What is God’s Purpose for People?
Good Morning Friends,
I was reading John Stott’s very last sermon and it seemed to me that some of the thoughts might be important to share. He used the scripture included in this devotional. And gave an answer that was beyond the standard book answers to which we have become familiar. He did not discount such things as the statement of the Westminster Shorter Catechism which is the standard response to today’s question. He simply felt that something more was needed. And so without a knee jerk response we seek a deeper resolution as we ponder: What is God’s Purpose for People?
Scripture: For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.
Romans 8:29 (NRSV)
And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NRSV)
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.
1 John 3:2 (NRSV)
Message: Really to get to heart of today’s question one needs to have the mind of God and that is the whole point. Picking one personal thing that is the be all and end all of purpose of life seems a bit too simple. For sure it is about love, but to really love we have to become more like Christ and that is the direction that John Stott took his answer to the question about God’s purpose in us. The three scripture references today combine to guide us to the conclusion that Christlikeness is the will of God for the people of God. Friends, get this, all of this is about us being made to conform to the image of God and it has been that way from the very beginning. The biblical basis for the call to Christlikeness is strong. This basis is not a single text. The basis John Stott used consists rather of three texts which we would do well to hold together in our Christian thinking and living. They connect the past the present and the future of our reforming purpose to become more like Christ. In Romans we read that God has predestined His people to be conformed to the image of His Son: that is, to become like Jesus. In Corinthians we learn that the indwelling Spirit personally gives us a vision of being changed from glory to glory. In this stage of becoming like Christ, you will notice that the perspective has changed from the past to the present, from God’s eternal predestination to His present transformation of us by the Holy Spirit. It has changed from God’s eternal purpose to make us like Christ, to His historical work by His Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of Jesus. And then in 1 John the future of the glorious truth that we will be with Christ, like Christ, forever is expressed. Together the three perspectives, past, present, and future, are pointing in the same direction. There is God’s eternal purpose, we have been predestined; there is God’s historical purpose, we are being changed, transformed by the Holy Spirit; and there is God’s final or eschatological purpose, we will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. All three, the eternal, the historical, and the eschatological, combine towards the same end of Christlikeness. This is the purpose of God for the people of God. That is the biblical basis for becoming like Christ: it is the purpose of God for the people of God.
Pray we realize that God’s purpose is to make us like Christ. Pray we realize that God’s way to make us like Christ is to fill us with his Spirit so we might experience the Father. Pray we become whole as we experience the relationships of the Trinity. Pray we realize we were created to become like Christ. Pray we learn to give like Christ. Pray we like Christ become a light in the darkness. Pray we embody the things we are saying about God. Pray we abide in Christ’s love and walk in the way God would have us go. Pray we understand the mystery of suffering and the challenge of evangelism and the mission God has planned for us. Pray we discover that our greatest work, like Christ on the cross might be born out of our weakest moment but manifested for eternity. Pray we become the purpose for which God designed us. Pray we glorify God forever.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 