Today we begin our summertime series of answering the questions you have asked us. We’ve received some really good questions, so thanks for all you’ve submitted. Some of them we’ll address in sermons. I hope that we’ll take on some of these during the week through short videos. Some of the questions are coming from very different positions on the same topic. (I’m going to take a couple of weeks to get warmed up before I dive into the fray on those ones.)
But today’s question is great to start with on a number of levels. First, it draws our attention to the very beginning. Second, it’s a question whose answers can very broadly shape our lives and direct how we behave and interact. Third, I love that it was asked by one of our younger friends, who is four-years-old. So, for all of those reasons, this is where I’ll begin.
Today’s question is: Why did God make us?
When I think of the creation and the stories that relate to the earliest pages of the Bible, I often get drawn into the “what” and the “how” of creation. In the opening pages of the Bible, we actually get two different stories about the creation. The first is the orderly version where over the course of seven days and nights, God creates everything, including humans on the sixth day and sabbath rest on the seventh, concluding each story with the satisfaction of how God sees the creation as “good” and “very good,” when it comes to humans.
The second chapter focuses on the creation of humans from a very different angle. In this one, God makes the earth, and before rain even existed, God formed a man (the Hebrew is adam — close relationship there) from the earth (the Hebrew is adamah). God surrounds this person with a garden that can provide everything needed for life. Then God makes other creatures as companions for this human, only to find they cannot satisfy his need to be in relationship. Birds don’t work. Tigers and sloths and snails don’t pass muster. Electric eels…well…not exactly personable.
I’ll get back to this part of the story in a minute because it’s relevant to the “why” God created us.
What do we learn from this “what” and “how” of creation? We learn that everything — everything! — comes from God’s creative work. In the words of John’s gospel, “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” (You’ll note here that John is staking the claim that Jesus is God and that Jesus is very much responsible for the creation in the first place.) What is more, even as nature adapts and changes, we know that this is all part of God’s creative work.
We also know that the God we know in Jesus is both responsible for and glorified by the creation. One of the earliest Christian statements of faith is found in Colossians 1, where it says, “[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers — all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
All of this is foundational to a Christian understanding of the creation, but our question for today really focuses on the “why.” Why did God make us? Today I’m going highlight five reasons God made us. They remain part of our very purpose for living today. God’s creative intention for us continues to shape how we understand ourselves and how we live.
First, God made humans for relationship. Going back to Genesis 1 and 2, we see that God created humans to be in relationship with God and with one another. In chapter 1, God creates humankind in God’s image (again, the Hebrew word is adam, meaning a generalized humanity). It is saying that all of humanity — men, women, young, old, no matter their appearance — are created in God’s image, and since God created more than one person, it’s clear that God intends humans to relate to one another, to the world, and to God, just like God relates as Father, Son, and Spirit and to all the creation.
In chapter 2, the story gets a lot more localized. We already heard how God created a man (adam) from the earth (adamah) and how God was seeking a suitable counterpart. After trying a whole host of various animals, God makes a woman (ishah) from the man (ish). These humans are made from the same substance and by the same Creator to share in the work of co-creating.
So, God created humans for relationship. Humans are to relate to one another as families, as friends, and co-workers, and so on. Humans are also supposed to relate to God, the One who created them for that very purpose.
Second, God created us for good works. I love how Ephesians puts this so boldly. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Eph. 2:8-10). You may have noticed that I sometimes pray these words before communion — “God, before there was time you were making a way for our salvation.” That prayer is rooted in this understanding that God knew each of us long before we breathed our first breath and that God has made us for good works. So, when our thinking is clear, we recognize that God’s call is always on us, and when we’re at our best, living into the good God has for us.
What does that mean? It means our lives have a purpose beyond the basics of existence, beyond making some money and spending it, beyond what happens in our own homes. God created you and me for good works. Why? Because it benefits the world and because not everyone has awakened to this reality, and they need you to help them see God’s good plan for them. You are not an accident, and your life is not merely your own.
Third, God made us to be fruitful and multiply, to cultivate the earth, and to have dominion. What does this mean? To be fruitful and multiply means to take the stuff of life and do something with it. That’s everything from procreation to cultivation of the earth, from making art and writing music to teaching classes and spoiling the kids next door. God creates, and God created us to create. That’s one of the four core values of this church. We take joyfully and seriously that God wants us to do beautiful and meaningful things with our lives, whether or not they’ll grow our bank accounts.
But God also gives humans a huge responsibility in the midst of this. God says that we are to “have dominion” over other aspects of the creation. On the surface that sounds very much like God telling us that we get to rule over everything else and do whatever we please with it. You’ve heard this from us before, but that’s a bad reading of Genesis. To have dominion is to model one’s life after the way God cares for the creation. God is a shepherd, who carefully tends to the flock, leading the sheep to green pastures and calm waters. Jesus shows us that the one who rules is the one who serves, so having dominion is focused on caring for the creation in the best way you would care for yourself. I love how Walter Brueggemann summarizes this. “The role of the human person is to see to it that the creation becomes fully the creation willed by God.” We are culture makers and culture creators.
Andy Crouch has written a wonderful book called Culture Making. In it he does a beautiful job connecting who God is with who we are supposed to be. Thinking about the orderliness of Genesis 1, Crouch observes, “So in a way the Creator’s greatest gift to his creation is the gift of structure — not a structure which locks the world, let alone the Creator himself, into eternal mechanical repetition, but a structure which provides freedom. And those who are made in his image will also be both creators and rulers. They will have a unique capacity to create — perhaps not to call something out of nothing in quite the way God does in Genesis 1:1, but to reshape what exists into something genuinely new.” He continues, “Culture is what we make of the world. Culture is…the name for our relentless, restless human effort to take the world as it’s given to us and make something else.”
Fourth, God made us to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That’s straight out of the first answer from the Westminster Catechism. Those who went through confirmation decades ago probably memorized that question and answer. So, at its core, Christianity believes that God is Trinity, three persons in one — Father, Son, and Spirit. That means that relationship is already part of the very core of who God is. God chose to create all things out of love and to share the abundance of this loving, perfect relationship with the whole creation, particularly with humans.
What does this mean? God, who is relationship, created us for relationship with God and with one another. God should be glorified in how we live. Yes, we do that in worship as we sing and pray and repent and hear the gospel. But! We also do that in every other moment of our lives. So, we should glorify God in how we conduct business, being truthful, fair, and dependable. We should glorify God in how we coach our kids’ teams, doing our best for the all the kids — even those on the other sideline. We should glorify God in how we care for others in our families and community. We should glorify God in how we listen to and respect those who have a different perspective than we do. There is not a single moment of our lives where there is a space or time where we shouldn’t be glorifying God. (And if we wish there were those times, isn’t that a reflection of our own lack of trust that God does actually want what’s best for us?) Also, it’s practice for eternity. God made us to enjoy him, not just now, but forever. That’s a mind-blowing thought — at least to me.
Fifth, God made us to love, to be loved, and for love. This is what our reading from 1 John 4 makes so clear. John puts it simply. God. Is. Love. The very core of God’s being is love. It’s a love that existed before there was time among the Father, Son, and Spirit. It’s a love that spoke the creation into existence. It’s a love the keeps the planets spinning. It’s a love that persists through our rejection and wickedness, making a way through Jesus for us to be in a right relationship with this God who is love and with one another. I really do think that love is the thing that holds all of this together.
Why did God make us? God made us for relationship, for good works, to be fruitful and creative, and to glorify and enjoy God forever. But most of all, God made us out of love. We exist because God’s love is so great that it wanted you to be part of this amazing thing we call life. I put that anonymous saying on the cover of today’s bulletin because it’s so personal: “How cool is it that the same God who created mountains, oceans, and galaxies looked at you and thought the world needed one of you too?”
I think that’s because God’s love is so great it can’t help but keep spilling over into the world and into our lives. It’s also so humble that God’s love will never force itself upon us.
Still, God created us out of love, and then calls us to love one another and the whole world.
Why did God make us? God made us to love. To let John’s amazing words ring in our ears one more time, let’s hear them again. “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
Why did God make us?
Because God is love and wanted to share that love with you, with me, and with the whole creation.
