God’s Answer to the “Why” Question

For centuries, people have been seeking answers to life’s most important questions: “How did we get here?” “Why are we here?” “What is the meaning and purpose of life?”

It’s NOT About Us
Fortunately, God has provided clear answers to these questions in His Word. God created us, and He put us on this planet for a specific purpose: “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isaiah 43:6-7).

God tells us that He formed us “for His glory.” Furthermore, Scripture reveals that God made everything for His glory: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever” (Romans 11:36). “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth . . . all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16).

The title of a Max Lucado book communicates well the paradoxical truth that the meaning and purpose of my life is not found in me because It’s Not About Me. “It’s about God. And that’s an understatement. God created us to know him and love him and show him” (John Piper). Our mission in life, then, “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,” is to “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

But what does it mean to glorify God? How do we do that? Sometimes the repeated use of a word can cloud its meaning.

Another word that Scripture uses to summarize the reason for our existence is worship. The Apostle John saw a vision of “those who conquered the beast,” singing “the song of Moses . . . and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed” (Revelation 15:2-4).

If, according to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, our “chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever,” we fulfill that purpose through worshipping the Creator. A bird was made to fly; a fish, to swim. And humans were created to worship God. This is why we are here. “We exist for Him” because “we exist through Him” (1 Corinthians 8:6).

Humanity, We Have an Insurmountable Problem
But, alas, we have a problem that prevents us from doing what God made us to do. That dilemma is our sin, which separates us from God and alienates us from our Maker. “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). Sin creates a barrier between us and God. He is the Holy One, “of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong” (Habakkuk 1:13). How can we worship God when He cannot even look at us?

Every human being is born with a humanly incurable disease, cancer of the soul. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). We do not become a sinner by sinning. We sin because we are born a sinner. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5).

Here’s even more bad news: our sinful condition causes God to pronounce the death sentence of hell over us. Long before Judgment Day, the unrepentant sinner has already been condemned in the courtroom of heaven. “Whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18).

Furthermore, there is nothing we can do to save ourselves from this predicament. “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6).

The Two Sweetest Words in the Bible
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive with Christ – by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5). God has taken the initiative to solve the unsolvable. God is not only holy and just, He is also compassionate, gracious, and loving. He has provided a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21) and thereby bridge the gap between us and God.

Through His death on the cross, Jesus paid the penalty of our sin. God poured out His wrath on His Son instead of us, and through faith in Jesus, God declares the guilty criminal to be righteous in His sight.

Now we can worship God acceptably, “for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).

Because God justifies us “by his grace as a gift” (Romans 3:24), we can glorify Him both now and forever more. Salvation is the work of God to transform wretches into worshippers. “Jesus was born of a virgin, suffered under Pontius Pilate, died on the cross and rose from the grave to make worshippers out of rebels!” (A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?).