Why Did God Create Humanity, and What is Our Divine Purpose?

Every person should care about the question, “Why do I exist? What is the point?”

At some point we all should ask, “What is life about? Why am I here and what is my purpose?”

Fortunately, the Bible is quite explicit about answering these questions, and does so quite plainly, for those who have the eyes to see. In short, God made humans to prove a point; namely that lesser beings ruling in harmony and service will create a vastly better world as compared to superior beings who rule in the tyranny of power. We will unpack some biblical verses that make this apparent, but will also note that the entire biblical pattern supports this assertion.

When God first created human beings, He gave them dominion over creation (Genesis 1:28-31). They were to steward creation in harmony with God. God saw that this was “very good.”

Psalm 8 marvels that God made humans lower than the angels, yet gave them dominion over all the earth. Hebrews 2:5-8 quotes Psalm 8 and notes that in placing humanity over His creative works, “He left nothing that is not subject to him” (Hebrews 2:8).

Psalm 8:2 tells us why God did this: “Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.” Other translations render this phrase as:

“Because of Your enemies,
That You may silence the enemy and the avenger.”
(NKJV)

“On account of your adversaries, so that you might put an end to the vindictive enemy.” 
(NET)

This was God’s original design, but humans failed to follow God’s ways. When Adam disobeyed God, humans lost the right to reign, apparently to Satan. Satan is acknowledged by Jesus as the “ruler of this world” in John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11. Further, when Satan offered to Jesus to reign over the “kingdoms of this world” if He would worship him, Jesus did not deny that Satan had that power. Rather, He turned Satan away by quoting from scripture, saying “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY’” (Matthew 4:10).

After quoting Psalm 8, Hebrews 2:8 adds this observation: “But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.” In context, “him” appears to refer to Adam, and through Adam all humanity. In God’s original design “He left nothing that is not subject to him,” that is, humans (Hebrews 2:8 a). But the current reality is that “now we do not yet see all things subjected to him” (Hebrews 2:8b).

That Hebrews includes “yet” shows that humans will be restored to their original design. Jesus solved this problem, as we see in Hebrews 2:9:

“But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”
(Hebrews 2:9)

In context, the image of being “crowned with glory and honor” refers to Hebrews 2:7-8 which quotes Psalm 8:5-6. To be “crowned” is to be given authority. To be granted great authority is a great “honor” that brings great “glory.” Jesus restored the right of humans to reign as God designed, “because of the suffering of death” of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice of Himself.

It is through the complete obedience of Christ, learning obedience even to death on a cross, that Jesus restored the right of humans to reign (Philippians 2:8-10). Jesus came to earth to serve, rather than to be served (Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45). In doing so, He reestablished God’s creative order, for service to triumph over power.

Because Jesus learned obedience, even to death on a cross, “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Philippians 2:9-10). As Jesus asserted to His disciples after He rose from the grave: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18).

The book of Hebrews presents Jesus as being granted Sonship as reward for His faithfulness. This invokes the ancient pattern of what historians call the “Suzerain-Vassal Treaty.” The superior king would “adopt” an inferior king as a “son” and reward him with a royal grant to reign over a realm for his faithful service.

This is the picture painted in Hebrews 1:5, where Jesus is “begotten” as a “Son.” Jesus is fully God from before the beginning (John 1:1). In Him, through Him, and for Him were all things made (Colossians 1:16-17). So, Jesus cannot be “begotten” as a Son in the sense of coming into being. Rather, Jesus was “begotten” as a “Son” as a reward for faithful obedience to His Father, as a human. He already had this honor as God.

In Jesus’s case, the realm He was given to reign is the heavens and earth (Matthew 28:18). What about the rest of us? Amazingly, Hebrews 2:10 says it is Jesus’s goal to include as many believers as possible to also be rewarded to be “sons”:

“For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.”
(Hebrews 2:10)

Hebrews 2:10 indicates it is Jesus’s aim to bring “many sons to glory.” In this context, to be a “son” is to inherit the reign, and the “glory” being referred to is the “glory and honor” humanity was originally “crowned” with in being given authority over the earth (Hebrews 2:5-8). The “author” of our “salvation” is Jesus. He was perfected or made complete “through sufferings.”

So how do humans follow in His path and become sons? And why does God desire for us to reign when reigning typically attends the use of coercive power and exploitation?

We will answer the second question first by referring back to the original point; God’s creative design is to use the lower creation to prove that leading and ruling through service is superior to ruling by power (Psalm 8:2). That is why when Jesus gave us the “Great Commission,” He begins with a declaration of power to His disciples:

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.’”
(Matthew 28:18)

When we see such a declaration of authority, we naturally expect to follow a command to secure that authority. Instead, we see a command to serve. Given this authority, Jesus then declares to His followers:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:19-20)

The “therefore” in Matthew 28:19 refers to the fact that Jesus has been granted authority over all the heavens and earth. This is because He, as the God-man, was rewarded by being given this authority as a Son. He was granted the scepter to rule over the earth (Hebrews 1:13). The disciples later ask Jesus a perfectly logical question:

“So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, ‘Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?’”
(Acts 1:6)

The disciples are asking if Jesus plans to secure the throne of Israel and restore the reign of His earthly ancestor, King David (through His earthly mother). Jesus’s reply is consistent with the Great Commission. He answers that they need to get spiritual power to accomplish their assigned mission, which is to teach people to obey His commands:

“He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.’”
(Acts 1:7-8)

How does baptizing people and teaching them to obey Jesus’s commands fulfill God’s design for humans to reign in the earth? That is what servant leadership looks like. It looks like leading people to understand what is in their best interest. It looks like serving people by helping them discover their gifting and teaching them how to serve others using their giftedness.

Upon reflection, it should be apparent that if all earthly leaders took this approach, the earth would be an entirely different place, a substantially better place. And that is the earth’s destiny. As Peter asserts:

“But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”
(2 Peter 3:13)

“Righteousness” is when all functions according to God’s good design. The earth that is to come will be ruled by Jesus along with those He has qualified as “sons,” who will also reign with Him. To qualify as a “son” is to possess the full reward of our inheritance (Colossians 3:23-24).

Returning to the question of how believers possess the reward of becoming “sons,” it is by following Jesus’s example and obeying His commands.

Of course, the first step is to become a believer in Jesus. Jesus offers a new spiritual birth to all who have enough faith to look upon Him, hoping to be delivered from the poisonous venom of sin (John 3:14-15). He offers the gift of eternal life to all who believe, even as Abraham was granted righteousness in God’s sight simply by faith in Christ (Romans 3:23-26, 4:3).

Once we are God’s child, we are made a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because we are in Christ, we will never be rejected as His child. For Him to reject us would be for Him to reject Himself, because we are in Him (2 Timothy 2:13). All who believe are His. All who believe are granted an inheritance with Him. But only those who overcome the temptation to serve self will possess that inheritance. Believers overcome as Jesus overcame by following His commands as Jesus obeyed His Father.

That is also the point of Hebrews 3:12-19, which begins with the warning to

“Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”
(Hebrews 3:12)

The author of Hebrews uses the first generation that came out of Egypt as an example to us. Like believers, these Israelites were God’s people, and He never rejected them. But they did not possess their inheritance because of their unbelief. The author of Hebrews offers this example to New Testament believers as a warning; the reward of inheritance comes through a walk of faith.

To walk apart from faith in God and instead follow the ways of the world and the flesh is to “neglect” the “salvation” spoken of in Hebrews 2:3. In context, the “salvation” referred to in Hebrews 2 is the full deliverance of humanity from the adverse effect of the Fall.

To be fully delivered from the Fall is to not only have peace with God through Christ’s death on the cross, but it is also to have our inheritance restored through walking by faith. The proper inheritance for humanity is to reign in harmony with Christ as servant leaders, seeking the best for others in obedience to the Head, who is Jesus Christ. Jesus restored humanity’s right to reign through the “suffering of death” (Hebrews 2:8). He calls us to follow Him.

Jesus asks His disciples to take up their cross daily and follow Him (Matthew 10:38, 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23). In fact, He says that unless we do this, we cannot be His disciple:

“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”
(Luke 14:27)

To be a “disciple” is to learn what a teacher has to teach. Whoever desires to gain the training Jesus offers must “carry his own cross.” This is to follow Jesus in the “suffering of death” spoken of in Hebrews 2:9. Just as Jesus set aside His desire for comfort in order to do God’s will, so believers are asked to do. Jesus prayed:

“Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
(Luke 22:42)

Jesus did not desire to suffer, but He was willing if it was His Father’s plan. Similarly, Jesus taught us to pray “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). To do the Father’s will was Jesus’s aim.

Hebrews 12:1-2 exhorts us to follow Jesus’s example. He fixed His focus on the “joy set before Him” which was to sit “at the right hand of the throne of God.” Because of this objective, Jesus “endured the cross, despising the shame” He received from the world.

Jesus suffered rejection but gave it no value (“despised” it). This is because He compared the shame of the world to the glory of reigning with His Father, possessing the reward of being a “Son” through living as a faithful witness.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul exhorts us to have the same mindset Jesus had:

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”
(Philippians 2:5-7)

We see in this Philippians passage that Paul exhorts believers to have the same “attitude” or mindset Jesus had. Jesus had the mindset that doing what God asked Him was worth setting aside all privilege and comfort.

Further, Philippians goes on to say of Jesus:

“Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
(Philippians 2:8)

Jesus “humbled Himself.” He who created the world became a part of His creation in order to redeem it from futility. He became “obedient to the point of death” on a “cross.” This is the “suffering of death” by which Jesus restored the privilege of humans to reign (Hebrews 2:9). But only believers who serve as Jesus served will possess the reward of the inheritance, to reign with Him.

As Philippians states, it was for “this reason” that Jesus learned obedience through the suffering of death, that “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). This is what Jesus proclaimed in the beginning of the Great Commission, that “all authority” was granted to Him in heaven and on earth. It was because of His faithful service.

Jesus tells the churches in Revelation something similar. He says in Revelation 1:3 that those who read, understand, and do the things in the letter will gain a great blessing. The thing He asks believers to do is to overcome as He overcame. He promises many rewards for overcoming, including the promise of sitting with Him on His throne, as He sat on the throne of His Father (Revelation 3:21).

To overcome is to give no value to worldly loss, rejection, or death because of the surpassing glory promised to those who live as faithful witnesses. Paul states it this way:

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.”
(2 Corinthians 4:17)

Paul exhorts believers to choose a perspective that any difficulty experienced in this life is “light” and “momentary” as compared to the “eternal weight of glory” which God has promised to those who humble themselves under His mighty hand (1 Peter 5:6). Paul earlier asserted that the rewards God has in store for those who love Him and keep His commands are beyond our capacity to grasp (1 Corinthians 2:9).

It is through servant leadership and seeking the best for others in truth and love that the paradoxical statement of Jesus is fulfilled,

“And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”
(Matthew 10:38-39)

We find our life by laying it down. It is when we serve the best interest of others, which is the definition of “agape” love (unconditional, choice-based, serving) that we find fulfillment. This is because God designed us for this. When we resist the corruption of the world and instead serve in truth and love we fulfill our design.

This means we find peace and joy in this life, and will be rewarded to the fullest in the next.

After the rich young ruler sadly walked away from Jesus, Peter asked Jesus what is in this for us (Matthew 19:25). Jesus answered him and the other disciples:

“Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
(Matthew 19:26)

Jesus then went on to make this promise to all who follow Him:

“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.”
(Matthew 19:27)

This is exceedingly good news, for no person or circumstance can stop us from living as a faithful witness.

As God’s image-bearers, we were created to collaborate and co-reign in harmony with Him over creation. Our dominion and authority are derived from God. Though we lost fellowship with God in our sin, Christ restores us into God’s family through our belief in Him (John 1:12-13). We are born again by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). The God who makes us new creations also created for us good works to walk in (Ephesians 2:10).

And we receive the reward of being adopted as “sons”—meaning those who reign—if we overcome. If we endure and persevere in being a faithful witness we will be restored to our original design and receive our inheritance of reigning with Christ. This is inferred in Christ’s Parable of the Talents. The master, who represents Jesus, rewards the good and faithful servant by telling him:

“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’”
(Matthew 25:21)

When we follow Jesus’s example and suffer with Him and overcome life’s trials by faith, we are being faithful servants (Romans 8:17b). As we do this we walk in the works and the divine destiny which God created for us (Ephesians 2:10). When we are faithful stewards of the comparatively small things in this earth, Jesus will “crown” us with the “glory and honor” of having great responsibility to reign as servant leaders in His kingdom.

The wonderful thing about this is that no matter what level of talent, position, or circumstance we might have, no one can stop us from seeking to be a faithful witness by serving the best interest for others. This of course does not mean we seek to do whatever others desire. It means we follow the example of Jesus and seek to lead people into the truth, but do so in love.

This means we will desire to live godly lives, which scripture tells us will lead to rejection by the world (2 Timothy 3:12). That means a major part of overcoming as Jesus overcame is to consider such rejection as having no weight; to “despise” it as Jesus did (Hebrews 12:2). When we do this we have the great hope of gaining an “eternal weight of glory” that far exceeds anything we can imagine (2 Corinthians 4:17, 1 Corinthians 2:9).