Lesson 4: “Why Are We Here?

“What are people for?”

Wendell Berry, the contemporary poet/farmer from Kentucky, published a collection of his essays about a dozen years ago, using a title that has always intrigued me: What Are People For? While Berry had his own purposes in mind for his title, for us it raises the question about the specific roles we are to play in God’s plan for creation and human life.[1] Why did God make us? What does He expect us to do? Why are we here?

Of course, these questions are closely linked to the inquiry we just completed. In what divinely specified activities does our identity as the image and likeness of God come to genuine expression? What are we as God’s image-bearers to do in this world? What does this God-given nature of ours enable us to do, thereby bringing us fulfillment and God glory?

Accurate answers to questions like these are indispensable to the formation of a biblical view of the world and to a Christian life well-lived! So, in this lesson, we return to the theme of the Bible — the creation decree or cultural mandate in Genesis 1:26-28. Here we will discover what people are for from God’s point of view!

Overall, this foundational passage suggests that God designs people for three basic purposes, two of which are quite familiar to us, one of which has been unfortunately neglected or forgotten by the Church. What are they?

Our “vertical” purpose

First of all, God created us as His image and likeness for a Person-to-person relationship with Himself! Fellowship with God as His worshippers is the number one reason for our existence. God desires to be our God and He wants us to be His people. He intends for us to live our lives in union and communion with Him — coram Deo, before the face of God!

Admittedly, this is not explicitly stated in Genesis 1:26-28, but it is certainly implied. Undoubtedly God created us to pursue an intimate relationship with Himself. This is clearly taught throughout the Scriptures. To be in communion with God includes many things such as a knowledge of Him and His mighty deeds (Jer. 9:23-24; John 17:3; Phil. 3:10), a healthy fear and respect of His holy nature (Deut. 4:10; Prov. 1:7; Eccl. 12:13; 1 Pet. 2:17), a desire to obey Him in all things (Exod. 19:5; Jer. 7:23; 1 Pet. 1:2), a commitment to serve Him faithfully (Deut. 10:12; 1 Thess. 1:9), a friendship with Him as the Lord of life with whom we are to walk faithfully all of our days (Deut. 13:4; John 15:13-14; Eph. 4:1).

Above all else, a relationship with God as the supreme Being means that we ought to love Him supremely. The supreme commandment which makes this demand of us is not given in Scripture until we come to Deuteronomy 6. I am convinced, however, that its origin is in Genesis 1 when God created us as His image with this vertical purpose in mind. Life’s ultimate end is fulfilled if and only if our deepest affections are wholeheartedly given to Him. So, when asked by a scribe what was the foremost commandment of all, Jesus said:

“The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’”

(Mark 12:29-30)

Genuine human happiness, therefore, is dependent upon whether or not this greatest of all commandments is actualized in our lives. Our fundamental well-being as human beings is dependent upon being rightly related to Him through pre-eminent love. As the church father St. Augustine wrote in the opening paragraph of his spiritual autobiography Confessions, “For Thou has made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee.”[2]

There is, indeed, a “God-shaped vacuum” in the human heart, as Blaise Pascal said. Only He Who created the human heart can fill it fully, calm its restlessness, satisfy its longings, and meet its needs. What are people for? People are made for fellowship with God, to know Him like they know nothing else, and to love Him with everything they are and everything they have.

We are completely responsible to God in all that we do. We have been created as a self, as a person, capable of self-consciousness and self-determination, capable therefore of responding to God, of answering God, of fellowshipping with God, and of loving God. This has implications not only for our worship, but for our entire life. God’s intention with human beings is that we might do whatever we do in obedience to God and for the glory of God, so that we use all our powers, gifts, and capacities in God’s service.

— Anthony Hoekema, Created in God’s Image (edited)

Our “horizontal” purpose

Second of all, God created us as His image and likeness for person-to-person relationships with other people. Fellowship with one another as the people of God is the number two reason for our existence. Our vertical spiritual purpose of intimate union with God is complemented by this horizontal social purpose of intimate relationships with each other. Life proceeds not only coram Deo before the face of God, but also coram hominibus, before the face of man! Not only do we need Him in our lives, but we need each other as well. Our happiness depends upon it. At root we are social beings who cannot flourish without meaningful relationships with others. As a wise teacher once said, “For no one would choose to live without friends even if he had all the other goods.”[3]

There may be a very important theological explanation for our deeply embedded social nature. I think it is a reflection of the doctrine of the Trinity. As monotheists, Christians believe that there is one and only one God, the God of the Bible (Deut. 6:4). However, this one, single God exists as a plurality of three co-equal and co-eternal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (e.g., Matt. 28:19). There is one divine “What,” and three divine “Whos.” In St. Augustine’s theological language, “The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit [are] one God, the Creator and Ruler of the whole creature; . . . a trinity of persons mutually interrelated, and a unity of an equal essence.”[4] Mysteriously, and yet without contradiction, God is both one and many, unity and diversity, three persons, one God.

Nestled in this teaching about God’s nature is a remarkable social dimension. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have enjoyed perfect fellowship with each other eternally. In God there is the loving Father, the beloved Son, and the Spirit of love between them. There is no aloneness or loneliness in God. He is absolutely perfect, lacking in nothing. He enjoys fullness of life in the society of His own being. He did not create us to fill any need in Himself.

However, God did create us, as imago Dei, to manifest His glorious nature in both its unity and diversity. He has made us as unique individuals with our various personalities, gifts, and callings. We are distinctive as people, as different from one another as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are. At the same time, God wills that we be united together through love under Him. We are to be one genuine human race, in solidarity with each another just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in divine solidarity as the one, true God. Sin, of course, has ripped the human family apart. Yet God’s purpose for human fellowship as a creaturely revelation of His own nature is being restored in Christ Himself who prayed that believers “may be one, just as We are one” (John 17:22).

Now according to Genesis 1:27-28, marriage and family especially embody God’s social purposes for humanity. These verses state, “Male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it. . . .” In Genesis 2, God also said it was not good for the man to be alone. So He made woman as a helper suitable for him, and instituted the covenant of marriage. This divinely ordained relationship between man and woman is permanent and monogamous in character. It is the deepest kind of spiritual and physical union possible, satisfying that aching sense of incompleteness that resides at the center of the human heart. Out of this one-flesh union between husband and wife, children are born, giving rise to the family which is the central institution of human society. It is at the heart of God’s purposes for the earth.

Furthermore, God has established marriage as the chief illustration of His relationship with His people in both the Old and New Testaments (see Isa. 54:6; Ezek. 16:1-14; Eph. 5:20-31). Marriage, therefore, is a microcosm of these larger spiritual realities. It is the gracious gift of our good Creator-God who has provided everything thing necessary for our abundant happiness in this world.

Now God does not formally issue the second greatest commandment that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves until we come to Leviticus 19:18. However, I am convinced that this basic requirement originates with God’s social purpose for His people in Genesis 1-2. Jesus notes that, along with the greatest commandment, the whole of the Old Testament rests upon it (Matt. 22:40). John also explains that “from the beginning” we have been taught to love one another (1 John 3:11). We have been created by God to be one another’s keeper, to love one another even as we love ourselves, in all the relationships of life. What are people for? People are made for relationships with one another, for human community, for loving one another as we love ourselves!

It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden under foot by those who have the gift everyday. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us, that the time that still separates us from utter loneliness may be brief indeed. Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians praise God’s grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Our “creational/cultural” purpose

Our spiritual and social purposes, reflected in the first and second greatest commandments, are quite well known. We emphasize fellowship with God and each other all the time. Communion with God and life in the body of Christ are common fare.

There is, however, a third reason for our existence that seems to have been forgotten or neglected by the Church. God created us not only for vertical and horizontal ends, but that we might also have a relationship with creation as well! God has made us to rule and subdue the earth, to have dominion over his very good creation! This is made abundantly clear in the creation decree in Genesis 1.

Notice how this earthly responsibility of ours is closely associated with our identity as God’s image and likeness in verse 26, and with our purpose as male and female in marriage and family in verse 28. Our capacities as imago Dei are clearly expressed through our dominion-having activities on the earth (v. 26). Our marriages and families ought to be motivated by and be a training ground for God’s larger cultural vision for creation (v. 28). As God’s people, we have been made by Him to establish human culture and civilization. As one theologian puts it, “Man is called by God to develop all the potentialities found in nature and in humankind as a whole. He must seek to develop not only agriculture, horticulture, and animal husbandry, but also science, technology, and art. In other words, we have here what is often called the cultural mandate: the command to develop a God-glorifying culture.”[5]

Now if we turn to Genesis 2, we see this cultural mandate being carried out in cameo form. God planted a beautiful garden in Eden, and placed the man there whom He had formed “to cultivate it and keep it” (v. 15). Gardening is our original vocation! The human race is to give itself wholeheartedly to the twin tasks of the development and preservation of creation as an expression of love and service to God and people. Stewardship of the earth is our very good human task. There is huge potential hidden in the womb of creation. Our job is to so labor in order to give it birth! We are the cultural midwives of the earth!

Even after sin entered the world, this grand purpose of creational development continued, showing up in the civilization established by Cain and Lamech (Gen. 4:16-22), and in the cultural re-commissioning of the human race after the flood in the covenant with Noah (Gen. 9:1-7). Psalm 8 also reveals the permanent status of the cultural mandate by reminding us of our stewardship over the earth, including the kingdom of animals.

“Thou dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Thy name in all the earth!” (Psa. 8:6-9)

Now exactly what does all this mean in practical terms? It means this: God has work for us to do in this world! Work is a blessing of God and is His purpose for our lives. Unfortunately, work has been cursed because of our sin, and it makes our tasks difficult. But work itself is not the curse. Our daily labor is as an expression of ruling the earth and a means of establishing civilization, as one of my favorite quotations suggests.

The task given to man to rule over creation as it was in former times and as it is down to the present day: This is the commission to establish civilization. It applies to all men, and it embraces every age. There is no human activity which is not covered by it. The man who found himself with his family on a plain exposed to ice-cold wind and first laid a few stones one upon another and invented the wall, the basis of all architecture, was fulfilling this command. The woman who first pierced a hole in a hard thorn or fishbone and threaded a piece of animal sinew through it in order to be able to join together a few shreds of skin, and so invented the needle, sewing, the beginning of all the art of clothing, was also fulfilling this command. Down to the present day, all the instructing of children, every kind of school, every script, every book, all our technology, research, science and teaching, with their methods and instruments and institutions, are nothing other than the fulfillment of this command. The whole of history, all human endeavor, comes under this sign, this biblical phrase.[6]

Rather amazing, isn’t it! Have you ever wondered why we do the common, work-a-day things we do every day? The answer is simple: we were designed by God to do them! After all, we are made in the image and likeness of a Creator. Dorothy Sayers makes perfect sense when she says that the doctrine of creation in Genesis 1 indicates that “The characteristic common to God and man is apparently that: the desire and the ability to make things."[7]

That is, indeed, what we do all day long every day: we make things! Meals, gardens, reports, speeches, desserts, music, poetry, letters, emails, touchdowns, base hits, just to name a few! Of course, the things we make are made out of the things God has already made. Nonetheless, working and being creative in myriad ways is at the heart of cultural lives and intrinsic to our humanity.

Brian Walsh and Richard Middleton put it this way.

Culture covers the whole range of human society. It includes not merely art, music and scholarship, but also such things as our economic and political life, religion, the church, education, technology, the media, marriage, family life, advertising and entertainment. To be a cultural being is, quite simply, to be human.[8]

That may be why the Church has forgotten or neglected this third purpose of God and emphasized the other two. Cultural life, work, being about the business of establishing civilization just seems too human, even secular. On the basis of the creation decree, however, we simply cannot say that. Having dominion over the earth is God’s purpose, just like our relationships with Him and other people are. Your work, your calling, your daily duties are important to God! He means for you to do them. He wants to be honored through them. As Dallas Willard says, “We are made to ‘have dominion’ within an appropriate domain of reality. This is the core of the likeness or image of God in us and is the basis of the destiny for which we were formed. We are, all of us, never-ceasing spiritual beings with a unique eternal calling to count for good in God’s great universe.”[9]

Thus, to denigrate or reject this purpose for our lives as “secular” or unrelated to the kingdom is patently unbiblical. It also means thwarting our human nature and need to live productively and creatively. To help build culture, to participate in the creation of a civilization is a third aspect of our original life assignment. It tells us, once again, what people are for!

It is not only prayer that gives God glory but work. Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if being in his grace you do it as your duty. To go to communion worthily gives God great glory, but a man with a dung fork in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, give him glory too. He is so great that all things give him glory if you mean they should.

— Gerard M. Hopkins, Ordinary Graces: Christian Teachings on the Interior Life

What is the chief end of man?

God has created us for three basic purposes: to have fellowship with Him, to be in relationships with other people (especially marriage and family), and to have dominion over the earth. As a matter of fact, our first purpose is the basis for the remaining two. Our fellowship with God is to shape our relationships with others and give direction to our rule over the earth. All kinds of problems result when this order for things is abandoned. Nothing flourishes in the context of idolatry! That is exactly what happened when humanity sinned. But God has not left us in this condition. Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are being renewed as God’s image and likeness. When we are renewed, the reasons for our existence are renewed as well! Redeemed people means redeemed purposes! As a result, God is glorified as His will is done on earth, as it is in heaven!

The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks this classic question: “What is the chief end of man?” It responds with this classic answer: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Precisely! All that we are, all that we have, all that we do should be targeted at the promotion of God’s reputation everywhere and before all. As Paul says, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

This is, indeed, our highest calling. When we enjoy God most, and when we express that enjoyment in every aspect of life — in relationships with each and in our daily tasks and callings, then our lives are a comprehensive doxology, giving praise to God in everything! That is surely what people are for!

Coming up next week: An overview of Genesis 2!

For Study or Discussion

1. What are you presently doing to enrich your relationship with God? How might you improve in this area?

1. Think of the people you meet in the “as-you-are-goings” of your life. Are any of them Christians? Any nonChristians? How would you describe your relationships with these people at this time? How do you try to orient those relationships to your calling as the image-bearer of God?

1. How many different kinds of “work” has God called you to do? Give some examples of the things you “make” in each of these aspects of your calling:

1. What does it mean to “glorify God” in all the daily details of life? How conscious of this are you at all times? How does the way you live your life differ from that on your nonChristian friends and associates?

1. How can Christians encourage one another in our threefold calling? What are you presently doing to encourage other Christians to greater consistency in each of these areas?

For more information on this topic, get the book, Mere Humanity, by Donald T. Williams from our online store. Or read the article, “That Thudding Image,” by Catherine Claire Larson.

[1] Wendell Berry, What are People For? (New York: North Point Press, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1990).

[2] Augustine, Confessions, trans. F. J. Sheed, intro. Peter Brown (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1993), p. 3.

[3] Aristotle, Nichomachian Ethics, trans. Terence Irwin) Indianapolis/ Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company,

1985), p. 207 (9.11; 1155a)

[4] Augustine, trans. Arthur W. Haddan, revised, W. G. T. Shedd, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ed. Philip

Schaff, vol. 3 (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 125 (emphasis added).

[5] Anthony Hoekema, Created in God’s Image (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), p. 79.

[6] Ludwig Kohler, Der Hebraische Mensch, p. 112; quoted in Hans Walter Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament,

trans. Margaret Kohl (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974), p. 164.

[7] Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, intro. Madeleine L’Engle (San Francisco: Harper and Row Publishers,

1987), p. 22.

[8] Brian J. Walsh and J. Richard Middleton, The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview, foreword

Nicholas Wolterstorff (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1984), 55.

[9] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God (New York:

HarperSanFrancisco/HarperCollins Publishers, 1998), p. 21.