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What road are you on?

Most of us are on the freeway of life: busy, fast, and rarely asking where it ends. Where does your road lead? What do the signs say?

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Jesus, Matthew 7:13–14
Start the drive
EXIT 1

Creation

Where does it all come from?

A single unbroken path runs through golden morning light toward a radiant sun.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

Every road starts somewhere. The Bible's first sentence makes a bold claim: the universe is not an accident. It has a Maker. If that's true, you aren't a random collision of atoms. You were made on purpose by Someone who knows you, and who knows the way.

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Romans 1:20
More road signs
  • The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Psalm 19:1
  • Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1:3
  • By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 11:3

Detours people take

"Science explains the universe. We don't need God."

Science is brilliant at explaining how nature works. It can't tell us why there is something rather than nothing, or why the universe follows laws orderly enough to study at all. Many of the founders of modern science (Kepler, Newton, Pascal) studied nature precisely because they believed a rational God made it. Faith and science answer different questions; they don't have to compete.

"Then who made God?"

Anything that begins to exist needs a cause. The universe had a beginning; God, by definition, did not. If every cause needed a cause, nothing would ever get started. At some point you arrive at something eternal and uncaused. The Bible says that's God.

"Isn't it all just chance?"

The physical constants that make life possible are tuned to an astonishing precision. Shift some of them even slightly and there would be no stars, no chemistry, no us. You can call that luck, but when you find a watch on the road you don't assume the wind assembled it.

"If God made the world, why is it so broken?"

That's exactly the right question, and the Bible agrees the world is not the way it's supposed to be. That's the next exit.

Pull over and talk

When you look at a night sky or hold a newborn, what does it tell you? If there really is a Creator, what would that mean for your life?

If God made us, what went wrong?
EXIT 2

Sin

Road closed: what went wrong?

Under a stormy sky the ground has split into a deep chasm. A person stands at the edge, cut off from the faint light beyond.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23

"Sin" means missing the intended target. It's a small word that describes a big deal. We were made to know God and love others, but each of us has taken the wheel and gone our own way. The result is like a bridge washed out on the highway. Our wrongs separate us from God, and no amount of speeding up gets us across the gap.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23
More road signs
  • We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6
  • But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:2
  • There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. Proverbs 14:12
  • If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:8

Detours people take

"But I'm a good person."

Compared to whom? Most of us grade ourselves against other people. God's standard is his own perfect goodness. Try a quick check: Have you ever lied? Taken something that wasn't yours? Put something else ahead of God? Most of us are a lot better at seeing other people's wrongs than our own. Good news is only good once you see the bad news.

"A loving God wouldn't judge anyone."

A judge who ignored evil wouldn't be loving. He would be corrupt. God is both just and loving. He doesn't want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). His justice means sin must be dealt with; his love means he made a way to deal with it himself, at enormous cost. That's the next exit.

"Sin is an outdated idea."

We may use different words (brokenness, mistakes, toxicity, injustice), but every one of us knows the world is not how it should be, and if we're candid, neither are we. The Bible just names it plainly and tells us where it leads.

"What I've done is too bad to be forgiven."

The apostle Paul once hunted down Christians. He later wrote: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst (1 Timothy 1:15). No road is too far gone for God to reach.

Pull over and talk

Where have you seen the world, or your own heart, fall short of how it ought to be? Do you think it's possible to fix that on our own?

The bridge is out. Who can rebuild it?
EXIT 3

Jesus

The bridge across the gap

At dusk a wooden cross lies across the chasm, forming a bridge toward the setting sun.

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Hebrews 9:22

Wrongs carry a cost. Someone always pays. Sin is so serious that it costs a life. Instead of making us pay, God came himself. Jesus, fully God and fully human, lived the perfect life we haven't, then died on a cross in our place, taking the penalty we deserved. Three days later he rose from the dead. He is the bridge across the washed-out gap.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8
More road signs
  • For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. 1 Peter 3:18
  • Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15:3–4
  • Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

Detours people take

"Jesus was just a good moral teacher."

Jesus didn't leave that option open. He forgave sins, accepted worship and said, I and the Father are one (John 10:30). A merely good teacher wouldn't say those things. As C. S. Lewis pointed out, someone who claims that is either deceived, deceiving, or telling the truth. Jesus is either Lord or not good at all. "Nice teacher" isn't on the map.

"How do we know he even existed, or rose?"

Non-Christian historians of the first and second centuries, including Tacitus and Josephus, mention Jesus and his execution. Within a few years of his death, his followers were proclaiming an empty tomb in the same city where he was buried. Paul lists over five hundred eyewitnesses to the risen Jesus, most still alive to be questioned (1 Corinthians 15:6). And his followers went to their deaths rather than deny it. People die for lies they believe; they don't die for lies they invented.

"Why blood? That sounds primitive."

It sounds harsh because sin is that serious. It destroys lives, so a life is what it costs. What's stunning is not that God required a sacrifice, but that he became the sacrifice. The judge stepped down from the bench and paid the fine himself.

"Don't all roads lead to God?"

Religions differ on the most basic questions: who God is, what's wrong with us, and how it gets fixed. Almost every road says, "Do enough and maybe you'll reach God." Only one says God came down the road to reach us. Salvation is found in no one else (Acts 4:12). That isn't narrow-mindedness; it's a rescue.

Pull over and talk

Who do you think Jesus is? If he really rose from the dead, what would that change?

The bridge is built. How do I cross?
EXIT 4

Forgiveness

Crossing over: how do I receive it?

In bright dawn light a person walks across the cross-shaped bridge toward the sun.

If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:9

A bridge does you no good until you cross it. Forgiveness is a gift: you can't earn it, only receive it. Crossing over looks like this:

  1. Admit that you have sinned and need God's forgiveness.
  2. Believe that Jesus died for your sins and that God raised him from the dead.
  3. Commit: turn from your own way, trust Jesus, and follow him as Lord.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16
More road signs
  • For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8–9
  • Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12
  • Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans 10:13
  • If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

Detours people take

"I need to clean up my life first."

You don't wash before a bath. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Come as you are. Cleaning up is what God does after you come.

"It's too easy. I must have to earn it."

It's free to you because it was costly to him. Every other road says "do"; this one says "done." Grace is a gift, not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:9).

"Maybe later."

That's fair, and there's no pressure here. But none of us knows how long the road is. Now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). If something is holding you back, it's worth naming it and talking it through.

"How could I ever know I'm really forgiven?"

Not by feelings, which come and go, but by God's promise, which doesn't. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13).

Pull over and talk

Is there anything holding you back from receiving this gift right now?

Ready to cross?

You can talk to God right now, in your own words or with words like these. The words don't save you. Jesus does, when you trust him.

Lord Jesus, I admit that I have sinned and gone my own way. I believe you died for my sins and that God raised you from the dead. I turn from my way and put my trust in you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for forgiving me and giving me new life. Help me follow you from here. Amen.

I prayed this today I'm not ready yet

That's okay. This road will still be here. Bookmark this page, read the Gospel of John, and keep asking honest questions.

EXIT 5

Spiritual Growth

The road ahead: where does it lead now?

On the far side of the bridge a person walks a path through green, growing land toward the morning sun.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

2 Corinthians 5:17

Crossing the bridge isn't the end of the road. It's the start of a new one. Following Jesus is a lifelong journey of being formed into his likeness. You won't do it perfectly, and you don't have to do it all at once. The most important thing is to simply do the next thing.

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:6

Your first miles

  • Read. Start with the Gospel of John, a chapter a day. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path (Psalm 119:105).
  • Pray. Talk to God honestly, every day, about everything. He's listening.
  • Gather. Find a church that teaches the Bible. Nobody drives this road alone (Hebrews 10:24–25). Ask a pastor about baptism.
  • Tell. Let someone know what you've decided, starting with the person who shared this with you.
More road signs
  • So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6–7
  • But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18
  • Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1

Bumps in the road

"I still mess up."

Everyone does. Growth is gradual, like a child learning to walk. When you stumble, confess it and keep going: he is faithful and just and will forgive us (1 John 1:9). God finishes what he starts (Philippians 1:6).

"I don't feel any different."

Feelings are like the weather; God's promises are like the road. Keep driving on what's true, and over time you'll look back and see how far you've come.

"Church people have hurt me."

That's real, and it's painful. The church is a family of forgiven people, not perfect ones. Look for a healthy, Bible-teaching community, and give it another try. Jesus never meant for you to walk alone.

Pull over and talk

What is one next step you could take this week?