Throughout the ages, mankind has sought to understand why he exists and what is his purpose. Every man and woman on this Earth contemplates the reason at times, but when an answer is not readily available, each busy themselves with the cares of life itself. But niggling in the recesses of their mind, and their hearts, the one question remains, “Why am I here on Earth?“.
God, Creator of mankind, encoded into each and everyone of us, a grand and irreversible purpose: man has been created to reveal the nature of God.
God Himself declares His Purpose for all of us:
Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:26,27
However, Genesis marks the beginning and is not the fulfillment of God’s purpose.
God only initiated His Plan in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were far from being in the image and likeness of God. God cannot sin and yet Adam and Eve, shortly after being created, fell into sin. And so, mankind began a journey that can only end once man attains the image and likeness of God.
So, Man discovers sin. No fulfillment there. Man receives moral law. He tries to obey it. Nope, no fulfillment there either. Then God sends His Son, Jesus.
Jesus, The Christ, marks the beginning of God’s action, in earnest, to accomplish His original purpose with man. Christ not only provides payment for man’s sins, but also sets the pattern for man’s life.
Christians heartily agree with the payment of Christ but many only remotely accept the pattern He provides.
Our forgiveness was not the goal of our relationship with Christ. Jesus Christ forgives us so that He can transform us!
Man transformed into the image of Christ is the pinnacle truth, the supreme revelation, of God’s Will for all of humanity.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18
We are born again, not just to go to heaven, but to become more like Christ. We unite with other like-minded Christians, not just for administrative expediency, but because Christ manifests Himself perfectly through the multi-membered body, called His Church. Christians are a part of the second Genesis whose goal is to fulfil the first Genesis: man in the image of God.
Adam was never intended as the prototype. From eternity, God’s purpose was that man would be conformed to Jesus Christ, not Adam. God chose you and me, in Christ and prior to Adam’s fall:
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Ephesians 1:4-6
When we seek God’s Will, let us seek first to satisfy the call to Christlikeness. Where we work, whom we marry, or what church do we attend are all important decisions, but are incomparable to what we become in the attainment of Christlikeness.
Therefore, the high level, over-arching answer to, “Why am I here on Earth?” is: God created man so that he would become like Jesus; it is the reason He created you! All else is subservient to this primary reason.