Love’s Purpose

^{Jer. 29:11} For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jesus said, ^{Jn. 10:10} “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

The Purpose of God for Mankind

       

        His head felt like it was going to explode, his heart pounding, his face dark red, and his veins on his forehead were popping out as he was desperately trying to hold his breath under water. Any second now and he would no longer be able to hold his breath. Water would come rushing in his mouth, filling up his lungs, and choking him until he drowned.

        All of a sudden the huge, strong hand on the back of his neck that had been holding him pulled him out of the water. He gasped for breath, coughing as he was taking in as much air as he could. He continued to gasp and wheeze as his heart rate was still rapidly beating in his chest. Although he could breath in air now the feeling of panic was still there. He never appreciated air as much as in this moment.

        What had happened? A Christian, a farmer by trade, was trying to explain to his non – Christian, unbelieving friend just how much we needed God. The unbeliever listened but just couldn’t get it. He thought that as long as he “did good deeds” and didn’t murder anyone that he was ok. The farmer tried to explain that God, especially the love of God is our life source. It is our purpose in life, it gives us meaning, gives us significance, gives us direction, and that His love frees us from trying to impress people. Because, after all, once you know you are unconditionally loved and accepted by God, you are freed from trying to please people. You are (to an extent) freed from greed, lust for power, etc (although the sin nature remains and temptation remains; and yes we still fall into these sins from time to time).

        Finally the farmer had to take drastic measures and grab his friend’s neck, plunge his head under water in a horses’ water trough and hold him under until he could take it no more. After pulling him out he asked, “How did you feel trapped under water?” The friend, who was more than just a little furious, replied, “I was desperate for air and I’ve never felt so desperate before to be able to breathe.”

        The farmer said, “We don’t know it, but that’s how desperate we are for God. We need him just like you needed the air to breathe. We act out our desperation through, greed, lust for power, meaningless sex as we hop from bed to bed, drugs, or always trying to please people. But we are not truly satisfied until we accept Jesus into our hearts;  just like you were not going to make it unless you got out of the water and breathed in the air. We need God as desperately as you needed air to breathe.” 

        I don’t know if that story is true (and it would be a very harsh thing to do) but it is a great illustration of how desperately our spirits long for God. We just suppress those longings with the idols mentioned above (greed, lust for power, meaningless sex, etc). In fact when The Bible talks about God breathing life into man the Hebrew Word is “Ruach.” It can also be translated air or wind. But the point is God’s Spirit is like air to our lungs. Without Him we suffocate spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and become desperate to prove out self worth. All the while, the answers are found in Christ. Look what the Scripture say about Jesus.

·        “^{Col 1:27} To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

·        ^{Col 2:2} My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, ^{Col 2:3} in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge

·        ^{Jn 1:4} In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

·        We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only (God), who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

·        ^{Jn 1:16} From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another

        You see over and over again the Bible says to have a relationship with Jesus is to have TRUE life, to REALLY LIVE; “whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Jesus said in John 14:6, “^{Jn 14:6} “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He did not say that He was one of many paths but THE only way.

        When the Bible speaks of “In Him (Jesus) was life” or says in Him is “eternal life” it doesn’t just mean earthly blessings or living to an old age. There are three major Greek Words for “life” (Don’t worry I will make this very simple.”

       1. “Bios” which means just our natural life that we received in the womb and continue living on this earth

       2. “Psuche” where we get our English word “Psyche” or Psychology. This deals with the inner man, his thoughts, his will, etc. But the third word is what I want to focus on.

       3. “Zoe” - this is the word Jesus uses when He says that “Life is in Him” and to believe in Him is to receive “eternal life.” Zoe means the divine life that comes from God, when Jesus comes to live inside of us by His Holy Spirit. Many well intentioned Christians say that “Eternal Life is going to Heaven.” That is not exactly right. When we go to Heaven Eternal Life will be consummated, kind of like the marriage is consummated on the Honey Moon. It will be perfected because we will have new bodies, free from sin and death and sadness. It will be perfect. However that is the icing on the cake so to speak. Don’t misunderstand me, I am NOT downplaying Heaven. Heaven is the best part!! Heaven will make this life seem like nothing in comparison. It will be so glorious and better than anything this life has to offer. But my point is that we neglect the teaching of eternal life now!

        Jesus told us exactly what eternal life is and we must base our definition on His Word. In John chapter 17 Jesus explicitly defined eternal life when He said, “^{Jn 17:3} Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” Knowing Jesus and knowing God The Father IS eternal life!! When I say knowing I don’t mean just an intellectual “knowing about.”

Many people know many Bible verses or know about Jesus but do not know Him. What Jesus is talking about IS knowing Him, intimately in a loving relationship.

        Imagine Knowing God, being loved unconditionally and perfectly. Even our spouse and parents cannot love us perfectly, only God can fill the hole in our hearts. The Christian philosopher (yes you can be a Christian and still be very intelligent) Blaise Pascal once said (as I quoted earlier), “ ‘There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.’” ¹ . We were created to house the fullness of God (as I also quoted earlier). Our heart is a vacuum that longs for God Who IS Life. However if we don’t let Him fill our hearts as Lord and Savior then we will replace it, as Pascal said, things that will never satisfy; riches, power, immoral sex, fame, popularity, etc. Those things will not satisfy. They may seem fun for a short while but will come back to haunt us in the end when we are empty.

            John Piper put it this way, “The chief end (purpose) of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever” ². Did you get that? We were made to worship God. We were created to worship Him because He is so beautiful, good, kind, awesome, and glorious. But do you see how to glorify Him? By enjoying Him!!!! Christianity is not about this sour drudgery of just following rules and feeling guilty. It is about enjoying God, basking in His glory and love.  You can enjoy Him! Read The Gospels in The New Testament how children flocked to Him (children don’t like people unless their fun and lovable), guilty sinners ran to Him. (When is the last time you saw a drug dealer or prostitute run to church?) To know Him is to be filled with life, which is His love, joy, and peace! Remember what I said in the last chapter, true life is only experienced in Christ; hence the phrase “Christ as life.”

        We desperately need His life just like the man in the illustration needed to get out of the water and breathe air!! Only then are we truly alive. We are filled with His love, joy, peace, and power to love and forgive others; to be courageous. We are filled with a desire, not for selfishness, but to serve others. This is a stark contrast with the world who’s philosophy is “I’m looking out for me, number one” or who believes “I will earn my way to God through my good deeds” (forgetting that they have sin that separates them from the very Life, i.e. Zoe, of God). The only way to get that true Life “Zoe” is to go to Jesus who gives it freely.

       You may say, “But I’m a nice person and I try hard to do good deeds.” I’m not talking about trying to do good deeds. I’m talking about knowing The God Who created the universe!! I am talking about a supernatural life!!! As far as being good and nice we settle for so little. We don’t measure ourselves by God’s perfect standards. The Bible says that without Christ we are spiritually dead,                                                                                                                                               

            “^{Eph 2:1} As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,

                ^{Eph 2:2} in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world           and of   the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who         are disobedient.

                ^{Eph 2:3} All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings             of our   sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by             nature objects of wrath.

                ^{Eph 2:4} But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

                ^{Eph 2:5} made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in            transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

                ^{Eph 2:6} And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the            heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,”

        To make an example, in church I had someone lay on the ground and pretend to be a corpse. I told the audience, “Now imagine John is a corpse in a coffin.” I went on to preach the Ten Commandments and other commandments from The Bible to this corpse. As laughter started erupting I asked, “What good does it do to try and get a dead person to do the Ten Commandments?” They all shouted “Nothing!” And this is how it is when we are apart from Christ. We are spiritual corpses. Talking about good deeds or attempting good deeds is meaningless apart from having LIFE; the Life of Christ enters in. Now that might sound insulting or offensive if you are not a Christian but hang in there with me. I have a great illustration from an awesome movie.

        Did you ever see “The Matrix?” Man that is one cool sci-fi movie! The main character Neo keeps feeling that there is something missing in life. I mean he has a good job, he is a “good person”, and lives a good normal life. He is searching for an answer though. His mind gets blown when he is told that the world is under the control of a sinister force called the Matrix. This can’t be right. On the street people look normal and “good.” Then he gets a phone call from a mysterious and anonymous person who says, “You may think you have been looking for me, but I have been looking for you all your life.” He tells him that if he wants the truth to come meet with him.

            When Neo meets Morpheus (who was the mysterious person on the phone) he is shocked by what Morpheus tells him, “You have the look of a man that accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up.” He goes on to tell him, “You’ve felt it your entire life. There’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. Do you want to know what it is?” He then explains that it’s The Matrix which is “everywhere, all around us, even in this very room. You can feel it when you turn on your TV, go to work and when you go to church. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you to the truth.” After Neo inquires about the truth, Morpheus answers, “That you are a slave Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage.”  (my emphasis).  

            Morpheus then gives him a pill to open his eyes. He sees reality, namely, that all of humanity, millions upon millions of people, are hooked up to this sinister Matrix that controls them. He sees the world as it really is. The sad part is that no one knows it. They see a fake world made to look all rosy and “perfect.” The truth was harder to accept than the lie at first (which some of you may be feeling). But even thought it is hard to swallow (pun intended with the pill), Neo chooses truth, freedom, and reality even though it is more difficult to go against the flow.

            Now back to reality. Our world is controlled by a Matrix called sin. We are all born into bondage but Satan blinds us to this truth (notice Morpheus said the Matrix, i.e. sin, even followed them to church). We can even be religious and go to church, live the American dream, raise a family, and have a big house with a white picket fence. But IT IS A LIE!! We were born for much more than this.

         We have broken God’s commandments and disobeyed Him. We choose to go our own way and reject God even though God’s ways are the way to real life. So we stand guilty before God and in slavery to our sinful lifestyle. We don’t know a better way! But there’s GOOD NEWS! God in His love has reached out to redeem us, forgive us, and free us.

                    You know we don’t always proclaim the complete Christian Gospel. Don’t get me wrong. It is wonderful to proclaim to needy sinners that if they place their faith in Jesus for salvation they can escape God’s judgment and will certainly go to Heaven when they die. We must never “get over” that wonderful message. We no longer fear death because if we have trusted Jesus for salvation we will go to live with Him in Heaven; no more sin, no more pain, no more sickness, and no more death. What wonderful peace that brings us. In fact death for the Christian is a door way to REAL LIFE!! Remember “Christ IS our life” (Colossians 3:4). So we must live in the reality of Christ as our Life. Again I use the phrase I learned from Randy Nusbaum, “Christ as Life.” Let that truth be drilled into your mind, “Christ as our Life.” Christ IS life. We exchange our weaknesses and false view of life (which is the lie that we can live independent of God and do things our way and experience true life), and we must let Christ be our life, our source, what determines our every decision, our strength, and our guide. True “life” is experiencing His love for us.

        But what about now? What do we do in the mean time? I used to think (and this is faulty thinking and heresy that many Christians unknowingly embrace), that once I got saved I was just to sit around and wait to die and go to Heaven. And meanwhile Jesus was up in Heaven saying, “I’m waiting for you up here, see you when you die!” But NO! God has an amazing plan for us. The whole Christian Gospel (the “Rest of the Story as Paul Harvey used to say) is that not only are we forgiven, but we are united to Jesus. We are transformed into a “New Creation” or “New Species” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

      God’s plan is that we live life united to Jesus, not just go to Heaven when we die (which will be wonderful, and will be the best part), but right now we can walk in union with Him. That He comes to live inside of us and give us strength to live for Him (which we could never do on our own). We are to have an intimate relationship with Jesus now, in this life! We are made to depend on Him for help, strength in weakness, and power to overcome sin. We can live an abundant life now as we rely on Jesus. His helps us in our weaknesses to do the unimaginable. He frees us, strengthens us, fills us with His power, He guides us, and He gives us wisdom as we rely and depend on Him.

        I’ll never forget the day this truth was revealed to me. I had been a struggling Christian for so long and was without purpose, just waiting for Heaven. Then God spoke to my heart, “You can grow in Christ likeness till the day you die.” I was so happy driving home. I thought to myself, “You mean I will get better, wiser, and overcome these habits? I have something to actually look forward to in this life? Man in ten years I might become godly, stronger, and more joyful?” My life now had purpose and hope. And that folks is the complete Gospel.

 

        Lyrics from some of the songs God gave me that express the truth of The Gospel that I would like to share with you. A couple of lines that are so meaningful to me are

“Hid in Christ’s Righteousness

Guilt Cannot Be Found, Standing Holy Now

We Are Children of God

Faith In Christ Alone Has For Sin Atoned

We’ve Been Washed In The Light

Clothed With Jesus We’re With Your

Presence Here”

Another song God gave me is called “Christ lives in us.”

The Chorus goes

            “Christ lives in us we live in Him

             United to God and dead to sin

             Claim what was won at Calvary

             Let all walk in light and liberty.

Christ lives in us we live in Him.”

        We can say it like this; God wants to draw men back to Himself, save them, forgive them of their sins, so that He can unite them to Jesus to experience His life (Eternal life, Zoe). The purpose of The Gospel is for God to reconcile man to Himself so man can have a relationship, an abiding relationship with Him. We need Jesus to live inside of us, with us, and beside us to help us truly live out the Christian life. Man was made to (our purpose in life) to be in relationship with God. To be loved by Him & love Him NOW!!

We were made to be loved by God and to love Him in return. Also that love should overflow to other people. That is our purpose, so you don’t have to search for your purpose anymore by reading every philosophy book. You have the truth now. You know your purpose and meaning in life.  To be loved by God (and I mean filled up to the full, overflowing with His love) so that we can love Him and other humans in return.

        Right now is a good time for a word of caution. I will address this more fully in a later chapter, but for now I need to let you know something. Even though we grow better and better once Jesus lives inside of us (The Bible calls this sanctification), we still sin and fail. But gradually God helps us to desire holiness, overcome obstacles, and resist temptation. But we do not become perfect once we accept Jesus. We will not be perfect until we die and go to Heaven. With that, let’s get back to our lesson.

        Read the following verse slowly, “^{1Co 6:17} But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.” It’s talking about being united to Jesus in Spirit. Not only forgiven, not only going to Heaven when we die, but being joined and united to Jesus right now!!! Being in union with Christ, being united with Jesus, being bound to Him for all eternity; that is the meaning and purpose of mankind. We are made to be temples of God’s Holy Spirit. That is grace! That is the New Covenant! God’s Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us and we are as close to Him as we could possibly be.

        This language is the language of the Bible when it come to marriage, “The two shall become one.” (Genesis 1:24) Obviously the man and the woman don’t morph into one person. They are still distinct individuals, but they are NOT separate. They function together, intimately as one for the rest of their lives. They live out life together in loving companionship!

        But there is a problem. It is sin. Like The Movie “The Matrix” something happens which fractured man’s relationship with God when Adam and Eve rejected God. But there is Good News. God has already done what is needed to solve the problem and repair the relationship through Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross. But we'll talk more about that in the next blog "Love's Problem." 

¹ Pensees. Blaise Pascal.

² Piper, John. Desiring God. Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2003.

³ The Matrix. Directed by The Wachowski Brothers. Performed by Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. Warner Bros. Pictures Roadshow Entertainment, March 31, 1999. DVD.