I was sent an email asking why did God create us. I had to reply quickly, so this is not as thought through as much as it could be, but I am interested in your responses to this reply:
Some will say God created us to worship him (as we look at the second commandment, where the Israelites are told not to worship false gods, implying that He alone is to be worshiped). I think when we look at the creation story, God created humanity for relationship and/or fellowship. We get hints that God is already in some kind of relationship prior to humanity in Gen. 1.26, “Let Us make man in Our image…” and then in verse 28 we see that relationship extended to all humans in relationship “Be fruitful and multiply,” that is, relate to one another. We see more of that in 2.18, “It is not good for the man to be alone…” Also, God used to walk in the Garden and freely communicate and relate to the man and woman until their sin disrupted that pure fellowship.
If we return to the commandments, God also lets the people know what he has done for them in commandment one, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt…” Thus, again, God details how he relates to his people, prior to worship. God created us for fellowship. As we get to know the character of God, then we see that He is worthy of worship.
Love your thoughts, reactions, corrections.
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6 comments:
Billy V,
I agree that God created us to be in relationship with Him and that 'As we get to know the character of God, then we see He is worthy of worship'. I want to be careful, though, to also say that God did not create us for relationship/fellowship because He was lonely or because He needed anything. There was no relational void in the trinity that was filled when He created man and woman.
Any thoughts?
See you on campus this evening.
JC
I agree, Jeff. There is no sense of loneliness. My comments were more to the fact that God already showed himself to be relational, that might inspire him to create with relationship in mind.
yeah, I say your thoughts are like mine on this... now that is deep!
HELLO?? what do you think about taking a trip this summer w/ me down to Honduras?
I don't know CB. What are the dates? I'd have to see also if they may conflict with the mission trips of my team as well. Let me know some more.
I think the idea of a relational void is interesting. On one hand, we may want to be careful to say that God lacks nothing, because we would hate to encroach upon the divine nature. It would be "unorthodox" to assume that God lacked anything since lacking insinuates a weakness, and God must be without weakness or defect.
But maybe a relational void is not a lacking of weakness. Maybe God did need to create us because of the goodness of God. Perhaps because God was so relational and loving, God needed an object of affection. Maybe God's nature (which we ultimately can't actually understand) required God to need relationship outside of God's self.
And maybe that lacking is not a weakness, but a strength.
will let you know when they are set.. looking at July sometime
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