The Dahlia bridge across the Highline Canal has been under reconstruction for a long time now. I’m sure that many of you have been inconvenienced by this lack of access as we have. We joke that our commute to and from church has quadrupled!
That’s nothing compared to other stories where access was interrupted. For example, in March of 2024, a container ship lost propulsion and crashed into a supporting pier of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key bridge. Whole sections of the bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River. A new bridge is under construction and is expected to be completed in 2028 at a cost of around two billion dollars. This has dramatically changed the lives of those who regularly used the bridge for their daily drive. One woman stated that she now rents an apartment closer to work to avoid a two-hour commute.
We all want easy access to work, school, shopping, restaurants, skiing, etc. What about access to God? What would you be willing to pay for a glimpse of the Almighty? In the past, people have spent fortunes gaining access to Kings and Popes, hoping for favorable influence in their lives. In the late 1600’s, a privileged few paid great sums of money just to watch King Louis XIV put on his shoes! They hoped that such access would mean having his ear for a moment, which might mean notoriety and fortune for them in the long run.
In the year 1531, in Guadalupe, Mexico, Juan Diego claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary on Tepeyac Hill. Mary reportedly asked for a church to be built in her honor. The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe now stands on the spot and is considered the most visited shrine to Mary in the world. This popularity is predicated on a false belief that Mary offers a way of accessing Jesus. The thought is that she is His mother, and has influence and sway with her Son.
All cultures have a religion of some sort. In one sense, we’re all trying to get back to the Garden of Eden. There, Adam and Eve had unrestricted access to God. Genesis tells of God walking with our first parents in the Garden in the cool of the day (3:8). With the fall into sin, Adam and Eve were sent out of the Garden, and direct access to God and to the Tree of Life was lost. Ever since, man has been looking for a way back into the Garden, away from the toil and the trials and the tears of life outside. We each have what has been described as a “God-shaped hole” inside of us. We were created for a relationship with God, a relationship that is destroyed by sin and has been since the days of Adam.
So, where is God to be found? What is the price for access? It turns out the price is enormous! An impossibility! The price for access to God and a restored relationship with Him is perfection, holiness, something we are unable to attain. Thanks be to God who has attained it for us! Christ purchased our holiness and perfection on the cross when he laid down his holy and sinless life for us. He took our sin and in exchange gave us His righteousness.
Romans 5:17 says, “For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” Isaiah 61:10 says, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.”
So, where is God to be found? How do we gain access to Him? Through His Word. God’s holy Word teaches us about His work that saves us. In Christ, God has come to us in order that we might have access to Him in holiness and righteousness by Christ’s merits alone. We burned our bridge at the fall in the Garden, but God has bridged the impossible gap between Himself and us by doing what would seem to be impossible: God’s Son became man to atone for our sin. By His blood and righteousness, our relationship with God has been restored.
Through Christ, we have the ear of Almighty God. He loves to hear his children call on Him in prayer. In 1 John 3:1 the apostle writes, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” And in 1 John 5:14 he says, “This is the confidence that we have toward [God], that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”
Our sin doesn’t just limit our access to God. It doesn’t mean we have a harder time finding our own way to him. It means that we are completely lost, absolutely cut off from Him, unless he rebuilds our relationship, unless he makes a way for that relationship to be restored.
Thank God that He has sent His Son to do just that. Thank God that He has revealed this to us in His holy Word. Thank God that He demanded from Christ the payment for our sin, and that Christ, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross to give us access as dear children to our heavenly Father.
We gather together each Lord’s day to thank and praise Him for this indescribable gift. We also come together to hear God’s Word read and preached, to confess our sins and hear again the proclamation that they are forgiven in Christ. We are encouraged together as the body of Christ, and our faith is strengthened for the days ahead.
The next time you come to a sign that says, “No Access”, say a prayer to the Father and give thanks with all your heart that Christ has opened your way to Him.
In the name of Jesus,
Pastor