The Severn Bridge

I used to work on the fifteenth floor of a tower block in Cardiff. On a clear day you could see both Severn bridges from the window. The first Severn Bridge was opened in 1966. The second one was opened in 1996. The latter is 5,128 metres in length – just over three miles.

The Severn Bridge links England and Wales. If it wasn’t for the Severn Bridge, you would have to make a fifty-seven-mile detour around Gloucester to get in or out. Before the first Severn Bridge, you would have used the Aust Ferry to cross the waters of the River Severn. The Aust Ferry began operating in 1926, but we are told that ferries across the Severn go back even to Medieval times.

If a remarkable feat of engineering was needed to literally bridge the distance between England and Wales over the River Severn, what would it take to bridge the infinite distance between you and me and God our Maker? God is surely above and beyond us. He is high and holy. We are small, and we are sinners, and it is our sin which especially and particularly separates us from God and enjoying His fellowship, and will do so eternally unless it is dealt with. Isaiah 59:2 states ‘Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you so that He does not hear.’

The Christian gospel proclaims that, in His great mercy, God Himself has built a bridge between Himself and us, and we may travel on that bridge, and reach Him, and be assured of a welcome and acceptance. That bridge is the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s own Son and the only Saviour of sinners.

In 1 Timothy 2:5 we read the statement ‘For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.’ A mediator is a ‘go-between’ – or, if you like, a bridge. How is Jesus this mediator? Scripture teaches that He is so in both His person and His work – by who He is and by what He has done.

The Person of Christ

Jesus is the one mediator between us and God because He is the God-man – God incarnate. In Christ, God came down to our human level. Philippians 2:6,7 says of Christ that ‘though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.’

The Work of Christ

Secondly, Jesus is the one mediator between God and us because He has dealt with the cause of the great separation between God and us, namely our sin. On the cross, He, the sinless one, was made accountable for our sins. He is ‘the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29). 1 John 3:5 states ‘You know that He appeared to take away sins and in Him there is no sin.’ When we put of faith in Jesus then, our sin problem – the sin which separates us from God – is dealt with. Through Jesus we may be reconciled to God. His cross is the bridge – the bridge which reconciles sinners to God.

The Gospel of Reconciliation

‘Reconciliation’ therefore is one of the key words of the Christian faith and integral to the Christian gospel. To reconcile means ‘to bridge’ – to bring together two sides which were previously separated or to bring together two sides which were previously at enmity or at odds. Romans 5:11 reads ‘we … rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have received our reconciliation and 2 Corinthians 5:19 explains ‘in Christ (that is, by means of Christ) God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.’

The ‘message of reconciliation’ is thus a synonym for the Christian gospel. The gospel by implication has an evangelistic appeal. It urges a response. So the apostle continues on an urgent note ‘We beseech you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God’(2 Corinthians 5:20) – that is, acknowledge you are separated from your Maker by your sin; put your faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and through Him know the forgiveness of your sins, peace with God and restored fellowship with Him for time and eternity.

So, just as the Severn Bridge enables the tidal waters of the Severn to be crossed without danger, Jesus Christ alone is the one bridge between us and a holy God. ‘He to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood’ goes the hymn. Why not memorise 1 Timothy 2:5. It is a key verse of the Bible: ‘There is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.’ And if you have never done so, put your faith in this one Mediator while you may.