Created for a purpose

When an engineer or an artisan contemplates what he wants to make, he or she works towards a purpose. They have in mind not only what they want to produce, but why they want to make it, or for what purpose it is designed. So it is with the divine Creator: he had a purpose in mind when he made the universe, the world, and humankind in his likeness. This means that there is meaning to our existence! This is the answer to our big question – what are we here for? The only one who can give a reliable answer to the question of our meaning and purpose is the brilliant designer, the creator God who made us.

The reason science cannot find the purpose of life is that science does not deal in purposes, but rather in causes. Science studies the material realities of the world, which are incapable of having purposes, because purpose demands the will of a person. Science can envisage no personality at the start of the universe, so for science there can be no intelligent design nor any purpose. Purpose is attributed by persons to what they are doing or going to do. God our Creator is both infinite and personal and when God set to making humans, he had a purpose in mind.

The next big question, then, is what was God’s purpose in creating humans? The clue is in the other expression in the context of that creation: “in his likeness”. It is a profound and complex affirmation: God made humans not infinite like he is, but personal like he is. 

He is infinite in power – to be able to create the whole universe when there was nothing before he made it. Scientists describe the amazing explosion with mighty power and extreme heat that was the beginning of all things: and they tell us the constants of physics were there from the very start. But in that very act of creation, God’s infinite wisdom and personal creativity was at work as well. So God is not mere power – he has thoughts, he speaks, he loves, he makes decisions, he is personal. And because he is personal (at an infinite level) he works according to his purposes and he is capable of telling us what his intention is for us humans. We too, made in his likeness, have similar personal ability, so that we can understand him when he communicates and enter into his purposes for us.

So it is, then, that when God speaks to humankind, he reveals his purpose for our existence – the meaning of our lives.  What a service that is that he renders to us! How thankful we should be that we can at last know why we are here and what we are supposed to be doing – and that from the infinite source of all wisdom, from our Creator himself, who sent his Son to tell us!

So what is his purpose for us? There are different facets to it, but the initial description of the creation of man and woman in Genesis 1 that Jesus refers to, it gives us the practical purpose: “And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion” – over all that is on the earth. Quite an ordinary kind of charter: have children (multiply) and have responsibility as the lord of the world (under God, of course, for it is God who sets humankind in that high status.) This ennobles all the down to earth reality of human work and family life, for these are ordained by God. This is therefore the good way to live. This is the real-world aspect of our purpose as human beings. We have a world to explore and to make to flourish; that is our task. But why we do that, is another chapter.

Clive Every-Clayton