Why are we here?

Question received: What is the purpose of life - on Earth - rather than in Heaven?

Response:

There are some questions that can never be fully answered or understood, and to a significant extent this is one such a question, a question that exists somewhere between the disciplines of theology and philosphy. Nonetheless, the question is asked and I am happy to give you my “take” on it.

Paul gave us some insight into this issue in Colossians 1 where he said: “All things were created by him and for him.” The VERY short answer to the who and why of our creation is found here – the “who” is God, He is the creator, the One responsible for our existence. The “why” is found in just two words – “for Him”. To unpack those two words a little, we look into Revelation 4:11 where we are told that everything (including humanity) was created simply for His purpose, to fulfil His will. God is a creative being, and it gave Him pleasure to create the universe in general and the earth in particular, but in all of the creation that He had created, there was no being who was like Him – having a free will that could choose to respond to His great love and enter a genuine relationship with him. So God created us – not to be pawns in some cosmic chess game, not to be His toy soldiers, but to exercise freedom of choice and with that freedom choose to love Him. Because He created us in the image and likeness of God, we possess and ability to know God and to choose to love Him, worship Him, serve Him, and have true communion with Him. This is a very difficult concept to grasp, as it is easy to suggest that we were therefore created to fill a need of some sort in God, but that cannot be the case because, as God, He is in need of nothing.

The essence of God’s character is love and love needs to be demonstrated. So, in creating a creature in His own image, He created someone towards whom that love could be expressed. God desired reciprocal love, so He created humanity with an ability to respond to His love or reject it. In the beginning man enjoyed full fellowship with God, but soon rejected Him, bringing the calamity of the fall on all of creation. This wasn't God's intention, so He implemented His plan for creation to be restored to His intended purpose. By nature, God is a God or grace and mercy, but these attributes are essentially dormant if there is no need their expression. When man chose to sin, God was able to demonstrate His grace and grace and mercy with a plan for the redemption of man – a plan that would cost Him greatly.