest feats of engineering have been achieved by bridge-builders. The seemingly impossible has been accomplished as amazing structures have spanned wide stretches of water or deep canyons. The longest bridges in the world are the two parallel Lake Pontchartrain causeways which connect the cities of New Orleans and Covington, Louisiana. They stretch for an almost unbelievable length of 38.6 kilometres.
But the greatest bridge-builder of all times has been the Lord Jesus. He has spanned the yawning chasm between a Holy God and ungodly sinners. This gulf developed after Adam and Eve sinned against God in the Garden and Genesis 3 ends with God driving out the man whom He had created, from His presence.
Other verses confirm this sad condition: "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear," Isaiah 59.2. Ephesians 2.13 speaks of those "who sometimes were far off …" Romans 5.10 refers to us as enemies of God. "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works …" Colossians 1.21. The ingenuity and skill of man could never have provided the answer but the great redemption plan, designed by God, reflects His wisdom, power and eternal love.
How can God and sinners be reconciled, how can peace be made? There is need of a Mediator who can satisfy the demands of God’s justice and meet the exceeding need of sinners. He must be able to deal with the problem of sin which has caused the distance. Thank God, God found such a Mediator in the person of His own Son. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son …" John 3.16; "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) … John 1.14; "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," 1 Timothy 1.15; "For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost," Luke 19.10; "For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus," 1 Timothy 2.5.
If peace is to be made, then God’s justice must be appeased and His righteous claims met in full. Then and only then can mercy be shown to sinners who deserve nothing but eternal banishment from God. The sufferings of Christ upon the Cross are God’s full and final solution to the problem of sin.
"And, having made peace through the blood of His Cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself," Colossians 1.20; "…God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself," 2 Corinthians 5.19.
At Calvary, God meted out to His sinless Son the judgment deserved by us eternally and uncomplainingly, willingly, Christ bore the fearful penalty in full and at length was heard to triumphantly proclaim, "It is finished!" This signifies that a full atonement has been made, the debt has been paid, the work has been done and the judgment has all been borne.
To have your sins forgiven and enjoy the blessedness of reconciliation, you have but to trust Christ. Any further efforts on your part will be an insult to Him who claimed to have done all upon the Cross.
This may seem simple, but failure to trust Christ will result in you being in that dread place of torment referred to in Luke 16 from which there can be no escape. "And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence." Luke 16.26 That gulf is unbridgeable.