What is God's Purpose for the World? (Repurpose Your Life, Part 3)
Series: Repurpose Your Life (Part 3)
Author: Dr. Steven L. Childers
Title: What is God’s Purpose for the World?
Article 3: Question 3: What is God’s Purpose for the World?
Last time we learned that the main plot in the divine drama of history is the good news that God’s creation, ruined by sin, is being redeemed by Christ and restored by his Spirit into his kingdom.
We shift now to discover more insights into God’s purpose for the world from Jesus’ instructions on prayer.
When Jesus teaches us to pray first that the Father’s name be hallowed, he presents us with God’s glory as the ultimate purpose of humanity and the world.
God designed us to be worshippers to glorify him by finding our highest joy and purpose in him.
This is why God commands us to turn from idolatry and worship him alone.
Idolatry is making something or someone other than Jesus Christ our ultimate source of fulfillment.
When we allow our hearts to be captured by things like approval, comfort, control, pleasure, or power, the outcome is always the same.
They rob us of true joy because our hearts are designed by God with an emptiness that can only be filled by him.
Jesus gives us even more insight into God’s purpose when he instructs us to pray next that “God’s kingdom would come and his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Here we learn that God’s purpose for the world is to glorify his name through the coming of his kingdom in such a way that causes his will to be done on earth.
The good news is that 2000 years ago God’s kingdom entered our world in a new way through Jesus Christ to begin restoring God’s fallen humanity and creation—as far as the curse is found.
God’s ultimate purpose for the world is not merely the rebirth of human souls but the rebirth of all fallen creation.
Our ultimate hope is not that when we die we’re going to heaven to worship God forever as disembodied souls.
Our ultimate hope is in another day when Jesus will return and bring heaven back down to earth as it was at creation.
On that day he will unite our souls with our resurrected bodies so we will glorify and enjoy God, not only with the worship of our minds and hearts, but also with the work of our hands by continuing to carry out his purposes over a new earth forever.
Our ultimate hope as Christ followers is not merely that one day when we die we will go to heaven and worship God forever. Our great hope is that one day Jesus will return and bring heaven down to earth where we will live and love and work with joy in a new world with new bodies forever. That’s good news!
In our next article, we’ll go even deeper by learning the primary way that God has chosen to carry out his kingdom purposes today and how you can be a vital part.