‘Generation For Ever’ – When You Follow Jesus
I’m excited to tell you that I belong to Generation For Ever! What generation do you belong to? Just in case you don’t remember all the different terms for recent generations, they go like this:
Baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964.
Gen X were born between 1965 and 1980.
Gen Y (also known as millennials) were born between 1981 and 1996.
Gen Z were born between 1997 and 2012.
And Gen Alpha starts with children born in 2012.
My son keeps calling me a “boomer,” and from his perspective, not in a flattering way. He’s actually not correct. Technically, I actually belong to Gen X.
There is a problem with all these generations, and that is no matter what generation you belong to, you’re bound to be replaced by the next one.
That’s why there’s a much important generation to which I belong, and that’s Gen For Ever. “What’s that?” I hear you ask? It’s the generation that’s going to live for ever!
Gen For Ever isn’t like any other generation. All other generations are mutually exclusive. If you are a baby boomer, you will never be able to belong to Gen Z. But you can belong to Gen For Ever at the same time as whatever other generation you were born into.
There is an even more important difference between Gen For Ever and all other generations. Those born into other generations had no choice what generation they were born into. For example, if you were born between 1965 and 1980, you automatically belong to Gen X, and you had no choice about it.
Anyone Who Wants to, Can Belong to Generation For Ever!
But Gen For Ever is different. Anyone who wants to, can belong to Generation For Ever, no matter how old you are. You see, it’s the children of God who get to live forever, and John 1:12–13 tells us that,
…to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God (John 1:12–13.)
Also, right there is the key to how to become part of Gen For Ever. You need to trust in Jesus. Here it is again:
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life… (John 3:36.)
Elsewhere, Jesus said it like this:
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (John 17:3.)
The Christian Faith isn’t as Complicated as People Make It
You can become part of Gen For Ever by believing in Jesus and by knowing him. These two things go together; in fact, they are part of what it means to have a healthy relationship with someone: you get to know that person so that you trust them.
The Christian faith isn’t as complicated as people have made it. It is essentially about entering into a trusting relationship with God through Jesus. When you do that, it changes the whole focus of your life. The apostle tells us that because we trust Jesus,
we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor. 4:18.)
Generation For Ever is the generation that will never be redundant and which will never be replaced. It’s the non-exclusive generation that anyone from any other generation can belong, because it’s been opened up by Jesus to all who believe.
We proclaim a Saviour who has established a new and everlasting generation, available to all because of what he accomplished by his dying for our sins and rising for our eternal life.
Article supplied with thanks to Dr Eliezer Gonzalez.
About the Author: Dr Eli Gonzalez is the Senior Pastor of Good News Unlimited and the presenter of the Unlimited radio spots, and The Big Question. Sign up to his free online course called Becoming a Follower of Jesus to learn about Jesus and His message.
Feature image: Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash