This Generation

by David Gibson

Bad News!

Jesus assessed the Jews of His day as “this adulterous and sinful generation” (Mark 8:38), “this evil generation” (Matthew 12:45), and “O faithless and twisted generation” (Matthew 17:17). Note the pejoratives: adulterous, sinful, evil, faithless, twisted. The Great Physician has pointedly and accurately diagnosed the fatal malady of our fallen human condition, whether Jews or Gentiles in the first century or the twenty-first. “. . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Good News!

Instead of giving up on mankind as irredeemable, He “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age” (Galatians 1:4).

Soon after Jesus’ redemptive sacrifice, Peter could offer hope: “Save yourselves from this crooked generation” (Acts 2:40). He had already told them how to do this--by repenting and being baptized for the forgiveness of their sins (Acts 2:37-38).

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).

Best News!

Not only does Christ “deliver us from the present evil age,” but we now have the wonderful privilege and responsibility of being “blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15 NASB).

Our lives now have meaning and purpose we never had while living by the world’s perverted standards.

Lights in the deepening darkness! Living proof that Christ can rescue anyone who accepts His standing offer through the gospel.

And His offer still stands!