Life's Purpose When we consider the world around us we find
a great deal of confusion about the purpose of life. For many the purpose of life is to:
- Acquire an abundance of material possessions ("He who dies
with the most toys wins")
- Experience limitless enjoyment of their favorite pleasures.
(Most often they are frustrated by the problems of availability
and satiety).
- Attain a certain level of position or power (They find "It’s a
jungle out there" as they run into cut-throat competition).
- Achieve a wide circle of acceptance or popularity (They find
popularity is the most fleeting thing on earth)
The typical experience in all these areas is to
have fleeting periods of elation followed by much longer periods
of dissatisfaction. Many others seem to have no purpose at all: It is not uncommon to hear people say, "I’m
trying to find myself." Their journey through life is controlled by
the external forces working on them.
There is yet another group who seem to have
embraced all the wrong purposes in life:
"I’m here for society or government to take care of me."
"My purpose in life is to cheat and defraud as many people as
I can." The communists had been convinced by the logic of
Marx and Engels that communism was the answer to the economic needs
of the world. In a 70 year period they:
- Conquered the nation of Russia and established the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics;
- Enslaved and murdered millions;
- Gained control of ½ the earth’s surface and contended for
being the world’s most powerful military power.
Yet, in 1989 they began an open admission that it
had all been a delusion and a colossal failure. They had embraced
the wrong purpose.
Of all the religions and philosophies competing
for acceptance there is only one group of people who have found an
abiding peace in their purpose. It is those Christians who have
sincerely and truly embraced the true God, the only Savior, Jesus
Christ and God’s truth. To the extent they walk in fellowship with
God according to truth God has revealed they experience the greatest
purpose that is possible.
There Are Some Things True Believers Know
It is true that believers know many truths by
faith in the revelation of God. It is also true that believers try
and prove the word of God and find it to be more reliable than all
the reasoning of man.
Believers Know That Man Came Into Existence By
the Creative Act of God
"Then God said, Let
Us make man in Our image,
after Our likeness…" And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the
ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living being." Genesis 1:26; 2:7.
Man was created in the peak of physical
condition. He was composed of body, soul, and spirit and he
possessed intellect, emotion and will. He bore the character
qualities of God. To this man was given a female counterpart who was
his perfect match in every way. This man and woman were placed in an
environment designed to abundantly meet their needs. The evenings of each day were reserved to walk
and talk with their Creator, God.
Believers Know that Man Fell From This Pristine
Estate As a Result of Sin
Our first parents were privileged to live in a
virtually unlimited paradise and enjoy unhindered fellowship with
God. In this paradise God only placed one restriction. "Of
every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day
that you eat of it you shall surely die." Genesis 2:16b, 17.
Our first parents understood the one thing
forbidden by God and the consequences if they disobeyed. And yet,
they allowed the fallen angel, Lucifer, to persuade them to violate
God’s one prohibition. In that day they died in their spirit.
In time they would die physically as a result. They could pass on
physical life to their children, but that physical life would be
inclined to live in disobedience to God. Cain was the first child
born to woman. He would be the first baby to pat his mother’s cheek.
In time he would lift up that same hand and murder his brother.
All descendants of Adam and Eve would be born
with a fallen nature. David spoke of it when he wrote, Behold, I
was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me."
Psalms 51:5. The apostle Paul explained it when he wrote in
Romans 5:12, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into
the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men,
because all sinned---". Man’s spirit and nature is still alive
to things physical and material, but is dead to God. To be made
alive again to God man needs a spiritual birth by the Holy Spirit.
Believers Know That God’s Son Received The
Punishment For All Their Sins
We like to think of God as loving, kind,
gracious, merciful, and compassionate…and He is. And yet, God is
also holy, righteous and just. The Ten Commandments ought to make
that exceedingly clear. In addition, the whole Bible is full of the
holiness, righteousness, and justice of God. Before God can shower
the abundance of His love upon us, the justice of God must be
satisfied. We can rejoice that what God’s justice demanded the love
of God provided. "In this is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
[sacrifice] for our sins." 1st John 4:10. The word
"propitiation" comes from the Day of Atonement observed by Israel
for nearly 1500 years before Jesus died on the cross. It finds its
meaning from the sacrificial goat and the scapegoat. The sacrificial
goat pictures how our sins have been laid on Jesus Christ, God’s
Son, and how He received the full punishment for our sins as our
substitute. The scapegoat pictures how our sins have been separated
from us who have received Jesus as our Savior so that God will never
identify us with our sins again. The justice of God has been
satisfied and the only obstacle hindering mankind from the salvation
God has provided is their own refusal to accept Jesus Christ as
their Savior.
Believers Know There Is New Life In Christ
"He who believes
in the Son of God has the witness in himself…And this is the
testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in
His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son
of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you
who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know
that you have eternal life." 1st John 5:10-13.
This is what Jesus was talking about when He said
to Nicodemus, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to
you ‘you must be born again’" John 3:6,7 When any sinner
receives Jesus Christ as their Savior the Holy Spirit gives them a
spiritual birth. Their spirit is made alive to God and they become a
child of God in the fullest sense. They have the witness of the Holy
Spirit within affirming that this is so (See Romans 8:14-17). It may
take them some while to discover that long before they were born God
knew this would come to pass and He already has a plan and a purpose
for their life.
Believers Know That God’s Greatest Purpose For
Them Is To Conform To The Likeness of Christ.
"And we know that all things to work
together for good to those who love God, to those who are called
according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined
to become conformed to the image (likeness) of His Son, that
He might be the first-born among many brethren." Romans 8:28,
29.
God’s primary concern and purpose for His
children is what they are to be even more than what they are to do.
That is the reason He allows "bad things" to come into the lives of
His children. In His great wisdom He allows just the right mix of
"good things" and "bad things" to shape His children more and more
like Jesus Christ.
Believers Know That Out of What God Shapes Them
To Be Flows God’s Purpose of What God Wants Them To Do
Pastor Rick Warren has led in identifying those
qualities God has produced (and is producing) in each believer to
shape them for the unique purpose God has for their lives. The
forces at work molding each believer are seen in the following
acrostic:
Spiritual Gifts – 1st Corinthians
7:7b
Heart – Ephesians 6:6; Philippians 2:13
Abilities – 1st Corinthians 12:6
Personality – 1st Corinthians 2:11
Experiences – Spiritual, Hebrews 5:12, 12;
Painful, 2nd Corinthians 1:4; Educational, Proverbs 4:13
and Ministry, 2nd Corinthians 9:13.
An understanding of these five areas in our life will determine
what our ministry is to be. "The will of God" is not so much the
geography of where we are as it is what we are to do wherever we
are. Success in God’s purpose in my life is faithfully being what
God wants me to be and doing what God wants me to do. Every sincere Christian should seek the knowledge to
see how God has been shaping them for the unique ministry He has for
them.
To completely understand God’s purpose for us we
need to be aware that God sees each believer as a member of Christ’s
spiritual body. Even as our physical body has eyes, ears, nose,
mouth, hands, feet ,etc. even so every believer is a living member
in Christ’s body. "For as we have many members in one body,
but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being
many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of
another." Romans 12:4,5 (See also 1st Corinthians 12;
Ephesians 3:6; 4:4, 12,16; 5:23,30; Colossians 1:18; 2:17, 19,
3:15).
These scriptures also reveal that Christ’s body
is the church in its entirety as God sees it. The local church is
the manifestation of Christ’s body, the church, as man sees it. The
New Testament reveals that God has five purposes for the church:
evangelism (telling the good news of Christ); discipleship
(growing from a newborn babe in Christ to spiritual maturity);
ministry (serving the needs of others with our spiritual gift(s);
fellowship (entering into a spirit of community with fellow
believers) and worship (admiring, loving and praising our
God).
When a believer begins to grasp how God has
uniquely shaped them and that they are a vital member of Christ’s
body contributing to the five purposes of the church they will truly
begin to find peace in their purposes.
Copyright © 2002 Thomas E Berry
All Scriptures quoted from NKJV unless otherwise noted
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