Your Purpose in Life
Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 5:5)
Since God created you, he has a specific plan and purpose for your life. Each one of us is created uniquely in God’s own image, and each one of us has a unique role in God’s master plan for life. While God does not always reveal all the details of his plan for us that are to occur in the future, there are some truths about the present and the future we can know for certain, because they apply to all of us.
2 Corinthians chapter 5 gives us some great insights into these truths from the apostle Paul. First, our current bodies are temporary houses for us. Who we are as created by God is not limited by our current lives inside these mortal bodies. These bodies are imperfect due to the presence of sin, and they are decaying and wearing out. They will not last a long time. When our time of living in them is over, we have a permanent body waiting for us in Heaven made by God.
Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5)
Having this knowledge about our future affects the way we live our life in the present. We have the ability to endure the pain and suffering our current bodies are going through, knowing this wonderful truth about our future. This gives us confidence and faith.
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:6-8)
Our overall goal in life then is to please God in all things, both in this life while we live in our decaying bodies, and also in the life to come.
So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. (2 Corinthians 5:9)
God is pleased [1] when we receive his love and forgiveness, and then develop a relationship with him [2] through his Spirit. His presence in our life is the “deposit,” the “down payment” for the life that he has for us in the future.
Once we receive God’s love and forgiveness through Jesus Christ, our own spirits are reborn [2] and we become new persons: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) We then become so full of God’s love, that we find our true meaning and purpose in life, and we desire to share that love with everyone else.
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again…. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:14-21)
Are you fulfilling God’s purpose in your life today? While only God can communicate to you the specific details of the path you must walk each day (and you need to put aside some time each day to spend with him so you can know this), God’s ultimate plan and purpose for you is to receive his love and forgiveness offered as a free gift through Christ. Once we receive that, we are given God’s Spirit who comes to reside inside these sinful decaying bodies. God’s Spirit (not our own human strength) then gives us the power to fulfill his plan for our life, which includes being his ambassador to the people around us who also need to be reconciled to God and receive his love and forgiveness. There will be a judgment regarding how we lived our lives in these temporary bodies. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10) We don’t want to appear before that judgment seat without having been reconciled to God through Christ. Christ’s love should compel us to warn others of the coming judgment, and share with them the love of Christ that is available to them through the ministry of reconciliation. That is our main purpose in this life! All of God’s other purposes for your life, including your career, your family, your finances, your physical health, etc. – are all secondary and to be intertwined with God’s main purpose for your life.
Do you need a fresh perspective on your day to day circumstances? Are you so caught up in the day to day activities of life, that you are forgetting the main purpose for which God created you? Today is the day that you can experience God’s love and purpose for your life. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. So make the most of your opportunity today to know God, and understand his purpose for your life.
As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)