“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened?Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
“Or who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band; When I fixed My limit for it, and set bars and doors; when I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!’
“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?"" Job 38:1-13 (NKJ)
When in the solitude of my own self evaluation before the Lord I recognize that I did not deserve to be created, let alone deserve the honor of being created by God in His own image, I know that I have found one of the many foundational stones on which to set forever my posture of respect before The All-Holy God.
What mere human compares with the God of heaven and earth? Who stands in priority, power and perfection of character to measure them self against the God of the universe?
As the human beings created and formed in His image, I guarantee that we have been given by God a great, undeserved privilege - an opportunity by our Creator to fulfill the purpose that He created us for and to thereby gain the further undeserved privilege of life with Him forever. But what is His image? And what is His purpose for us?
Over the years, I've heard a number of people talk about our having been created in God's image as relating to the features of our flesh, but I would remind them of Jesus' own words in John 4:24:
"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.." (KJ)
As I've said before in other writings, I don't believe that we are these bodies of flesh that age and eventually perish, but instead the spirits that temporarily live within them. Because God is spirit, and because we have been created by Him in His own image, I believe that we were created as spirits also. I also believe His image in us is constantly drawn by the person of Christ to better rule over our flesh continually and that as we engage in sincere and honest relationship with Him, our continual desire is for a clearer representation of our God's own heart, mind and spirit to be found in us - resulting in further glory and praise being offered to our God.
What of our purpose though? I've looked at the explanations that some others have offered and while I don't argue against the validity of many of them, I tend to think personally that many of them are incomplete. There are some who seemingly attempt to attribute God's whole focused purpose to this current physical life in this place. I struggle against that idea as incomplete given that God's plans reach from before time and our own beginning to a life beyond this one in a place that we have yet to see.
The Apostle Paul mentions God's secret plan that existed before the world more than once...
"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 (NKJ)
"Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began.." Romans 16:25 (NKJ)
"To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;..." Ephesians 3:8-9 (NKJ)
And to its purpose...
"...to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him." Ephesians 3:10-12 (NKJ)
But what of "our" purpose?
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." Revelation 4:11 (KJ)
What man can know the mind of God without God having revealed it to man's limited and far lessor mind? The answer of course is no one, but I believe that much of God's purpose for creating us is found in that awesome revelation that He's made available to us in what we commonly refer to as our bible. So many things that we find within give us some understanding and clarity of both His requirement of us and of His intention for us - all hinging on our choice to both surrender to, and to believe God.
For example, take what God requires in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NKJ) which Jesus later called the Greatest Commandment in Mark 12:29...
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."
...and then follow that with what God says about those who follow that commandment to love Him above all else...
“Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;" Deuteronomy 7:9 (NKJ)
There is found the threshold to realizing the fruit of the many promises of God!
The promises of God - to become heir to them through Christ is to have enjoined the relationship that God purposed for us from before time and begins to speak of sharing in the beauty of His perfect character. To hold God above all things as one's All-In-All, is to have found the most perfect treasure and the call, the invitation, to that most perfect and all-fulfilling relationship that's found throughout the love letter that God Himself has dictated to mankind. To search it out in earnest with a desire to know Him is to begin to find our purpose above all others that we might seek to find for ourselves in this perishing, temporary world...
"He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8 (NKJ)
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it." Deuteronomy 10:12-14 (NKJ)
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