The Purpose Driven God

I understand how dangerous it is to ask why God has done something or allowed something to happen. It may be arrogant to think a mere human can decode the purpose of God unless it is explicitly stated. On the other hand, Scripture repeatedly asks us to know God, and this surely must include knowing His purpose at least in a general way.

One of the three big life questions everyone must to answer is why am I here, or is there purpose and meaning to life. (The other two questions will be treated later. Stay tuned.) Most secular philosophies have failed to answer this question in a satisfying way, which is why they tend toward nihilism, which is the acceptance of meaninglessness. When the search for meaning turns up the answer that there is no meaning, people end up in despair. Suicide is often considered a blessed escape from a purposeless life.

A philosophy that is grounded in God’s Word leaves no doubt as to man’s purpose. The Westminster Catechism states it clearly in the first question: “What is the chief end of man?” it asks. The answer is, “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” As I have written before (The Meaning of Football), the essence of bringing glory to God is to show His goodness. Revealing God’s goodness is essentially what gospel proclamation is all about. It’s not far off the mark to say that a human’s purpose is to spread the gospel: Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am chief; if He can save me, He can save you.

This answers the question of why I am here, but it begs another question: why did God set up a situation where salvation from sin became necessary? We cannot fall into the trap of saying that God didn’t know sin was going to mess up His plans. God knew what would happen. Jesus is called, “the Lamb slain before the foundations of the world.” God knew redemption was going to be necessary to complete his purpose on Earth. He knew his creation would fall far short of perfection.

And yet, perfection is precisely what is required. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uttered the frightening command, “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” Our problem with that command comes from our use of a secular definition of perfect: “having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; absolute or complete.” An honest self-assessment reveals a serious lack in that regard. We are all painfully aware that we fall short of all that is required of us.

Relief comes when we try to understand the word Jesus used, perfect, as it would have been heard by his first century listeners. The Gospel of Matthew I quoted comes to us in Koine Greek, a language which was widely used in Palestine at Jesus’ time. Matthew uses the word “teleios” (τέλειος). A Greek lexicon suggests this word is from a root, telos (τέλος) which means, “the end to which all things relate, the aim, purpose.” To borrow from a famous author, I say Jesus directed us to have a purpose driven life.

Some would argue that Jesus would have been speaking Aramaic to the Sermon on the Mount audience, given their predominately Jewish demographic. Since Aramaic is a close cousin to Hebrew, it makes sense that Jesus may have been thinking of the several places Leviticus makes a similar demand of God’s people: “Be holy because I am Holy.” This carries the same general idea as being perfect. To be holy is to be set apart or consecrated. A person (or a God) is “set apart” for some particular purpose. In God’s case, He is “set apart” to accomplish what He wishes to accomplish. For our part, we are “set apart” to accomplish what God wants us to accomplish. We are called to fulfill God’s purpose: be perfect.

Whether it is Jesus’ words in Matthew or Peter’s quote of Leviticus, the requirement appears to be the same: fulfill God’s purpose. This brings us back to asking what God’s purpose might be in creating a system He knew would fall apart and need to be rescued from destruction. For this answer I go to Ephesians 3:10-11. Paul says that a mystery was hidden for ages that is now revealed through the church, “so that… the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God’s “purpose of the ages” was that all people, not just the Jews, should be, “fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” That promise was that we can all be adopted into the family of God through Jesus; it is the promise of the gospel which we are called to share. The interesting thing to me is to whom this mystery is being revealed now: “to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.” God apparently created everything we know as a demonstration for His heavenly host to observe. We are a demonstration for the angels.

Paul indicates that the thing heaven is being called to observe is the redemption of all mankind. It is the creation of a family of brothers and sisters of Jesus, the Son of God. It is the re-creation of that which God intended from before time began: a people to represent Him on earth, to be His vice-regents with dominion over all creation under His ultimate authority. It is to be His Kingdom on earth. It is you and I living with Kingdom values and sharing the gospel with our neighbors. If that doesn’t give meaning to your life, I don’t know what will. Got purpose?