The New Bridge

Friars Bridge was opened in 1986 admist great stir here in Inverness and there is no doubt that this new bridge was welcomed by most.

Although it was designed to serve a particular purpose with regards to the city's traffic congestion, it has the same general purpose of all bridges, that is to give ready access between two otherwise isolated points. The two points may be the two banks of a river, as in the case of the New Ness bridge, or the two opposite sides of a ravine, or a gulf, or chasm. Most people have learned to be thankful for the bridging of such opposite points, and to feel a sense of gratitude for the engineering skills that made them possible.

No picture better illustrates the gospel of Jesus Christ than the picture of a "bridge" spanning a divide. The gospel means good news. And it should be seen as good news, indeed, that God has provided a way for spanning the great gulf between Himself and mankind.

Please read and consider the following facts from the Bible.

1. A gulf does exist between God and men. "Your sins have separated between you and your God," it says. God, in all His holiness and righteousness, stands on one side of the divide; each and every one of us, in our natural makeup and behaviour, is on the other.
2. God provides a bridge between. That bridge is Jesus Christ His Son, and is the one and exclusive way of access into the presence of God, now and for ever. There is no other bridge; "No man comes unto the Father, but by me," Jesus says; "there is one God and one Mediator (one go-between,) between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Our own attempts at bridge-building will totally fail, the Bible assures us; "there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is the way of death." The vision of men and women falling into a ravine in that word is inescapable. All such "bridges" will utterly collapse.
3. God provides the bridge in a wonderful way. For a bridge to be effective in its purpose, it is necessary that it touches both banks: — of the river, or the ravine — whatever. In Jesus Christ the Saviour all such requirements are fully met. He came from God to Man, in order that He might bring men and women toGod. "This is a faithful saying," declares the Bible, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." He came into this world as "God manifest in the flesh," and when He had died and rose again, He returned to God to grant salvation to every one who would trust in Him. He is such a bridge as has its stanchions on either side of the divide, and can thereby give access between heaven and earth.

Dear Friend — are you thankful for such a provision? Do you make use of that bridge now, to give you a way to God in your everyday life? Are you assured of the only safe way it will give to God when this life is over and done? As the hymn says: -