Why Are We Here? Series

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Psalm 8:6-8

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have 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 along the paths of the seas.

God is glorified when we use His creation for good things, and He expects us to enjoy that!

Real science is good! Studying how we can use the resources of earth for good is a good thing!

Harnessing the richness of creation for good is a good thing. When farmers grow things, when builders build things, when discoverers discover things, when people show the image of God in which they are created by being productive and creative, it points to the genius and power of the Creator! Just like a pile of rocks in the shape of a man tells something about the people who put them there, we tell something about the God who put us here when we fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over it, and do it well. No other part of creation has that privilege, but we do! We are stewards of the rest of creation, and that’s one way we direct glory to God.

Another way we bring glory to God is by our worship and obedience to Him. We’ve been created for this purpose. In fact, when Solomon concludes the book of Ecclesiastes, which is basically about a man’s search for the meaning of life, he reaches this end:

Ecclesiastes 12:13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Jesus spoke about it in vineyard terms:

John 15:8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

Once again, that’s why we’re here. No other part of creation has the choice to either obey or disobey God. (All cats and a few dogs may be the exception to that!) No other part of creation has a soul that’s able to revere God like we are able. Think about that! This is the whole of man - fear God and keep His commandments. That’s a description of why we’re here.

Just like someone might build an inukshuk for the sheer pleasure of creating something and enjoying it, it seems that God has also made us for the purpose of His own delight, if you will. God not only created a creation, He is also from that creation building a Kingdom. We are here to be the citizens of God’s Kingdom, elements of a building, the sheep of His flock, the fruit of His harvest, members of a family, parts of a Body. That’s the way He describes it in…

1 Corinthians 12:18-20 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

Charles Darwin pointed to certain organs, dubbed them the vestigial organs, and called them evidence that we evolved and those organs were no longer necessary.