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The Meaning of Life
Chapter 4: Life on Earth
Translation Preference: |
Author’s Choice |
Article Perspective: |
Grow in Christ |
Mankind: Appointed to the Earth
At some point after creating the angels, God created the earth along with its various life forms.
| In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. |
Genesis 1:1 (NKJV) |
| “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. |
Exodus 20:11 (NASB) |
| Angels (referred to as “sons of God” in the book of Job) celebrated the creation of the world. |
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding,
Who set its measurements? Since you know.
Or who stretched the line on it?
“On what were its bases sunk?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
When the morning stars sang together
And all the sons of God shouted for joy? |
Job 38:4-7 (NASB) |
| The Apostle John, in a revelation from Jesus Christ, sees a scene in heaven with twenty-four elders worshiping God on His throne saying... |
| “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” |
Revelation 4:11 (NASB) |
Mankind was placed in a life-sustaining garden in Eden and was given rule over the other living beings on the earth. Adam, the first man, was given the responsibility of cultivating and looking after the garden and naming the animals. While in the garden, mankind had opportunities to personally and physically interact with God.
| The first chapter of Genesis contains a brief statement of the creation of mankind along with mankind’s assignment to rule over earth’s animals. |
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” |
Genesis 1:27-28 (NASB) |
| The first man became a living being after God personally breathed life into him. The Bible does not record God bringing life into any other being in such an intimate manner. God then placed the man in a garden in Eden. |
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven.
Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. |
Genesis 2:4, 7-8 (NASB) |
| The Hebrew words for “man” (in the sense of mankind) and “the man” are אדם and האדם, respectively. A letter-per-letter translation of אדם into English is “ADM.” Bible translators often translate both אדם and האדם as the name “Adam” when a passage’s context is clearly referring to the first created human. |
Then the LORD God took the man [האדם] and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man [האדם] to see what he would call them; and whatever the man [האדם] called a living creature, that was its name.
The man [האדם] gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam [אדם] there was not found a helper suitable for him. |
Genesis 2:15, 19-20 (NASB) The Hebrew words אדם & האדם are included for comparison. |
| God had the following personal interaction with Adam: |
The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” |
Genesis 2:16-17 (NASB) |
| After the giving of that commandment, God created the first woman. |
The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.
The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. |
Genesis 2:20-24 (NASB) |
| Adam and Eve had opportunities to experience God’s physical presence in the garden of Eden. |
| They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. |
Genesis 3:8 (NASB) |
God: Longing for Relationship
God values all life that He has created on earth. But, He has a special affection for humans. They were created in God’s image and He desires to maintain a personal relationship with them. God even considers people who live according to His Spirit to be His adopted children. Furthermore, Jesus said that those who accept His Lordship and follow His commands are His friends.
| God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. |
Genesis 1:27 (NASB) |
| In the following passage, Jesus is considering the limited financial value humans place on the sale of sparrows in the marketplace in light of the great value God places on the lives of sparrows. God even notices when a sparrow falls to the ground. However, human life is so precious to God that even each hair on the human head is worth numbering. |
“Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
“So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows. |
Matthew 10:29-31 (NASB) |
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, |
Romans 8:14-16 (NASB) |
| “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” |
John 15:14 (NASB) |
God offers prayer as an effective way for humans to express themselves to Him. Furthermore, Jesus allows His followers to pray in the full authority of His name and provides the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to intercede on their behalf.
“For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.
For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.’” |
Jeremiah 29:10-13 (NASB) |
| Those whom Jesus calls friends can also ask anything of the Heavenly Father in Jesus’ name. |
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
You are My friends if you do what I command you.
No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. |
John 15:12-16 (NASB) |
In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. |
Romans 8:26-27 (NASB) |
Through Scripture, and with the aid of the Holy Spirit, God shares His commands, concerns, and guiding wisdom with humans. By listening to God’s guiding wisdom and following His commands, people can get to know God more intimately and even do work on His behalf.
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. |
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NASB) |
How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
From Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.
Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path. |
Psalm 119:103-105 (NASB) |
But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,
for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. |
2 Peter 1:20-21 (NASB) |
Due to His absolutely holy and just nature, God detests, separates Himself from, and dispenses just sentences to the unholy and unjust. However, no humans measure up to God’s perfect standards of holiness and justice. All humans should therefore expect to receive harsh sentences involving an eternal separation from God’s presence.
However, because of the value He places on human life, God provides a way to remove such essentially automatic human condemnation. On behalf of mankind, God offered a pure, blood sacrifice — the death by crucifixion of His only begotten Son, Jesus — as a substitution for the penalties of human sin. God agrees to view those who willingly acknowledge and accept that propitiatory sacrifice as righteous in His sight. He even agrees to treat them as His adopted sons and daughters.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. |
Romans 3:23-26 (NASB) |
| For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. |
Romans 6:23 (KJV) |
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. |
1 John 3:1-3 (NASB) |
Like angels, mankind was created for God’s honor and glory.
| God wants people to acknowledge that He made them to be a people that would always follow Him as sheep follow their shepherd. |
| Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. |
Psalm 100:3 (KJV) |
| Humans were created to live holy lives that exist to praise and glorify God at a level that matches the grace He has shown them in Christ Jesus. |
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him In love
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. |
Ephesians 1:3-6 (NASB) |
God has created humans for the purpose of carrying out works that He has prepared in advance for them to do. From the beginning, the purpose of mankind has remained unchanged: to fear God and keep His commandments.
The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.
For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. |
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (NASB) |
Before Jesus came to the earth, God’s people had to be circumcised and participate in ritual sacrifices before God would view them as being ready to participate in His works. After Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection, the circumcision and ritual sacrifices were no longer necessary. Those who have been saved through their faith in God’s gift of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross are viewed as righteous in God’s eyes and are ready to participate in the works God has ordained for them to do. By design, the works themselves are intended to fill heaven with as many people as will accept the salvation found in Christ.
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. |
Romans 3:19-26 (KJV) |
| People are saved through their faith in Jesus Christ in order to become vessels that are ready to carry out the works that God has prepared for them to do. |
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. |
Ephesians 2:8-10 (NASB) |
| The Apostle Paul understood that the purpose he received when he became a follower of Christ was to continue the work that Christ had begun on earth. Furthermore, he acknowledged that, for those who have accepted the salvation found in Jesus Christ, heaven will bring an even better life. |
| For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. |
Philippians 1:21 (NASB) |
| Throughout earth’s history, many people have rejected God and lived contrary His will. Yet, God is infinitely patient. He continues to keep the world alive so that He can grant salvation to as many humans as will accept it. |
But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. |
2 Peter 3:8-9 (NASB) |
In this life, humans are mortal and have many kinds of struggles to deal with while working to sharing salvation with the world. In loving submission to Christ, people need to help each other through this mortal life. Loving God and others and working as a united body of believers in Christ brings great honor and glory to God.
| By completely turning their lives over to God for Him to use as he sees fit, humans become vessels of worship that continually honor and glorify God. |
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. |
Romans 12:1-2 (NASB) |
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“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’
This is the great and foremost commandment.
The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’
On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” |
Matthew 22:36-40 (NASB) |
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“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’” |
Matthew 7:21-23 (NASB) |
| The church (baptized believers in and followers of Christ) today would do well to follow the pattern of the first century church. In the first few weeks of the church’s existence, many were being saved because, in addition to the signs and wonders being demonstrated by the Apostles, the church exhibited an excellent balance between the sharing of the good news of salvation in Christ and the togetherness of its membership. The members genuinely cared for each other and possessed tremendous unity. |
They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.
And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common;
and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.
Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
praising God and having favor with all the people And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. |
Acts 2:42-47 (NASB) |
The Meaning of Life
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