by Jonathan Keller
How long is forever? “It’s been forever since we talked” could mean anything from a couple days to a few years, maybe decades. “It took me forever to make this pie” means the pie took a few hours to make. Those “forevers” exaggerate for a rhetorical effect. In the first case, “forever” uses the length of time to express exuberance at finally speaking again; in the second, “forever” refers more to the sheer effort put into the delicacy.
If we shift to a historical view, we may find a longer sense of “forever.” Many civilizations have used the phrase “forever” to extol their monarchs. “May the king/queen/prince live forever” lifts up the desire for the monarchy to always characterize that people, showing deference to those in power over the commoners and rich alike. An empire lasting “forever,” from the vantage point of the modern day, seems frivolous considering how simple numbers like five hundred years summarize the reign of such and such kingdom. Even the geological history of the earth, taking the predominating view of Western science, can be shortened to just a “few” billion years. Forever seems more like transient fog.
The real forever showed up at the first Easter, the day of Jesus’ resurrection, a “forever” ago of almost 2,000 years. Jesus Himself encapsulates “forever past” in that He is the Word of God, who is God, and was with God at and before the creation of all things. He was there during the forever before time when God purposed to make all things for His glory and foreordain all that would come to pass. He, being God, started time, a brief “forever,” when God spoke into being all that is from nothing. To Him was promised a throne that would endure forever. When Jesus died, He cried out to His Father, whom He had known from forever, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Forever had intruded upon this world, but somehow the corruption of sin in this world intruded upon the forever relationship between God the Son and God the Father.
When Jesus rose, He vindicated all the promises of “forever to come.” Being the firstfruit of redemption, He rose from the grave with a resurrected, glorified body, the vanguard against the forces of decay to signal the age to come. Many brothers and sisters of His will surely be saved by the proclamation of the good news that the creator had come to redeem His world, and they will join Him one day with resurrected and glorified bodies to live with Him forever.
Many cultures, including our own, have sought ways to extend our lives or cheat death. Something within us hungers for life eternal, a forever that cannot be cheapened with mere numbers. By rising from the grave on Easter morning, Jesus proclaimed that the true forever has come, and that the price for forever is simple faith and obedience in Him. Forever is eternity, and forever is free for those who follow Jesus.