ROCKWALL/ HEATH, TX. (June 27, 2014) For several months I walked my dog along the farm road that crosses the creek bordering our neighborhood. Barricades had closed the road to traffic while a road crew worked to replace an old, unsafe bridge with a better one. Without trucks and SUV’s whizzing by, it felt like we owned the road.
I enjoyed watching the new bridge take shape, until finally it looked good-to-go. But the road remained closed for weeks longer, until workers could install guard rails and paint road stripes. Didn’t the road crews—absent for days at a time—know how many folks waited anxiously to have their road reopened?
Living on the town side of the bridge, I could only sympathize with those on the country side. They must be languishing over the completed, yet inaccessible bridge, exasperated by their several-miles detour on a curvy, rutted road day after day.
Then, without fanfare, the signs and barricades came down; the road was open for traffic. But the road stayed quiet. People didn’t seem to notice the work was done. Maybe someone should have replaced the flashing detour message with another announcement: Bridge Finished—Road Open.
It made me think that Christians should do something like that too. We know the ‘bridge’ is open. But others haven’t heard the Good News, that Jesus is the way “through which we draw near to God” (Hebrews 7:18; ESV).
So many people—including me at one time—believe that God accepts us based on our personal goodness or our good works, which sounds reasonable. But the writer of Hebrews explained that if we had been able to keep God’s laws perfectly there would have been no reason for a new covenant between God and man, “much more excellent than the old” (Hebrews 8:6-7).
Trying to qualify ourselves for heaven is about as safe as taking detours. We might do well enough most days, until we take a wrong turn on a dark night, or we hit a pothole that sends us careening off the road.
God provided the perfect way to himself through Jesus Christ, “in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him” (Ephesians 4:11-12).
The bridge is finished and open. We need to spread the news.
By Blue Ribbon News guest columnist and contributing writer Patti Richter of Heath.
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