Why were you born? It's a question may ask, sometimes in despair. Yet every human life has a purpose that transcends all life's challenges
Bill Faith: "What is the purpose of life?" It's a question that has perplexed many people over the years. Most everyone has either experienced or witnessed health and financial hardships, not to mention many insidious crimes committed by evil people throughout the world. Often these various problems lead us to question what life is all about.
For those that believe that life just evolved from a lower life form rather that having been created by a creator God, perhaps this question concerning the purpose of life is even more difficult to answer.
This question is by no means a new one. In fact, it was asked long before the birth of Christ. In Psalms 8:4 we read, "What is man that you are mindful of him, And the son of man that you visit him?" Again in Job 7:17-18 the same question is asked, but with a slightly different twist to it. It reads, " What is man, that you should magnify him, That you should set your heart on him, That you should visit him every morning, And test him every moment?"
In the Bible, we not only find the question concerning the purpose of life being asked but we also find the answer. Quoting from the New Living Translation we read, "His (God's) unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:5).
This scripture tells us that God has determined before hand that those who believe in Him and His Son Jesus Christ will be adopted into His family. Verse four of the same chapter states that, "He (God) chose us in him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. " (NKJV used except where noted).
So before the world was created it was determined that God would create a family and that He would do this through Jesus Christ. In Revelation. 13:8, it also mentions that the Lamb (Jesus Christ) was slain from the foundation of the world. Meaning that it was God's plan from the beginning that He would adopt us to Himself through Christ.
The purpose of life is far greater than anything we could imagine. The Bible informs us that if we repent of our sins and accept Jesus Christ to be our Savior that God will give us His Holy Spirit as a down-payment for eternal life and that He will adopt us to Himself (Ephesians 1:13-14, 4-5) even allowing us to be co-inheritors with Christ. Romans 8:15-17 tells us : "...You receive the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father'. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together".
John, the beloved apostle of Jesus, wrote, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God! ... Beloved, now are we children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him..." (I John 3:1-3). We are promised that we will share in the likeness of Christ. What was he like after his resurrection?
After Jesus was resurrected from the dead, he could pass through walls and appear or disappear at will. He was as he described to Nicodemus about those who are born again. "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:7-8).
Jesus was born of the Spirit at the time of his resurrection. We are told not only that he is, "The firstborn from the dead", but also that he was, "The firstborn among many brethren" (Colossians 1:18, Romans 8:29). The Apostle Paul wrote: " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruit (firstborn), afterward those whore are Christ's at His coming" (I Corinthians 15:22-23).
When Christ returns to this earth, those who have repented of their sins and have received the Spirit of God, both living and dead, will receive the reward of eternal life and be born into God's own family! "For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep [dead]. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (I Thessalonians. 4:15-17).
Yes, there is purpose for life. God created mankind for the ultimate purpose of creating a family for Himself. God the Father used Jesus to reveal the way. And as we read in I Cor. 15:49, "As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man" (Christ).
Christians are now adopted by the Father through Jesus Christ into His family as sons and daughters. And at the return of Christ to this earth we will be finally born into His family.
May we be thankful to God for the great opportunity that He has offered each of us and to be as thankful as Paul was when he wrote, "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named" (Ephesians 3:14-15).
To comment on this article or request more information, please contact James McBride by e-mail at the comment form below.
For PDF or mailed copy, see CGOM. Excerpt from New Horizons Issue 38, March/April 2003. Edited by James McBride of the Churches of God, United Kingdom.
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