Most likely every human being has or will wrestle with these two fundamental questions. They speak to our identity and purpose - our very existence.
The answers to these questions are amazingly simple, yet profoundly rich. They are based on fact. On Truth. Not ambiguous. Not relative to who is asking the questions. They are universal and eternal. They are Truth because they are based on the knowledge of the only One Who knows: the Person who created us.
Amazingly, God created us to be like Him:
“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness…” (Gen. 1:26).
But the first humans rejected God’s plan and made one of their own … with disastrous results. Our story could have ended there, for we inherited the nature and the consequences of our first human parents’ decision. Their destiny - permanent separation from God (death) - was to be ours.
Mercifully, God did not abandon us or His purpose for us:
“For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One”
(Eph 1:4-6).
Graciously, God made a way to fulfill His plan for us:
God purposed His own Son, Jesus, to absorb our sin and purchase our holiness through His death and resurrection. Positionally we are no longer enslaved by sin, but by Jesus’ righteousness. (Romans 6:18).
Lovingly, God sends us His Holy Spirit (John 14:15-17) to enable us to daily live in holiness and worship as we love, obey and trust Him to renew our mind (Romans 12:1-2).
Our identity comes from Him alone: we are His children, holy, made in His image.
Our purpose comes from Him alone: we are to bring Him glory.
God chose you and me before He even created the world. He knew us then, loved us then and gave us our purpose for existing. Let’s be motivated by gratitude and love to be all He created us to be and fulfill our purpose: to worship Him alone.
- Kathi Fritz (a beautiful child of God and member of the COBI community)