Why Did God Create Us? (Part 2)

Last week, we began to look at the question of why God created us, and we noted that we get clues to the answer from both Creation and the Fall. We were created in the image of God (imago Dei), which makes us uniquely suited for a relationship with Him. However, when Adam and Eve fell, the image of God was damaged, and so was our capacity to be in relationship with Him. Both of these crucial events help us to understand why we were created. We continue this discussion by noting two more areas that give us clues.

First, Redemption. For the first time since Adam, someone with a human nature perfectly bore the image of God - the incarnate Christ, Jesus in the flesh. Jesus is now both fully human and fully divine, and bears the imago Dei without flaw, without sin, without any damage at all to that image. He therefore has a perfect relationship with God in His humanity. Of course, He always enjoyed a perfect relationship with the Father in His deity, but He is also able to relate perfectly with the Father through His human nature as well.

Through the death and resurrection of Christ, paying for all sin (which follows in the pattern of the fall of Adam and Eve), Jesus does two things that relate to our question: He is able to restore the image of God to fallen people, and He is able to restore our relationship with God. When we put our faith in Christ, He puts His righteousness upon us, so that we stand before God in His righteousness with a perfect imago Dei on our account. Furthermore, from the day of salvation, Jesus begins a good work in us to form us into His own likeness - the perfect image bearer (cf. Romans 8:28-30). Then, our relationship with the Father, that was so damaged by sin (ours as much as Adam's and Eve's), is perfectly restored.

Focusing on what Redemption accomplished for us, and the qualities required in Christ to bring Redemption to us, helps us to understand our purpose even more. God created us for something, sin specifically took us in the opposite direction of that purpose, and redemption was designed to bring us back to that purpose.

Second, Mission. As part of the final instructions Jesus gave His disciples, He clearly articulated a mission for them to begin, and for the entire life of the church in the millennia to follow to carry on - a mission we call "The Great Commission," to make disciples of all nations. It is the missio Dei, the "mission of God." (Note how both the imago Dei and the missio Dei are crucial to our purpose!)

What is the Great Commission? The ongoing effort to bring this redemption to others. First, to introduce people to Jesus who offers this redemption, then to have them receive that redemption for themselves, and then to see that redemption overtake more and more of their lives for the rest of their days. We call this process "making disciples."

So, our chief mission while still on this earth is to encourage others to have the damaged imago Dei that they bear to be perfectly restored so that their relationship with God can be perfectly restored. As they grow in their faith, then they too take on more and more Christlikeness - more and more of the image of God.

This is yet another clue: Our creation, our Fall, our redemption, and our chief mission all seem to be pointing in the same direction. Our purpose for existing - the reason God created us - is becoming more and more clear.

Next week, we'll tackle two more very important questions that will help us clarify this purpose. Although it should be quite obvious where this discussion is going, there are still a few missing pieces that we need to fully understand our purpose.