God’s Eternal Will for Man
How long have you been a Christian? Which is more important, quantity or quality? It probably depends on what we are talking about. What about in a Christian life? Can we say that the length of Christian life is proportional to good Christian life? The longer, the better? Well, not always. One thing for sure, is that without solid foundation‑we cannot build anything strong enough or good enough.
So I would like to go to the most fundamental question 'Why does a man exist? What is the purpose of a human life?
In order to answer these questions, let's go to God, who made man. If God is in front of you and you ask Him these questions, how will He answer you? Fortunately, you don't need to imagine His answer or search for it in the whole universe. You can know His answer from His Word.
(Genesis 1: 26) Then God said, " Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,"
This is the first verse regarding man in the Bible. God created man in His image. What does this mean? It means that God made man to have the attributes and virtues that He has so that man can express Him through these attributes and virtues. Ephesians 1:4 support this fact. "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. "
God is holy and perfect. God created man that man, may be holy and blameless. God is love and loves. God made man to love. God has wisdom and a purpose. God created man to also have wisdom and a purpose. We as human beings make plans to fulfill our desire and take steps to achieve our aims. Then what about God, in whose image we were made? Does God also have a desire deep in His heart that has not yet fulfilled? Does God have a plan to gain what He longs for?
Ephesians 1:9 show us that God has a desire and a plan to fulfill that desire: "and He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Christ"
The words ‘will,’ ‘good pleasure’ and ‘purposed’ clue us in the fact that God has a particular desire, a good pleasure that will make Him happy and satisfy His heart. And because of this, God planned and purposed to obtain that desire.
Revelation 4:11 also says "You are worthy our lord and God to receive glory honor and power for you have created all things and because of your will they were and they were created "
God is a God of purpose, having a will of his own pleasure. He created all things for His will that he might accomplish and fulfill his purpose. The uncounted items of God's creation including us, are created purposely for God's will so that He could obtain what would bring Him joy.
His good pleasure, a particular desire is to have human beings to be His complete expression through an intimate subjective and loving relationship with Him.
Then how will He fulfill His desire?
In order to fulfill His will, He created man in His image.
(2 Corinthians 4:7) "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."
The apostle Paul refers to human beings in a very particular way—earthen vessels.
Although God created us in His image, we are earthen vessels. God made a man from the dust of the ground. God created us not like heavenly angels but as earthen vessels. Why? According to His particular purpose He created us to be weak and limited earthen vessels so that the treasure, Jesus Christ could be the treasure within us that shines out of us. Instead of creating us to be strong and independent creature to express our own limited characteristics, God created us earthen, desiring that we would express His excellency rather than our own.
We are unique in God's creation. Only earthen vessels, not angelic beings, can express His excellency. We can do this because we are vessels, containers. Vessels can be filled with and overflow with something. Being earthen, we may be weak and limited but God created us as vessels to contain Him so that we can overflow with Him and express Him.
When God created Adam, Adam was a earthen vessel.
(Genesis 2:7) The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.
Adam was made in God's image and had no defect yet he was a earthen vessel, a container to contain God.
This is why God brought Adam before the tree of life in the middle of the garden right after He created the man. God desired the man to eat of the Tree of Life, not of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Unfortunately, he ate from the tree of Knowledge (Gen3:6) and the result was in Gen 3:22 "and the Lord God said, "the man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."
This verse proves that at the beginning when man was created, man did not have eternal life, the life of God. The breath of life breathed into man at his creation should not considered God's immortal life.
Because God's intention was that man would exercise his own will to choose God's eternal life, the divine life, the life of God. God wanted man to receive Him as life, signified by the tree of life. God created man in a way that was possible for man to choose God; to receive God as his life. Except, Satan deceived Adam to take from the Tree of Knowledge, the tree of death. And man fell.
However, God never fails. (Colossians 3:4) When Christ, who is your life, appears then you also will appear with Him in glory. (John 3:16) For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
When we believe in Christ, when we accept Him; we receive Him as our life. Christ Jesus is our life. Before we accept Christ as our Savior, we were empty and our life lacked meaning. Being empty vessels, we were simply earthen without a treasure within. But when we opened our hearts to receive the Lord Jesus, the void within us was filled for the first time.
(Colossians 1:15) He [Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation.
Jesus is the image of God. We were made in the image of God. This means that man was made for Christ to enter into man, so that He could occupy man and use man as His vessel to express Himself.
Consider a glove. What is the image of a glove? A hand. A glove must be made in the image of hand because a glove is intended to contain a hand.
We, earthen vessels in the image of God, must contain the content, Jesus Christ. When you put on a glove and moves it, which is moving your hand or the glove? Because your hand moves, the glove can move. We must know that the Christian life is not a matter of ethics, being good, morally better person; but it is a matter of receiving Christ into us and being filled with Him so that He can overflow within us.
God's eternal will for man is to have man contain Him and express Him.
We are the center of God's plan of His heart's desire and we fulfill our purpose by being continually open to His filling and He can overflow from within us.
If you have lived in a Christian life without knowing the God's eternal will for man, you must put aside everything that you have pursued up to now. And please go back to the answer of the Bible to the question 'Why does a man exist? Why did God created a man?"
May the Lord make known to you, the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ.
Jihyun Lee currently serves as EM pastor Olympic Korean SDA Church and truly feels blessed to minister Mongolian believers in LA.