TAXI

Yup, that’s a taxi. A water taxi. Takes you, on demand, to where you want to go around Sydney harbor (recognizable from the landmark in the background—the iconic shells of Sydney Opera House).

Cities across the globe from Amsterdam to Venice have this species of water transportation. Gets you from point A to point B. In this case from one of the quays in Sydney to the remarkable Taronga Zoo. (More on the Zoo in another installment of the aBeLOG.)

But I’d never seen one before. Rather unusual, I thought. A water taxi!

But special circumstances—water!—demand special solutions. One can’t walk, one can’t swim, one can’t fly the distance. The usual means of getting across don’t work. So … an unusual remedy: water taxi!

Some distances in life cannot be spanned even by water taxi. Some gaps in life call for a special solution. Distances that are impossible for us to cover on our own. Gaps too wide for bridging by the usual means. An unusual remedy is needed.

A particular Gap yawns before us starkly—that between us and a holy God.

Your sins have made
a separation between
you and your God …
Isaiah 59:2

The Gap of sin. Our sin. Mine. An unspannable Gap. An irremediable separation. And there’s nothing we can do to bridge it.

And the result, God says, is separation forever from Him, the source of life. So the Bible calls it “death”—the eternal kind.

For the wages of sin is death ….
Romans 6:23a

That’s it! We’re done for. Hopeless! Helpless!

All kinds of remedies have been propounded for this most lethal affliction by all manner of people all across the ages. Epicureans say: Don’t worry about. Just enjoy life! But with eternal death hanging over my head, I can’t. Stoics say: Well that’s too bad, but there’s nothing we can do about it; so, stiff upper lip, old chap! That doesn’t help me one bit. Pythagoreans assure us: God will work a miracle and take everyone home to be with Him one day. Yeah? But that just makes a mockery of God and His righteousness and justice. Platonists assert: God can’t really do anything about it. So just be good and do good and that will outweigh the bad stuff in the end. OK, I’ll try.

[Many tries later (and out of breath) …]

I don’t think I’m any closer to God. In the sinful state that I find myself from birth to death, nothing I do ever seems to outweigh all the divine-law-breaking I’ve engaged in.

Sin is lawlessness.
1 John 3:4

Hopeless. Helpless.

But there is good news. A water taxi!

Well, not exactly ….

For the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God
is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23

Jesus Christ, God Himself, took our sin and paid its price—forever, fully, finally! Unusual means of transportation, indeed.

But God demonstrates
His own love toward us,
in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

Sins no longer separate us from God, provided, of course, we accept that price.

For God so loved the world,
that He gave
His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish,
but have eternal life.
John 3:16

And that’s the “price” of the ticket on the taxi. Belief. Faith. Trust. In the truth that God in Christ died for us, rose on the third day, paying for our sins.

Thanks be to God
for His indescribable gift!
2 Corinthians 9:15

Free ride! All aboard!