The Purposes of Human Life

Often, we simply wonder at the facts of the Bible’s creation account without digesting its meaning. But if we look closely, we discover the Bible’s answer to one of life’s most enduring personal and philosophical questions: Why are we here? What is the purpose of human existence?

Genesis depicts humanity as existing for two very specific reasons: relational enjoyment and cultural development. Let’s consider each purpose in turn.

Purpose 1: Relational Enjoyment

In Genesis 1:26, God said, “Let us make man in our image.” Verse 27 continued, “In the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

We see here that God created Adam and Eve as a plurality of persons because God is a plurality of Persons. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity asserts that God is one in essence and three in Person—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And God made humanity to be like him.

So, the reason it’s not good for man to be alone is because God is not alone. We were made for loving community because God has always existed in loving community. As philosopher Jerry Walls wrote, “[The Persons of the Trinity] have existed in a relationship of mutual love and ecstatic delight for all eternity.”[1] Love is quite literally at the core of reality!

The idea that God is love is unique to Christianity. (This cannot be the case in other theistic religions where, before creation, god eternally existed in isolation.) Genesis makes clear that the Persons of the Trinity preceded the work of the Trinity. While God has always existed, creation hasn’t. God was love before He exercised His creative power.

Not surprisingly, therefore, relationships should take priority over production for God’s image bearers. Love is more important than labor. We all know this intuitively—that’s why on their deathbeds, humans ask for their loved ones and not their trophies. But we also have ample biblical justification to believe relational enjoyment is humanity’s chief purpose.

For instance, consider how the sixth day of creation ended. After God made Adam, His main concern was not immediately putting him to work, but finding Adam a suitable partner. When a suitable partner could not be found among the animals, God made Eve, and the sixth day of creation culminated in a wedding! At this wedding, God both officiated and gave the bride away (Gen. 2:22). Adam responded by reciting the world’s first poem, after which Adam and Eve consummated their marriage (2:23–25).[2] In other words, the sixth day appears to end with singing and sex, which are both superlative examples of relational enjoyment!

We also see the importance of relationship in what happened next. Have you ever thought about what Adam and Eve did on their first full day? Their first full day was not a workday, but a Sabbath. In what the Heidelberg Catechism calls a “festive day of rest,”[3] they paused to enjoy God and the fruits of God’s labor together. And so, the creation week also climaxes with relational enjoyment.

Putting all this together, we can infer that humans were made primarily to be in a relationship of love and joy with God and one another (1 John 1:3). We do not exist primarily for economic or work relationships, but for relationships that are ends in themselves, such as our relationship with God in worship and a relationship with one other in community.

As the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”[4] Or, as Jesus said when summarizing God’s law, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). This is humanity’s reason for being.

Humans are born hardwired for relational enjoyment or what we often call “play.” The child’s persistent question, “Will you play with me?” is actually a deeply meaningful one that points to the purpose of his or her existence—and ours. I’m sure this is part of your own experience. It certainly is mine: My happiest moments in life have been sharing in the laughter and joy that comes from playing and conversing with my wife and children, my friends, and my extended family.

We need to do a better job, especially in the West, of prioritizing people over productivity, of putting our phones down and engaging those we love in the serious business of festive rest.

Purpose 2: Cultural Development

In addition to relational enjoyment, Genesis reveals a secondary purpose for humanity: God made Adam and Eve for cultural development and management. Simply put, culture is what we do with the raw materials at our disposal. It involves drawing the raw materials from the world of nature and the world of ideas and “making stuff” that contributes to our shared civic life—such as art, food, fashion, technology, education, language, business, sports, scientific theories, and even babies.

As one author explained, “Culture is anything that humans produce when they interact with one another and with God’s creation.”[5] When a chef dines with friends at one of her favorite restaurants, she is engaging in relational enjoyment. When she designs a restaurant’s environment and prepares a meal, she is making culture.

While all of God’s creatures were blessed and told to be fruitful, multiply, and fill their respective domains, God only told humans to subdue and have dominion over the earth and its inhabitants (Gen. 1:28). In partnership with God and under His authority, Adam and Eve were to cultivate the earth and rule over its occupants, to build culture.

As God’s image bearers, Adam and Eve were responsible not only to imitate him in Sabbath rest but also in creative work. As Udo Middleman wrote, “God created a real world but left it 25 deliberately unfinished.”[6] It is as if God launched an earth-sized “LEGO™ City” project and invited humanity to participate in building it with him.

This inspired vision of God’s intent for partnership with humanity stands in stark contrast to the beliefs of ancient Israel’s neighbors. In the Mesopotamian origin story, humans were created by the junior gods to do the work the gods didn’t want to do.

Not so in Genesis. According to Genesis, work isn’t a bad thing. God designed humans to work because God is Himself a worker. As Tim Keller points out, in Genesis 1, we see a God “with his hands in the dirt.”[7]

And what was the work at hand? The development of creation into a godly civilization, a world-wide city operating according to God’s will.

God made humanity to participate in His kingdom-building and governing project. We have the great privilege of partnering with God in this grand endeavor by making and managing culture, be it music, math, or mothering.

Here’s a quick thought experiment to bring this home. Have you ever seen one of those old movies set in a Western town with dirt roads and signs hanging outside the shops? Think about some of those signs: general store, school, sheriff, mayor, barber, and blacksmith. And, of course, a church sits at the end of the road.

We understand why all those signs are there. Towns need food, so they have farmers and store owners. Towns need education, so they have teachers. Towns need order and justice, so they have a mayor and a sheriff. Towns need God’s Word and sacraments, so they have a pastor.

The town needs all of these complementary cultural endeavors to flourish. Imagine what would happen if the town only had a church and everyone was a pastor—not only would the pews be empty, but there wouldn’t be anyone to run all the other establishments the town needed to function.

This little Western town is a microcosm of the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom includes and needs every noble endeavor. The kingdom is not limited to pastors and churches but includes politicians and governments, farmers and grocery stores, teachers and schools, artists and art, athletes and sports teams, parents and families, and every other cultural enterprise that contributes to the common good.

The institutional church is certainly the centerpiece of God’s kingdom on earth, but as you can see, it is one among many institutions that make up the kingdom of God. And make no mistake, God’s rule and realm includes the whole world: “The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth; you founded the world and all that is in it” (Ps. 89:11, NIV).

Notice that the twin purposes of humanity—relational enjoyment and cultural development—are modeled after the Person and work of God. God made humans on the blueprint of himself! We are relational beings because we were made in the image of a relational God, and we are cultural beings because we were made in the image of a creative God.

The Goal of Creation

The goal of an acorn is to become an oak tree. The goal of a recipe is to help a person prepare a meal. And the goal of a blueprint is to show how a building should be constructed.

If God began with the end in mind, what was the end He envisioned? What is the goal of creation?

The proper end of creation is for God to live happily ever after with people who bear His image, in the great city that bears His name. Dallas Willard depicted this well: “The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons, with Himself included in that community as its prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.”[8]

[1] Jerry L. Walls, “The Argument from Love and (Y) The Argument from the Meaning of Life: The God of Love and the Meaning of Life,” in Two Dozen (or so) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project, ed. Jerry Walls and Trent Dougherty (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 313.

[2] Derek Kidner, Genesis (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 71.

[3] Zacharius Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, The Heidelberg Catechism (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2016), 34.

[4] The Westminster Shorter Catechism (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Publication Committee, 1859), question 1. https://www.loc.gov/item/unk83002289/

[5] Bruce Riley Ashford and Heath A. Thomas, The Gospel of Our King (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019), 9.

[6] Udo W. Middelmann, Neither Necessary nor Inevitable: “History Needn’t Have Been Like That” (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011), xxiii.

[7] The Veritas Forum, “Is God Necessary for Morality? William Lane Craig and Louise Antony,” posted June 22, 2012, video, 6:46, accessed April 4, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wKkbquUDSM.

[8] Dallas Willard, Living in Christ’s Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God (Westmont: IVP, 2013), 94-95.