There is a chasm between us and God that only he can span, and he did that through Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus became the pure sacrifice needed to pay for the destruction of sin and the distance it puts between us. We don’t get to God without that cross.

We try to earn it. We try building our own bridges. We may even turn our back on the chasm and try to walk the other way only to discover the chasm is on all sides. We’re stuck on a pillar of sin, no help in sight.

Then Jesus says he will create the bridge for us. He will stand in the place of judgment for every single human being ever. By his body, dying for us on the cross, he creates a bridge we can walk across to closeness with God forever. Jesus offers a way off the pillar and across the chasm.

He doesn’t make us accept; he offers. But living on a pillar’s precipice and stepping off repeatedly doesn’t have to be our way of life.