THE PURPOSE OF MAN

What do you think is the purpose of man on Earth? Why do you think God created us?

According to Proverbs 16:4, God created everything with a purpose:

“The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil.”

For example, bees were created to pollinate plants. Their food is honey, which comes from the nectar of flowers. They were designed to effectively fulfill this purpose. Similarly, dung beetles were created to eat and recycle cattle dung. Their bodies were also designed to effectively carry out this function.

Every creation of the Lord has a purpose. In fact, even man-made things created or invented by humans serve a specific purpose. They are designed to fulfill a need or function.

CREATED IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD

So, the question remains: What is the purpose of man? Why did God create us?

Just like His other creations, the answer lies in how our Lord God designed us. According to Genesis 1:26-27:

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

We are designed by God in His image (Hebrew: “tseh’-lem” meaning figure, form, or shape) and likeness (Hebrew: “dem-ooth’” meaning resemblance, model, similarity in character and attributes).

If we are created in the form, shape, and attributes of God, what do you think is our purpose?

One great example of a man-made object that resembles the form and shape of a human body part is a pair of shoes. Shoes are made in the image of our feet because their purpose is to cover and protect them. That is why they are designed in the shape of our feet.

The same is true for us. We are created in the image and likeness of God so that God can dwell in us. This is the purpose of man – to be indwelt by God, to be His tabernacle and His temple, as written in Revelation 21:3 and 1 Corinthians 6:19:

Rev. 21:3 “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”

1 Cor. 6:19 “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”

WE ARE CREATED TO BE POSSESSED BY GOD

Our Lord created you to be possessed by Him. He created Adam to be His dwelling place. This is the very purpose of man. However, just like His other creations, He did not design Adam to be a robot, programmed to accept Him automatically. Instead, He gave Adam free will—the ability to choose and decide for himself. God desired for Adam to choose Him freely, rather than be forced into submission. In other words, He wanted Adam to love Him by choice.

But we know what happened. Man did not choose God to dwell in him. The Tree of Life, which embodied the Spirit of God and was intended for Adam to partake of, was rejected. The Tree of Life was meant to be the way through which the Lord would indwell Adam and possess him. But instead, Adam chose the enemy. He chose the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, allowing sin to take possession of him.

This was the first heartbreak of God toward man. It was a terrible moment—God’s very own creation did not choose Him. Instead, Adam chose His enemy.

MAN LOST HIS PURPOSE

We were designed to be the temple of God, His vessel. However, because of the Original Sin, we became a temple of sin. Sin took residence within us, and our Lord could no longer dwell in us. God became an outcast in His own temple. Humanity, created to be His dwelling place, became corrupted and lost his very purpose. Adam failed to become the man that God originally intended him to be, and as a result, he could no longer fulfill his divine purpose.

Now, when a creation loses its purpose, it dies. For example, imagine a dung beetle rebelling against God, saying:

“I no longer want to eat cattle dung; instead, I want to eat honey like the bees.”

Surely, that dung beetle would die, because it was not designed to consume honey. Its body is not built to process honey, and by rejecting its purpose, it would cease to function properly.

Likewise, on the day man lost his purpose, he died. Adam died spiritually. His spirit died because it has lost its purpose to be indwelt by God. Our Lord God could also no longer dwell in man because sin had taken residence in him. And because humanity lost its purpose, every person born into this world was born spiritually dead or has a dead spirit, as written in 1 Corinthians 15:22:

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

Our spirit is dead. We could no longer serve our purpose. We lost our divine purpose. We became nothing but purposeless, dead, and sinful beings—the total opposite of what God has intended us to be. A creation that has lost its purpose is a dead creation.

MAN BECOMES THE TEMPLE OF THE ENEMY

When Adam chose the enemy of God to dwell in him, he became the temple of the enemy—the complete opposite of his intended purpose. Man gave his temple over to sin, allowing sin to take ownership instead of God Who is the rightful owner. Man became a dwelling place for sin.

Sin and God cannot coexist. Because of this, God had to separate from man, His beloved creation. The Lord hid the Tree of Life (His Spirit) from man, ensuring that man could no longer contain God (Genesis 3:24). From that moment on, there is no longer reason for God to dwell in man.

God became an outcast from His own temple. Even though He is the rightful owner of man, He could not dwell in him because man had chosen to be a vessel for God’s enemy. In essence, man “pawned” his temple to the enemy. If God desired to dwell in man again, He would first need to redeem His temple because it is being pawned. Unless God Himself redeemed His temple, the enemy would continue to own it.

Since the temple had been pawned, the “Title Deed” of that temple could only be reclaimed by someone who is both willing and able to pay the price for man’s redemption. Someone had to redeem mankind. But this Redeemer could not just be anyone. He had to be qualified—a rightful Redeemer who could legally and justly purchase back what had been lost.

THE REDEEMER

God wanted to redeem us so that we could serve our purpose. He wanted to save His temple. The reason why our body dies and always goes back to the ground no matter what we do, is because the enemy has a claim on it. It is pawned to him. It is the dwelling place of sin (Rom. 7:18, 6:12). It cannot enter Heaven and go to God because the enemy has a claim on it (1 Cor. 15:50). It will always die and go back to the ground.

In order to save us, God needs to be our Redeemer. But in order to be our Redeemer, there are requirements that need to be complied by God. According to the Bible, there are only three requirements to be the Savior of Man. The Savior must have the following:

1. He needs to have the ability to redeem.

2. He needs to have the right to redeem.

3. He needs to be willing to redeem.

Let’s tackle them one by one…

A. He Needs to have the ability to Redeem

Since it is the human body that was pawned and needs to be redeemed, the first requirement for a Redeemer is that He needs to have a human body to be sacrificed as payment for sin (Leviticus 17:11). Without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 9:22). This is why our Lord God needed to become a human being first in order to be our Savior (John 1:1,14).

He needed to have a human body to be sacrificed and shed blood as payment for our redemption from sin. This is how our Creator became our Savior—our Savior is our very own Creator Himself. We have no other Savior aside from our God, as we read in Isaiah 43:11:

“I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.”

Here, we see the necessity of the Lord Jesus being born on earth, taking on the likeness of man (Philippians 2:7). However, the body of our Lord that was to be sacrificed could not be just any kind of body—it had to be a sinless body.

To accomplish this, our Lord needed to be born into this world not through natural means of conception. Instead, He was conceived by the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). Because of this, unlike us, the Lord’s body was sinless. He also lived His entire life without sin in order to redeem us. This is why He is able to redeem us.

B. He Needs to have the Right to Redeem

The second requirement for a rightful redeemer is that He needs to be the owner of the one being pawned or, at the very least, a close relative (kin) of it (Ruth 2:20). This is why our Lord should be our Kinsman Redeemer. In order to fulfill this requirement, our Lord needed to be our blood relative. He had to be blood-related to Adam to become the Savior of Adam and his lineage. Therefore, He had to be born into the lineage of Adam.

To comply with this, our Lord used Mary’s egg cell so that He could be blood-related to us. Our Lord is our kin according to the flesh, as stated in Acts 2:30, Romans 1:3, 2 Corinthians 5:16, and Romans 9:5.

To learn more about how He is related to us according to the flesh, please refer to the article “WHY OUR LORD JESUS IS MADE FROM THE EGG CELL OF MARY.”

C. He Needs to be willing to Redeem

Complying with the first two requirements would be useless if our kin was not willing to redeem us. However, our Lord Jesus Christ is willing to redeem us. He was willing even though it would lead to His death on the cross:

Phil. 2:8 “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ has more than adequately fulfilled all three requirements! He became flesh and blood as we are, He became our kin, He lived His whole life without sin, and finally (and thankfully), He was willing to redeem us, even though it meant dying on the cross. And He succeeded in redeeming us. He claimed our “Title Deed” and became our rightful owner (Revelation 5:5-7). God now can dwell in His temple.

MAN IS RESTORED TO HIS PURPOSE

After our Lord Jesus victoriously bought us by His blood, we are now owned by Him. He can now dwell in us as His temple. The original purpose of Man, which is to be indwelt by God, has now been restored because we have been redeemed by Him. We can read this in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:

“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

The indwelling of God in us began only after we were redeemed by Him. The Old Testament saints could not be born again or indwelt by the Spirit of God because, during their time, redemption at the cross had not yet been accomplished. God could not yet dwell in them because their bodies did not yet belong to Him—they had not yet been redeemed by our Lord.

Before the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross, the Spirit of God could not indwell Man (John 7:39). However, after redemption, God can now live in Man as His temple.

Our Lord did not die on the cross merely to save us from hell; He died to bring God out of Heaven and put Him into us.

Now, the whole purpose of Man does not end with the indwelling of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ in us. Our Lord also desires for us to reach our full potential as human beings—that is, to fully manifest the image and likeness of God so that we may reflect Him completely. And our full potential in no other than our “Glorified State,” or what the Bible refers to as “the manifestation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19).

This is the ultimate goal of God for us—to reach our Glorified State. And we see this purpose fully realized in our Lord Jesus Christ.

THE LORD JESUS AS THE PERFECT MAN

There is only one man who perfectly fulfill the purpose of Man here on Earth as God intended Man to be. He is no other than our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is a perfect example of what Adam should be. He is a perfect example of a Man fulfilling the purpose of God to Man. To be a Man living for his purpose would take God Himself to indwelt that Man in order for that Man to be Man.

The Lord Jesus is the “Last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45). He is the last Man. Just like the first Adam, His purpose was to be indwelt by God—to be the Temple of God. However, unlike the first Adam, He perfectly fulfilled this purpose.

He was fully indwelt by the Spirit of God.

He accomplished the will of God in His life perfectly.

He was tempted in every way yet lived a sinless life.

He gave Himself exclusively to God.

He did nothing apart from what God directed Him to do.

He reach the full potential of Man which is the Glorified state.

John 5:19 states:

“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”

Our Lord Jesus fully submit to God. He was fully indwelt by God because of His full submission. And because of this, He has reached the Glorified state. This is also the goal of God for us – to be indwelt by God, let Him take over us and reach our Glorified State like our Lord Jesus.

The life that our Lord Jesus lived has qualified Him for the death He died. Because it will take a perfect life of a man to qualify as a ransom for many. On the other hand, His death qualifies us to receive the life that He lived. We can now live the perfect life of Christ in us because of His death. He can now indwell us through His death. And just like Him, we can now reach our Glorified state because the One Who has reached the Glorified state is now living in us. The Life that He live in us is the One that will glorify us someday.

THE INDWELLING OF CHRIST

Our Lord Jesus wants us to be Glorified. A glorified body represents our full potential. If we are Glorified, we will never experience hunger, exhaustion, or sickness—and most importantly, we will never die. We will be able to fully perform our purpose as intended by God.

However, we can only reach this state through the Spirit of our Lord dwelling in us. Just as our Lord attained Glorification, we too can achieve it—but only if we make ourselves fully available and exclusive to Him. We must let Him take over us. This is the only way to fully perform our purpose and reach our full potential.

A car can only fulfill its purpose— which is to go places—if it has fuel. Likewise, a Man without God indwelling him is like a car without gas—he cannot go anywhere, he cannot serve his intended purpose, and he cannot reach his full potential.

Since the creation of Man, our Lord has always desired to indwell us. However, Satan deceived Man, convincing him that he did not need God. Through the Serpent, Satan deceived Eve, making her believe that she could become like God through her own effort by partaking the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

This is how Man was separated from God. Man chose not to be indwelt by the Lord. Satan does not want you to depend on God, but rather on yourself. He will keep you busy with the lesser things of this world, preventing you from serving your true purpose and achieving your full potential.

But after our Lord Jesus redeemed us, God can now dwell in us. We can now serve our purpose. This is the true meaning of Grace. The grace of God (Who is our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Titus 2:11-12), began to dwell in Man after the resurrection of our Lord. After He had redeem us. We received grace the moment our Lord Jesus indwelt us. The Grace Dispensation began at Pentecost, when the Spirit of the Lord indwelt the 120 disciples (Acts 2:1-4).

We are still living in this Grace Dispensation. Being in this dispensation means that we must allow the Lord Jesus Christ to work in us and through us. This is the very reason why His Spirit dwells within us—to take over our lives. We must surrender to Him completely.

Sadly, many people fail in this dispensation because they do not want the Lord to control their lives. They resist giving up the throne of their hearts. They do not surrender their lives to the Lord. Instead, they spend their time pursuing earthly purposes rather than the divine purpose for which they were created.

This is how we fail in this grace period.

THE SURRENDERED LIFE

After being born again (indwelt by the Spirit of God), our Lord desires that we surrender our lives to Him so that He can effectively use us. As Romans 6:13 states:

“Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”

We must offer all our members as instruments of God. The word “instruments” here comes from the Greek word “hop’lon,” meaning “armor, instrument, or weapon.” We are God’s weapon on Earth. We are His sword, His spear, and His arrow in the battle against darkness.

This Earth has been conquered by Satan’s kingdom. The people of this world are under Satan’s control. However, our Lord desires to use us to reclaim this kingdom and to advance the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth (Matthew 6:10). Yet, we can only be an effective weapon of God if we are a surrendered weapon—a weapon that yields to the will of the Lord.

Now, remember this:

WE CAN ONLY SURRENDER OUR LIFE TO GOD IF WE SURRENDER OUR SOUL.

The soul is the heart of man (Matthew 9:4). It is where the throne of man is located. If we surrender that throne to our Lord, then He can take over our soul. He can take over us.

The process of surrendering our soul to God is called Sanctification.

THE SANCTIFICATION OF OUR SOUL

1 Thes. 5:23 “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

After the quickening of our Spirit, the next step is the Sanctification of our soul. The word “sanctification” comes from the Latin word “sanctus”, which literally means “to set apart for use or purpose.”

Thus, our Lord sanctifies us by setting us apart and using us for His purpose. Remember, the purpose of man is to be indwelt by the Lord and to surrender our life to God. Every time we allow God to use us, is also the time we are being sanctified.

Consider the example of a cup. The purpose of a cup is to hold water so that we can drink from it. Every time we use that cup for drinking, we are sanctifying it because it fulfils its intended purpose. However, if we use that cup for something else, such as hammering a nail, we are not sanctifying it—instead, we are damaging it. A cup is not sanctified when it is used for something other than its intended purpose.

The same principle applies to us. If we do not allow the Lord to use us, or if we use our lives for purposes other than what we were created for, then we are not sanctified. We will be destroyed.

The goal of our Lord is to take over our soul, and He can only do this through sanctification—by gradually using us for His purpose. Our role is simply to cooperate and surrender to Him. Absolute surrender to our Lord is the key to becoming a candidate for Glorification. Do not hold anything back from God. Give your all to Him so that He can glorify you.

Let the act of surrender sweep through every interest, plan, power, and possession of your being.

THE COMMITTED LIFE

Among the three aspects of our salvation—Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification—the longest process is Sanctification.

After we surrender our lives to the Lord, we must remain fully committed to Him. Since sanctification is a long process, we must discipline ourselves to avoid falling into the temptation of faltering in serving our purpose.

Always remember: You are EXCLUSIVELY committed to Christ, just as He is EXCLUSIVELY committed to you. You are not committed to your calling or even to the Church itself—you are committed to Christ ALONE. And I say it again: EXCLUSIVELY.

Faith is complete dependence to God. This God-dependence only begins when self-dependence ends. For some of us, self-dependence only comes to an end through sorrow, suffering, affliction, broken plans, and shattered hopes. It is in these moments of utter helplessness and defeat that we are brought to the place where we throw ourselves entirely upon God. This is when you truly commit your life to Him.

THE FINAL GOAL: GLORIFICATION

Once we have surrendered our lives to our Lord, that is when He can take over our soul. Our Lord desires to sit on the throne of our soul so that He can lead us to reach our full potential – a potential that He planned for us before the foundation of the world. This full potential is our Glorified State—where we will:

Never get sick

Never be hungry

Never be tired

No longer be bound by the limitations of space and time

And most of all, we will never die

Satan knows this plan, which is why he works tirelessly to distract us with money, wealth, pride, and all the temporary things of this world—things that have no eternal value and no connection to our glorification.

In the end, it is up to us whom we will follow. I hope you will choose the Lord, for His plan is to lead us to our Glorification.

God bless.

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