A BRIDGE NOT BUILT BY HUMAN HANDS

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

On October 17, 1989 the San Francisco–Oakland earthquake, also called Loma Prieta earthquake, struck the San Francisco Bay Area in Californian. It was the strongest earthquake to hit the area since the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. It caused 63 deaths, nearly 3,800 injuries, and an estimated $6 billion in property damage. The earthquake significantly damaged the transportation system of the Bay Area. The collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct (Nimitz Freeway) caused most of the earthquake-related deaths. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge was also damaged when a span of the top deck collapsed. In the aftermath, all bridges in the area underwent seismic retrofitting to make them more resistant to earthquakes. Over 280,000 commuters rely upon this bridge to get to and from work each day. It is one of the major bridges in the bay area that provides access to work and business.

 

Every time we travel over a bridge we trust the men and women who designed the structure as well as those who built it. We trust it is sturdy and will withstand not only the weight and abuse of the traffic it handles each day but also the weather and elements that beat away at it through the years.

 

Man-made bridges fail at times. They are designed to withstand regular use not massive earthquakes that are beyond their stress levels. They fall and break into a million pieces because they are designed by imperfect men and women who are limited by current design parameters, materials that are perishable and by restricted state financial budgets.

 

But there is a bridge that is provided by God that is not made of earthly material nor designed by mankind. It is a bridge that is divinely provided by the power of God that has always existed and always will until the end of time as we know it. This bridge is Jesus Christ.

 

In the beginning Adam and Eve enjoyed the potential of eternal life and eternal communion with their Heavenly Father. They had everything they would ever want, but they also had free will. They chose to exchange the eternal for the temporal, the heavenly for the earthly, and the righteous for the unrighteous. They breached their relationship with God and created a huge chasm that nothing made by man could ever cross.

 

Romans 6:23 proclaims the fact;

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

The wages of Adam and Eve’s sin of transgression was death.  But Christ is the bridge that can span the gulf between man and God. Christ can restore and establish an eternal relationship with God for anyone who chooses to believe in Him as his or her Lord and Savior.

 

Romans 3:22-24 tells us;

“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

 

Every single person that is ever born is born into sin because of the transgression of Adam and Eve. We are born with a flesh nature that is patterned after that decision that Adam and Eve made. But again, we must remember that Christ is the bridge that allows us to cross the canyon of sin and permit us to fellowship with Him, the Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit.

 

Many bridges require a toll to travel across them. This is used to maintain the bridge so it will not fail. The bridge God has provided will never fail because it was established by His Holy Eternal Son; Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ paid for access to God by His death on the cross. We cross this bridge when we give our lives to God by accepting Jesus Christ as our LORD and SAVIOR. This bridge is indestructible and eternal. Once we cross it when we accept Christ as our savior we are secured and placed in the Hands of God. As we seek to live by Christ’s example, are guided by the Holy Spirit who is given to us when we are saved and walk according to Holy Scripture we validate that we are truly “Born-Again” spiritually.

 

When the San Francisco Bay Bridge failed commuters scrambled to fine alternative routes to get to work. They traveled miles out of their way to fine a different bridge to cross the bay.

 

In their spiritual lives, people do the exact same thing. Sensing the spiritual hole in their soul that desires a relationship with God, they will search numerous paths, religions, belief systems, groups, cults, therapies, meditation techniques and spiritual treatments to fill that hole and to bridge the gap that exists between them and God. But they seek earthly answers to a heavenly question. The heavenly question is, “What will you do about your sin?” Because of their sin they cannot have a relationship with God. This is the crevasse that holds back mankind from calling God, Abba Father. No earthly solution, answer, path or treatment will do. A heavenly question or dilemma requires a heavenly answer. The only heavenly answer to mankind’s desire to bridge the gap between them and God is Jesus Christ.

 

In John 14:6 Christ says,

“‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

 

You cannot find any alternate route, path, road, freeway, trail, street or boulevard that will lead the way to God other than accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior.

 

But why would anyone try to seek any other way to bridge the gap between themselves and God rather than Christ Himself? There are several reasons.

 

First, our fleshly nature desires to find the answer it wants without God. While we realize our soul desires something more from life than earthly existence, we often seek to fill this need in all the wrong ways. We become foolish and think we can find fulfillment outside of a relationship with God.

 

Romans 1:21-23, 25 expresses this truth when it states;

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised.”

 

It is amazing sometimes how far and wide we will search to find fulfillment when God is only a prayer away. We will ignore all the ways God may seek to show Himself to us and draw us to Him because we want our problems and needs filled “our way.” In our pain or pride; our sorrow or selfishness, we will investigate and commit ourselves to earthly solutions to the heavenly question that needs a heavenly answer.

 

Secondly, we are not alone in this world. Satan and his demons exist in the world around us and strive to blind us to the truth.

       

2 Corinthians 4:4-5 tells us;

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

 

Satan knows more about us than we can even imagine. He will use our weaknesses to lead us down paths that have deadly consequences. He is so adept at blinding our intellect and discernment that we can choose deathly paths that seem very logical and rational to us at times. The fleshly nature we live with is also no help and Satan knows this. He will appeal to our flesh whenever and wherever possible to substantiate his case that the answer he provides is not only a good answer, but that it is better than the godly answer that our Heavenly Father offers to us.

 

I would strongly encourage you to seek the bridge laid down by God that provides the answer not only for salvation and eternal life, but to a fulfilled and meaningful earthly life as well. Jesus Christ is the bridge to a relationship with God that is not only stable and strong but also heavenly and eternal.  

 

Luke 19:10

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

 

Acts 4:12

“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

 

Acts 2:21

“AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’”   

 

Romans 10:9

“9 if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”

 

Romans 1:16

“16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,”

 

Hebrews 9:27-28

“And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”

 

Mark 16:16

“He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved will be condemned.”