Why were you born?

What would you answer if someone asked you: "Does my life have any meaning, does it have any purpose"? You have probably asked yourself this question. Can we find a satisfactory answer ? 

Every life has two extremes: the day we are born and the day we die. We reach this weak and helpless world, but we are all born with great potential. Seeing us for the first time, our parents surely wondered: what will our baby do with his life? What kind of person will he become?

The irony is that we often reach the end of our existence as we begin: weak and helpless. And, when death finally approaches, we wonder what I did with my life? What kind of person was I?

But by then most of us will also have asked themselves the most fundamental and oldest of the questions: what is the true purpose of human life?

This is something so difficult to answer that many simply dismiss it as unanswered. And those who make a greater effort, often settle for answers based on their experiences, such as fulfilling a personal purpose, achieving something emotionally satisfying, loving and being loved or simply being "good people."

But all these things are limited to this life. Although there is nothing wrong with these types of proposals, are these answers really satisfactory when we reflect deeply? Do they really comfort us when we face death?

Is death really the end of everything? Or is there a greater purpose for human life, one that transcends this short physical life? If so, what is it?

These are the most important questions in life.

Our own meaning of life

One of the most subtle consequences of the theory of evolution and atheism is that fewer and fewer people wonder if we were created and designed with a definite purpose. After all, evolution has eliminated and atheism has rejected the existence of a superior being that gives meaning to our existence.

If life is the product of lightning that accidentally fell on the slime of primitive matter generating a series of mutations from simple to complex, can it have any meaning? And if human beings positioned themselves at the head of the food chain only by natural selection based on the survival of the strongest, can anyone say that their life has a transcendent purpose? If the answer is no, the only place where we can find meaning is then wherever we put it ourselves.

Recently, Buzzfeed.com did a survey of a group of atheists and many of them claimed to have given their lives their own meaning. Some of his goals were:

Have a positive impact on family and friends.

Be kind, learn, share knowledge and relieve suffering.

Get as much happiness and fun as possible from life.

Focus on the "here and now" and take advantage of the freedom to do what we want.

However, many also confessed that, while they had given their lives a personal meaning, their belief that life arose by accident implies by definition that there is no primary purpose - that there is no superior plan.

But are these ideas limited and defined by human beings true? Or is this world and its life the product of the design of a perfect Creator who designed and put us here for some reason? Can we find a satisfactory answer to the most important question of all: why were we born?

God answers it! But to find it, we must start at the beginning.

Let's go back to the beginning

John 1: 1 reveals: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." In other words, before anything was created, God the Father and the Word (who later became Jesus Christ, v. 14) already existed. In fact, these two spiritual beings, both unlimited in power and perfect in character, lived together for eternity.

Then God began to create. And as Romans 1:20 says, "the invisible things of him, his eternal power and deity, become clearly visible from the creation of the world, being understood through the things done." Just look around us to realize that the Father and the Word are architects! Our human tendency to build everything from robots to personal relationships is simply a reflection of the nature of God, our Creator.

His first recorded creation was the angels: beautiful and impressive spiritual beings whose purpose was to serve God and the humans who would arrive later (Hebrews 1: 13-14). However, eventually a third of them rebelled against God, under the guidance of a powerful angel called "Lucifer" in the 1960 King James Version of the Bible. As a result of that rebellion, Lucifer was renamed Satan (adversary), and the rest of the rebel angels, demons (Isaiah 14: 12-15; Ezekiel 28: 12-15; Revelation 12: 4).

But Satan's conspiracy did not stop God. God had other plans - bigger plans - and at a certain moment he took them back to create everything we see today.

Humanity: a small scale version of God

The book of Genesis reveals that God created man on the sixth day of creation. And it is in this account that we find one of the greatest keys to the true meaning of human life: “God said: Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness; and rule in the fish of the sea, in the birds of the heavens, in the beasts, in all the earth, and in every animal that crawls on the earth. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them ”(Genesis 1: 26-27).

You've probably heard these verses before, but have you really grasped everything they imply?

God created the human being in his image - in his likeness and with abilities like his own. More importantly, he gave us characteristics of his mind: superior intelligence, creativity, artistic appreciation and emotions.

But God did not do the same with animals. He gave them instinct instead of free will and creativity, and that is the primary difference between the human kingdom (created in the image of the species God) and the animal kingdom (with each animal created according to its species).

Having been created in the image of God implies that we have intellectual abilities and elements of our Creator, only on a much smaller scale. We have its form, but not its essence; He is an almighty and immortal spirit (John 4:24), while we are mortals of flesh and blood (Genesis 2:11); and He has no limits (Job 42: 2, 1 Corinthians 2:11), while our intellect and creativity are limited.

Is it our purpose to be like God?

However, God's creation did not end in the garden of Eden. After Genesis there are many passages in the Bible that reveal God's true intention, and it is not that of creating physical beings with some of their characteristics. Actually, his plan is for us to become just like Him, with his spiritual nature and his level of existence!

In 1 John 3: 2, the apostle John clearly states that "we will be like [God], because we will see him as he is." Can you imagine what it means to be like God?

Other Scriptures reveal that, before giving us such incredible power, God wants us to learn to think like Him (Philippians 2: 5), and to live and act like Him, and to do it by our own choice (Matthew 5:48; 1 John 2 : 6).

God did not create moral automatons, human robots programmed to do the right thing. Instead, he decided to give humanity (starting with Adam and Eve, in the garden of Eden) the freedom to choose, and represented that freedom in two trees: the "tree of life" - moral righteousness according to standards of God - and the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" - the way of man according to his own idea of ​​what is right and wrong.

Adam and Eve decided to reject God (Genesis 3: 6) and that decision allowed sin (the breaking of God's law) to begin to permeate all mankind (Romans 5:12; 1 John 3: 4). Since then, sin has been the obstacle that stands between us and God's purpose for our lives (Romans 6:23).

The Christian life is about overcoming that barrier in order to reach our goal. It all begins with the repentance and forgiveness of our past sins, through the sacrifice of Christ, and then comes the baptism and reception of the Holy Spirit - or Spirit of God. This process of transformation (called conversion) allows us to begin to change our character and is our part in fulfilling God's purpose for us.

Before receiving the unlimited power of the Creator, we must voluntarily submit to Him and develop his perfect character. This implies that we must strive to leave behind our natural way of thinking - which tends to oppose God's - (Romans 8: 7; Colossians 3: 8-9) and put on “the new [man], which according to the the image of the one who created it is being renewed until full knowledge ”(Colossians 3: 10).

In other words, although we were created “in the image” of God physically speaking, we must still be created in his spiritual image and develop his perfect moral and spiritual character. That is the main purpose of human life: to reform our spiritual character in its image and to reflect its way of thinking and acting in every aspect of our life.

The definitive transformation

The reason why today there are so many myths about the purpose of life is that very few understand the next step.

God designed the human body to eventually die (Ezekiel 18: 4; Hebrews 9:27), but not forever. In fact, Jesus promised to return to Earth to perform one of the greatest miracles of all time: the resurrection of the dead. Throughout the ages, Christians have been motivated by this hope, having the assurance that if they submit to God and develop their character, they will have a part in that resurrection and will be able to take the last step of covering the entire image of God.

In 1 Corinthians 15: 42-46, the apostle Paul reveals four aspects of this wonderful transformation; we will be:

Changed from corruption (physical aging and decay) to incorruption (spiritual life).

Changed from dishonor (imperfection) to glory (perfection).

Changed from weakness to power.

And changed from animal body (physical) to spiritual body.

In other words, we will be transformed from the human dimension to the Kingdom of God! We do not have and cannot have these four aspects of the image of God now, but verse 49 assures us that "just as we have brought the image of the earthly, we will also bring the image of the heavenly [Christ]."

What an amazing destination! God wants much more than angelic servants, he wants a family with children like Him, with whom he can share eternity! He wants a family of beings with whom he can create new things and interact as equals, but for that, those family members have to be perfect, like Him.

However, what God wanted from the beginning (turning physical beings into members of his family), is something that takes time, a great sacrifice and the voluntary participation of created beings. Let's think about it: if God had created perfect human beings without freedom of decision, these beings could never really have reached their level; they would only be spiritual automatons programmed to be perfect. On the other hand, if he created physical beings in his image and with free will, they would be beings with amazing potential: the potential to rebel and be like Satan and demons, but also the potential to choose to be like his Creator.

From the beginning, God designed a wonderful plan to reproduce in beings similar to Him through a process that would ensure his perfection for eternity. That's right: our incredible and true purpose is to become elevated to the level of God as members of his divine family. God wants "sons and daughters" (2 Corinthians 6:18), and is in the process of "bringing many sons to glory" (Hebrews 2:10).

Think about what this means. When we have a son, that son is like us; It not only has our form, but also our DNA.

When we are born into the family of God, we will become his children - we will be glorified (elevated) to the same level of existence of our Father and our elder Brother, Jesus Christ. God's purpose and plan is that we become "participants of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1: 4), which by analogy means that we will have his spiritual DNA; that is, we will be converted into spirit just like Him (John 3: 6).

Those who achieve that purpose will receive such great opportunities that we cannot understand them now. We can only imagine what it will mean to live as "kings and priests" (Revelation 5:10) and "inherit all things" (Revelation 21: 7) in the Kingdom of God - in an eternal state of productivity, creativity and growth.

This is the truth that God reveals about why we were born, and it is certainly a truth much more wonderful than any purpose that man could devise for himself. This is the truth that can really fill your existence with meaning and, if you adhere to it, you can change your life.