THE BRIDGE

When he was interviewed before taking over from Terry Wogan on Radio 2 recently, Chris Evans talked about changes in his life, and said there were years when because of how he lived he was lost, and what saved him was his relationship with Billie Piper

The idea of finding our way through life is as familiar as any in human experience, including how we think about God

You may associate words like 'lost' and 'saved', with a dated kind of Christianity, but they are Bible words that Jesus made his own, and the ideas they express are part of life in every age

It is true however, that realizing the need for rescue, or the sense of any urgency, is missing from how people think about God

You are more likely to hear people talking about how they personally feel about the spiritual side of life, and looking at the many alternatives which are on offer

It is in this setting that we need to understand how the Bible talks about human life, and what Jesus meant about being lost or saved

Though Jesus remains a popular figure, seen today as a great religious teacher, the way he talked about himself is often overlooked, especially when he said things like 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me', John 14v6

One of the simplest and best pictures of the Christian message from the Bible about Jesus, is of a bridge

Imagine a great river, within a wide valley, where crossing is quite impossible without a bridge

I remember when we lived in Wales travelling over the Severn Bridge, and watching fascinated as the new bridge was built, the platforms from each side gradually extending to meet in the middle of the estuary

Just as traffic needs the Severn Crossing, so in human experience, to reach the other side which is knowing God, there is no other way but Jesus

Jesus made it clear in his famous parables, most of all when he spoke about sheep on a hillside, as in Luke chapter 15, that we are either spiritually lost or saved, by whether we trust in him.

Picture the bar of the Cross of Jesus where his arms were pinned, stretching across the wide gap between you and God, and remember that this was the only way, this is how The Bridge was built