Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
    or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
    and all the angels shouted for joy?

• Job 38:4-7

“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they were created
    and have their being.”

• Revelation 4:11

Now all has been heard;
    here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
    for this is the duty of all mankind.
For God will bring every deed into judgment,
    including every hidden thing,
    whether it is good or evil.

• Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

“But, the exciting news is; [work, education, pleasure, and thrills are] not the reason or purpose of our life. I bring you to the Scriptures themselves, not to man’s philosophy but to what God says about our purpose in life. The Scripture teaches us a number of things about the purpose of our life. It teaches us that God created all things out of His own pleasure. ‘Thou art worthy. O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created’ (Rev. 4:11).
“When God decided to create mankind, it was a high day in heaven accompanied with a big celebration ‘when the morning stars sang together. and all the sons of God shouted for joy’ (Job 38:7). Here was the heavenly host celebrating when God decided to create the heaven and the earth and, in particular, man to worship Him.
“This is taught throughout the entire Bible, that God created man to worship Him. Man is the darling of the universe, the centerpiece of God’s affection: however, many unbelievers denied this.
“A very intelligent man once commented when asked what he thought to be the biggest mistake or error made by people: ‘I consider the biggest mistake to be the belief that we are special objects of Almighty God and that we are more than other things in the world, and God has a special fondness for people.’
“Regardless of that man’s opinion, I base my whole life on the belief of God creating man with a special, unique, divine purpose. I do not care how brilliant this man is, he cannot jar me from my conviction. It would be as useless as throwing cooked peas at a 10-story building to destroy any of my beliefs or doctrines or commitment to this faith.”

• A. W. Tozer, The Purpose of Man

In this conclusion to our Identity series, we come back to the conclusions of each of the previous “identity” studies.  Our chief end, or our purpose and indeed our identity, is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, like the catechism says.  These words may best match Ecclesiastes 12 above, but the entire Bible boils down to Jesus paying the penalty so that our “identity” can be restored with God.

God is the Great “I AM.”  He was before time, and He will be forever.  He is self-sufficient, but He wanted to have some beings that had consciousness.  He wanted those beings to have a choice between good and evil.  He wanted those beings to choose to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever, acknowledging that He indeed is the Creator of all things.

It hurts God when we turn away, but He had to give us the choice in order for us to willingly seek Him so that we can enjoy Him forever.

The sad thing about giving us that choice is that God allows us to go astray.  Our sin, and the brokenness of this world, provide a great deal of troubles in our lives.  That is all unnecessary if we all followed Jesus Christ, but those troubles are very necessary in realizing our mistake and directing us back to God Himself.

And some will be like the scholar that Rev. Tozer quotes.  And what a sad thought that is.  When everything happens by accident, there is never a purpose in life.  But people since the dawn of time have asked what their purpose is.  Why would we be given consciousness and a desire to find purpose if there was no purpose?  This broken world may be cruel, but it makes sense.  To have a burning desire to find purpose when there is no purpose is lunacy, and indeed self-imposed cruelty.

And why do so few find purpose in glorifying God?  Maybe what Jesus said about the cornerstone.  The people of Jerusalem stared the Cornerstone in the face and rejected Him.  They hung Him to a tree.  And we, two thousand years later, are no different.  Without seeing the risen Christ, we still reject Him.

Say it is not so in your case.  Accept Jesus as your Savior.  Find purpose in your life.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.