Why Did God Create Us ?
"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers …
what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care
for him?" (Psalm 8:3-4).
Why did God make us? To answer that, we need to know three things:
First, and you mentioned this in your
question, it wasn't because he needed us: "The God who made the world
and everything in it … is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything" (Acts 17:24-25).
And he didn't make us because he was lonely. Long before
we were here, God already had "company" with his Son and the Holy
Spirit, referred to in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our own image."
And he didn't make us because he needed his ego fed.
It's not like God made us to satisfy some craving to be worshiped. God
is totally secure in who he is—without us.
Second, despite not needing us, God
chose to create us anyway, out of his great love: "I have loved you with
an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3). Yes, God loved us before he even created us. It's impossible to get our heads around that idea, but it's true; that's what "everlasting" love means.
God is love (1 John 4:8), and because of that
love and his wonderful creativity, he made us so we can enjoy all that
he is and all that he's done.
Third, God created us to fulfill his
eternal plan. I could write pages and pages about this, but suffice it
to say that God, in his infinite wisdom, chose to make us a part of his
eternal plan.
What part do we play in this plan? Well, the Bible is
full of instructions for how we should live our lives. But here are a
few key verses to remember:
- "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Deuteronomy 6:5).
- "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39).
- "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10).
We're also part of the war between God and
Satan, and God's ultimate plan to defeat Satan. By putting our faith in
God, we can defeat Satan and his lies (see Ephesians 6:10-18).
Finally, perhaps the most important part we play in
God's eternal plan is to point people to eternal life with God—through
his Son Jesus Christ. The Bible calls this our "ministry of
reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
That's why we're here. But it's also important to note that we have a choice
in all of this. When God created us, he didn't make us pawns in some
cosmic chess game. We're not his toy soldiers. God gives us freedom of
choice.
Bottom line: God may not need us, but we certainly need
him. I hope you've made the choice to put your trust completely in
him—and play an exciting part in his loving, eternal plan.