4 “They cried out, ‘Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’ So he delivered Him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified Him …”
John 19:15-42 (ESV)
While I was in high school, I learned the bridge diagram. The bridge diagram is a tool for sharing your faith that utilizes a fairly easy-to-understand drawing.
Put simply, the evangelist would draw a little stick figure person at one end of a chasm. At the bottom of the chasm he or she would write the word “sin,” and on the other side of the chasm the evangelist would write “God.”
The evangelist would explain that the chasm illustrates the separation between God and man created by sin’s entrance into the world. Then the evangelist would draw a cross in the chasm with the horizontal beam of the cross bridging the chasm.
This illustrates the fact that Christ’s death on the cross bridges the separation between man and God, whereby man through faith could return safely across the chasm to God.
Over the years, I’ve successfully explained the gospel to several people through using the bridge diagram. It is a really helpful evangelistic tool, applicable to both child and adult alike.
Still, as with all attempts at explaining something as immense as the gospel, it does not do justice to the story of the Lord’s Passion.
When Jesus died on the cross, He was experiencing the greatest injustice ever committed. God Himself, Creator and Sustainer of all things, was submitting to the heinous and vile actions of His fallen creation in order to redeem the very same.
There are many explanations floating around about the true meaning of Jesus’ death, but the truth of the matter is that this heinous crime against the Master of the universe meant hope for us all.
Through His life, Jesus fulfilled all of the righteousness that God desires of all people. In His dying, Jesus bore the eternal condemnation that was rightly reserved for us because of our sin.
When we come to faith in Christ, His righteousness is applied to us, and our lives are renewed; we are united to God as His sons and daughters and get to enjoy Him forever.
Reflect This Good Friday, take some time to consider Jesus’ death. The Savior has been killed so that you and I may live. The Lamb has been slain and we have been spared.
May the truth of Jesus’ death humble us, and may His love overwhelm us.
