What really opened my eyes to some of the inaccuracies was reading Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris. I don't believe I could add to his words so I'm going to quote the entire section.

"One of the few times I remember the Cross being clearly presented during high school youth group was when a speaker told a story about a train conductor who was responsible for lowering a bridge so a commuter train could safely pass. One day the conductor's young son came with him to work and, while playing, got trapped in the gears that lowered the bridge. As the train approached, the conductor realized his son's plight. Without enough time to rescue his son and with the train rushing toward the bridge, the condctor made the heart-wrenching decision to lower the bridge on his son so the people on the train could be saved. "And that," the speaker said, "is what God did for you." I remember thinking, God is a jerk.

I hated that story. I was mad at the conductor for bringing his son to work. Made at the son for playing in the gears. And mad at the guy for telling me the stupid story. It didn't make me appreciate the Cross more. It made the Cross seem like some sort of cosmic accident that was supposed to make me feel indebted and guilty.

Many years later I learned how inaccurate and unhelpful the analogy of the conductor is for explaining the Cross. At the root of its error is an absence of the Trinitarian nature of God.

The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. God is one in three distinct persons. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have perfect communion, and they worked together to save mankind. The work of salvation on the Cross was united work of all three persons of the Trinity. Many places in Scripture point to this teamwork. Hebrews 9:14 says, "How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God."

Jesus was no victim trapped in the gears of Roman injustice. Jesus was God himself, who willingly laid down his life. God the Father was no cruel, abusive deity who lacked pity for his child. Instead, in the mystery of the Godhead, Father and Son chose together to redeem mankind through substitution. Human sin demanded a price be paid. But God would pay the price. With his own life.

The son became sin in that he represented mankind and stood in the place of sinful humanity. God the Father administered justice. The righteous wrath and punishment that human treason and rebellion deserved was poured out on God the Son. At the Cross, God himself both delivered and received the blow.

Jesus wasn't trapped. He was in control. And he chose, because of love, to lay down his life for us. Jesus said, "For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father"  (John 10:17-18).

Jesus laid down his life. He loved his Father's glory. The Father loved his Son. And together, out of love for a lost world, they paid the greatest price to atone for sin." (Pgs. 101-102 Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris)

What a great love and sense of gratitude this understanding of what God has done for us brings! The video is finite, it gives you only a glimpse or a reminder of who God really is and what he has done. We need to be aware of the fullness of God's decision and understand the video's inability to capture who God is in order for us to appreciate The Bridge.

I hope you're having a delightful wintry Monday. Christmas is only six days away! O_O