Our RestorationSample

God’s Plan and Purpose for Us

In the beginning, God’s plan for His human creation included a divine purpose. He instructed Adam and Eve to be fruitful and to multiply, to populate the earth (Genesis 1:28). This mandate has often been interpreted as simply an edict to procreate. However, the full panorama of God’s Big Picture elevates human purpose beyond animal instinct for the preservation of the species.

The gospel is the good news of God’s miraculous restoration of humankind to our creational purpose. What was that divine purpose? Many verses of Scripture cast light upon the statements in Genesis 1. Remember, God’s plan was ordained in the beginning, thwarted by the fall, and recovered by Christ. God’s redemptive work in Christ is not a creation; it is the re-creation of God’s original plan. To understand our restoration, we review God’s creation.

God made Adam and Eve in His image, in His likeness (Genesis 1:27). Just as God intended humans to reproduce godlike creatures in the beginning, so He endows the Christian with the honorable purpose and mission to reproduce godlike creatures—others who believe in Christ’s gospel, and who become restored to the image of God in the earth. He has given us the Great Commission, the ministry of reconciliation, the calling to be His ambassadors, inviting others to also come back to God. This was Christ’s purpose; it is now our purpose. Christ’s ministry of loving reconciliation continues through us.

The opportunity to reconcile people to God, and to each other, is the most dignifying and empowering calling that any person can experience. Christ expresses Himself today through His people—His Church, or His Body—those who believe in Him. Christ’s life in us is love yearning to be expressed to others through forgiveness, healing, comfort, and relationship (2 Corinthians 5:14). Every man or woman who believes in Christ is restored to the noble purpose of being a light in a world of darkness (Matthew 5:13–16).

God made people for a purpose. That purpose is that they together be His representatives so that others who do not know Him can hear His invitation—the gospel—and by believing it, they too can be reunited with Him and experience His love.

Thank You, Lord, for the high calling of representing You to others. Help me to be a good reflection of You in this broken world.