The Great Divide

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The Continental Divide of the Americas or the Great Divide runs from the western tip of Alaska at the Seward Peninsula to Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost tip of South America. The Continental Divide stretches over 6,000 miles and basically divides the water flowing into the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In 1880 the French attempted to construct a sea-level type inter-oceanic ship canal through the 40 mile Isthmus of Panama. One of the greatest challenges that confronted them was digging through the rock and shale of the Continental Divide in order to unify the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

By 1889 the French abandoned the project, and the United States began work there in 1904. The passageway through the Continental Divide was called Culebra Cut but later renamed Gaillard Cut for the engineer responsible for cutting an eight mile long section out of the rugged mountain range, Colonel David Dubose Gaillard.

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The original elevation was 312 feet above sea level where the canal crossed the Continental Divide. The highest promontory looming over the canal is Gold Hill at 587 feet above sea level; across from it to the west is Contractor’s Hill, originally 410 feet above sea level but reduced to 370 feet. By 1913 the U.S. successfully completed bridging the two oceans with a lock-type canal.

There are three sets of locks on each end of the canal to raise and lower ships. Ships must be raised 85 feet above sea level to cross the Continental Divide. Each ship passing through the waterway requires an average of 52 million gallons of fresh water to operate the locks which is then released into the sea.

The water source for the canal operation is Gatun Lake, an artificial lake 85 feet above sea level, approximately 164 square miles fed by the Chagres River. The lock chambers are filled and emptied by gravity, water flowing through a series of 18 foot diameter tunnels. Transit time through the Panama Canal is normally 8 – 10 hours. Each chamber lock is 110 feet wide and 1,000 feet long, taking about 8 minutes to fill or empty.

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Since its opening on August 15, 1914 until the end of the fiscal year of 2006, there had been 943,042 vessels that crossed the waterway (an annual average of 10,250 vessels). Though the canal looks like a river in many places, it is actually a great big ditch that stretches approximately 50 miles from deep water Atlantic to deep water Pacific with an average depth of 43 feet. The width of the waterway varies between 500 to 1,000 feet.

To turn a dream, centuries old, of uniting two great oceans into a reality was a monumental task and a magnificent testament of human achievement. For the United States alone, the Canal saves 8,000 nautical miles between the east and west coasts, avoiding the dangerous and expensive trip around Cape Horn in South America (the Drake Passage). From New York to San Francisco a ship will sail roughly 14,000 nautical miles if sailing around Cape Horn; via the Canal, the same trip is about 6,000 nautical miles.

But such a remarkable engineering feat had a dark side. During the French construction period it is estimated that 22,000 people lost their lives due to disease and accidents and failed to span the two oceans; the U.S. successfully bridged the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans reportedly with 75% fewer casualties (5,609) during it building period to disease and accidents. In all over 27,000 people died in the building of the Canal. (Source: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/index.htm)

The Panama Canal ranks among the wonders of the world. It is an awe-inspiring engineering achievement. The incredible obstacles pitted against such a project were enormous in scope (see http://www.pancanal.com/eng/general/canal-faqs/index.html). Nonetheless, human ingenuity and determination overcame such barriers, and ironically, the country of Panama became a land divided in order to unify two oceans for economic progress in the world.

After traveling the Canal from Balboa to Gamboa, going through the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks, it reminded me that we love to span things. Whether it is digging canals, boring through the earth, making roads, or building bridges, it is in our nature in trying to connect two points separated by some natural barrier, by going over it, around it, through it, under it, or removing it. We possess an innate desire in seeking a better way of getting from point A to point B; barriers only excite the visionaries. Unfortunately, this same inner drive carries over into the spiritual realm where there is a barrier preventing man from traveling to God by his own path.

But rather than seeking the path that God has provided, man looks at the obstacle quite differently than God and attempts to circumvent it, looking for a better way. But your iniquities have separated you from your God (Isaiah 59:2a). Man has made every attempt to cross this barrier between man and God through good works, relying on birthright, or through sheer will power (cf. John 1:12-13). Probably in the history of man, hundreds of millions if not billions have died without Christ in an attempt to construct a passageway to God other than through faith in God's Son.

This great divide between God and man was created when man chose to rebel against God in the Garden of Eden; and man has been trying ever since to cross over that great spiritual divide through a better way in an attempt to reach heaven’s shores.

Here is the insurmountable problem; there isn't a better way; no amount of ability or determination will enable man to traverse this great divide (Ephesians 2:8-9). God never said it was impossible (Mark 10:27) only impossible by man’s own efforts.

The word “separated” in the Isaiah passage is the same word used in Gen 1:4b during the creation week, And God divided the light from the darkness. In both accounts a sharp distinction is being drawn: in Genesis light and darkness and in Isaiah holiness and ungodliness. God produces a separation between light and darkness; sin produces a separation between God and man. God desires to discriminate between light and darkness and holiness and ungodliness; they don’t mix! The great divide excludes darkness from light and man from God.

So how does man cross this great divide if it is humanly impossible? Through faith in Christ,

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of your selves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Jeremiah the prophet stated, And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).

The Apostle Paul instructed, That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:9-10).

Jesus claimed, I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved (John 10:9a-b).

To cross over this great spiritual divide caused by our sin, we must be willing to answer the knock on our heart’s door and obey the voice of Jesus to open it and allow Him to enter in,

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me (Revelation 3:20).

The only provision for spanning the great spiritual divide is through faith in God’s only provision for sin that separates us from Him, Christ’s death on the cross at Calvary. It is here and only here that we find the forgiveness of sin and gain access to God. The cross bridges the great spiritual divide. There is no other way across. Jesus described Himself to His disciples,

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). Jesus is the only way to heaven.

Jesus gave a stern warning concerning the sin of unbelief, of being headstrong in seeking another way across,

For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins (John 8:24b; cf. Acts 4:12).

Man ingeniously and industriously sliced through the Continental Divide by dividing an isthmus of land and bringing two oceans together for economic reasons. Jesus, on the other hand, made a way to provide every man, woman, and child with free, unlimited access to God by removing the great spiritual divide that separated them from God through faith in His Son for the express purpose of man sharing in the eternal life with Christ.

It took the lives of over 27,000 people to bridge two oceans. It took only the life of one Man, Jesus Christ, to provide a way across the great spiritual divide for every man, woman, and child on earth who by faith accepts God’s provision for sin. The only way to get across the great spiritual divide is simply placing your faith in Christ. Only through Christ Cut will anyone be able to reach the other side. <><