Why did God create us?

This is a question that really bothered me way before I committed my life to Christ and for a time even after I was born again. Why? Because if there is a God who created me, there has to be purpose, right? If there is no purpose, then there might be no God either.

So, I looked. I read a lot, and asked many people along the way. I got many answers but it was something that didn’t quite go away, not because I didn’t believe in purpose, but because I felt there had to be more. I asked God many times and finally got an answer that didn’t just satiate my curiosity, but brought me to my knees with tears in my eyes in worship of my Creator. You’re going to want to hear this. It still gives me chills and moves me to tears whenever I’m reminded of it.

Before we dig our teeth into this, I’ll start this with where I started.

Answers such as “Because He could”, or “Because He wanted to” aren’t particularly wrong, but they kept me searching. I was pointed in the direction of Ecclesiastes 12:13 and it was enough to shut me up for a time but it raised an important question that wasn’t answered.

Isn’t what Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, “The conclusion, when everything has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person” a rather selfish thing at first glance? This might sound proud (and it is), but why should man who has free will bow to selfish interests?

Or even Revelation 4:11 “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honour and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”? Some translations say “for thy pleasure they are and were created”. Isn’t that rather selfish? I mean if I did something solely for my pleasure, it’s considered selfish. Why should God receive glory just because He created something for His pleasure? Somehow these verses (at least on the surface) didn’t quite seem to fit in with the narrative of God-inspired scripture. After all, God claims to be love (1 John 4:16). He claims to have given us a pathway to redemption solely because He loves us (John 3:16). But where does love fit into these verses? It might not seem to, but it actually does. Hear me out.

Don’t these verses seem to point to one thing – God had power and He used it, right? Nope!

The key to this lies in something Jesus Himself said. There is so much to be gleaned from the various conversations between the Father and His only begotten Son but there’s one particular part that really stands out in their conversation in John 17. Christ lifts His eyes up to heaven and expresses His desires. Look at what He desires in John 17:21-24.

“The glory which You have given Me I also have given to them, so that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and You loved them, just as You loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

What Christ desires is that we should be one just as they are One. This. This is why He made us. For unity. His unity was so perfect that He wanted others to enjoy it to. The Trinity, exists in the perfect unity of love and that’s where God brings us in – we are a product of love.

Think about it! Why was Jesus, the beloved Son in whom the Father was well pleased and on whom the Holy Spirit chose to descend in the form of a dove, (Matthew 3:16,17) the only one who truly pleased God? Unity in love. That’s what pleases God, doesn’t it? Jesus was here to do one thing and one thing only – to perfectly do the perfect will of the Father (John 5:30, 6:38) through the perfect guidance of the Spirit (Matthew 1:20, 4:1, 10:20). The Godhead is ALWAYS united in perfection because of love (Matthew 28:18, Colossians 2:9).

That’s also why He chose to give us free will, isn’t it? The persons in the Godhead choose to be united and that’s why that unity is so precious. Christ could have done His own thing on the earth. The Spirit could demand more recognition and prominence. The Father could undermine the other two. But nope. They want to be together. They are in perfect harmony out of choice. They are united as One out of love. That’s true love. God is love (1 John 4:16). Not just to us but first to the persons of the Godhead from before the foundation of the world. That love is demonstrated in their choice to be united even at the cost of humbling themselves, or facing persecution at the hands of their own creation, or to the extent of facing death and sin, or for constantly groaning in us and wrestling with our flesh. That’s true unity. The unity of love.

That’s the unity that God wanted us to enjoy. That’s the love that God wanted us to experience. That’s why it was in His will to make us. That’s why in the creation of man, God chooses to make special mention of this fact through the conversation among the persons of the Godhead in Genesis 1:26, where He says, “Let us make man in Our image.” Their perfect image. The image of Unity. The image of Love. He doesn’t say this for any of the other things He created, but He chooses to record this in the creation of human beings because right from the beginning of His message to humanity in the form of the Bible right down to the end of it, that’s what He’s trying to tell us – “Let us be united in love.” True love can only be expressed through choice. Isn’t that why the Genie couldn’t make Jasmine fall in love with Aladdin? It wouldn’t be true love without choice.

That’s why we have free will – to choose. We use that power of choice to demonstrate our love for God. We choose to be united with God by exercising our God-given free will to do so.

God’s unity is so perfect, and love so pure that God wanted to share it and so He created an entire universe just to place tiny humans in it so that we could share in this perfect love with Him. That is why you and I exist.

Just as human children are products of the love of a husband and wife who are joined together in an act of creation, so also the persons of the Godhead were completely in union in the creation of humanity. Parents who are so perfectly happy together (I’d hope they are) want to extend that unity and love that they enjoy and choose to extend their family through children. That’s just a reflection of why us humans exist. Think about it.

God in eternity exists in perfect unity and love. God is in perfect eternal bliss and chooses that He wants to share that unity and love with more than just Himself. So, together the persons of the Godhead choose to create us in love, and breathe God’s own breath into us.

God’s creation of man was anything but selfish…it was selfless. It was a selfless display of love, and selfless desire for us to enjoy in the unity and love that the Godhead has always had. What would have been selfish would have been for the Godhead to keep that unity and love for Himself, but God chose to create man to enjoy in the unity that the Godhead already enjoyed. He chose to do this even when He knew we would betray Him. He has gone to great lengths to have us restored back into that unity and love. He wills that we be re-joined in perfect unity and love. Now, that’s selfless!

What would have also been selfish would have been for God to destroy creation after sin ruined it and to start over. It would also have been selfish of Him not to give us free will but to impose His will on us. But He doesn’t do either. Instead, in perfect selfless love and unity, God decides to showcase His unity and love in a truly matchless display through the person of Jesus Himself.

Selfless Love. Perfect Unity.

That’s why God created us. That’s what God wants us to enjoy. That’s what God wants us to share. That’s why God has given up everything for us.

That’s why God says so much about living with our fellow children of God in unity of one mind, one heart, and one Spirit…all because of love (Acts 4:32, Ephesians 4:2-4). That’s why God makes us one body in Christ (Romans 12:5).

Truly God loved the world, not just to create us, but also to redeem us.

God wants to be united with us. But He doesn’t force it on us; He wants us to choose that unity for ourselves as an expression of our love for Him.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:17,18

It’s as if God is saying, “I exist in perfect love and unity. I’ve got something perfect here and I’d love to share it with you. You are going to reject me, you’ll shake your fists at me, and curse me but I’m choosing to get my hands dirty. I’ll have to jeopardise my unity to bring you back, but I am willing to do that in my unity and love. I’m fully willing to sacrifice myself and all that I have just to bring you back into this loving perfection of unity that I so want you to enjoy. I’m choosing to do this out of the outpouring of my own perfect love. I hope you see it someday and I hope you choose me, just as I have chosen you.”

Isn’t that beautiful?

There’s another layer to this when it comes to God’s glory and where we fit in but we’ll leave that for another time.