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What Are You Living For?

In the midst of all your busy life's activities, have you ever stopped to consider what you are really striving for? What are your goals and aspirations? Some people are caught off guard by this question, while others readily offer a response like one of these:

"I'm working hard to secure my financial future."
"My family. I live for my family."
"I take pleasure in my career."
"I try to be a good person and just enjoy life."
"I party a lot; what else is there?"

So what are you—yes, I mean you, the reader—living for? Please take a moment to form an honest answer.

What Do Those Who've Had it All Say?

Solomon, the ancient king of Israel, had all that this earth could offer. He was the most powerful king in his time. He had great knowledge about everything earthly—so much that people traveled from afar to seek his teaching and counsel. His wealth afforded him luxury that evades our comprehension. He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. Apparently he even had good health to enjoy all these things. Now there was a man who lived for a lot of things with gusto! Yet, as he testified in one of his writings called The Ecclesiastes, he found that all those things and even his very life amounted to "vanity of vanities." Another suitable translation for this phrase would be "a mere breath," or "a big ZERO." Can you believe that? That's what he wrote!

In our modern time, there are many millionaires and celebrities who have basically admitted the same thing as Solomon. Why is this so? Why is it that so many people think wealth or fame or pleasure will bring them satisfaction, yet when they achieve those goals they come up empty?

The answer lies in God's Word, the Bible. In it we find out that we are not mere globs of evolved molecular chains, but rather the creation of God. When you and I make something, be it a work of art, a house, or even a delicious meal, there is obviously a purposeful design behind it. Should we be surprised that God had a purpose for us as well? Just as you would not build a house and leave it uninhabited, God did not just create us and leave us on this spinning little ball in space without reason.

What Was God's Purpose?

"Okay, then," you might be wondering, "what was God's purpose for man?" First, let us realize that God is infinite, while mankind is finite. In His wisdom God has not chosen to reveal all the reasons why He created us, but one certainly is clearly shown. In the Bible we find that God, though He needed nothing, desired a relationship of love with other beings. Now in order for love to be real there has to be the capacity to NOT love. True love involves making a choice to love someone.

Imagine a young man who desires to be married. Now this man has built up in his mind an idea of the perfect wife, who will give him a perfect, happy marriage with no conflict. Not only can he envision her ideal appearance and stature, he can specifically imagine her model personality. The primary characteristic he anticipates is that his wife not neglect to tell him repeatedly and in passionate terms how much she loves and admires him. With such a woman, he decides, he would undoubtedly lead a blissful life. So off goes this man to a "wife-shop" down on Main Street. He places his order with the owner and is told that in three weeks he can come back and pick up his wife. Finally the day arrives! My! Isn't she a beauty—just the kind of woman he ordered! He proudly walks with her down the street and carries her over the threshold of his home. "I love you, honey," he says. "I love you too, dear," comes the immediate and robotic reply. "I love you more than I can express."

We need not go any further in this narrative, do we? What is the problem with this scenario? Simply that this "model woman" has no choice in the matter. She is only capable of doing exactly what she has been programmed to do. She can never decide to do otherwise.

Man – The Unique Creation

When God created man, it was no "experiment in robotics." He placed within each one of us an element that stands unique among the rest of His creation. The Bible tells us,

"God created man in His own image... the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul." Genesis 1:27 and 2:7

It is man's immortal soul that sets him apart from the animal world. We are not just some kind of extra complex creature, nor a refined ape that has evolved so far as to be able to explore the deeper matters of science and invent useful objects. No, far beyond that, we were created as spiritual and rational beings with the capacity to relate with God. This, indeed, was God's design.

The Choice

Would man choose to operate within that design? History demonstrates the answer. Rather than choose to believe God (everything He has revealed about Himself in Creation and the Bible), the majority of people set to fabricating their own system of beliefs. Even a cursory observation of both past and present "primitive" civilizations would find man seeking connection with something or someone higher than himself. If you consulted The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics you would find hundreds of ways men have tried to satisfy their religious tendencies. They have worshipped the sun, moon, stars, earth, fire and water, images crafted from stone, wood and metal, birds, fish, and animals. Besides these tangible objects, man has worshipped numberless gods and spirits, mere products of his own perverted imagination. Some have attempted to worship the true God, but through a countless array of ceremonies, sacraments, and sacrifices that they invented to somehow please Him.

The more educated man becomes, the more sophisticated are his endeavors: today you find many who claim that within themselves resides a higher being, and all they need to do is simply let it surface. This too is just another religion; again, man is simply inventing another way to try to appease his conscience or feel somehow connected to something greater than himself.

All religions contradict each other in their basic beliefs about God. Modern man often denies this contradictory aspect of the world's religions, demonstrating the attitude, "You can choose your route, I'll choose mine; but all will bring us to the same destination." It is true that each man can choose his own beliefs; God left us with that choice. But religion of any kind, regardless of how devotedly one may cling to it, can never fill the void left in one's life. It is as though an essential component of our being is missing—and such is the case. Man has stepped outside of God's design.

The Results

This unfilled spiritual void leads people into a fruitless search for satisfaction in countless substitutes. The evidence of this is all around us—and within us. The variety of substitutes is truly endless, and the most obvious come in the form of addictions to drugs, sex, or food, to name just a few. Others come in much more subtle forms such as obsession with one's career, or an insatiable desire for one particular thing, such as travel or fame. Many are driven by the struggle to make just one more dollar. Sometimes people resort to a fantasy world that they inhabit via books, movies, or video games. Even then, they never possess the fulfillment they are reaching for. Going back to our previous example of Solomon, the fact that he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines suggests the conclusion that each one must have delighted him only for a short time. His hunger was never satisfied.

Just as the key to fulfillment is not found in religion, it is neither found in gaining any number of material or immaterial things. Jesus said,

"Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions." Luke 12:15

To know true fulfillment, man must recognize and operate within God's design, as a creature who was intended to have fellowship with his Creator. Man's problem is that he simply does not want to come to God on God's terms. Man is full of sin, wanting his own way, not God's way.

Let's say that it is my wife's birthday, and I know that on occasion she enjoys strawberry shortcake for breakfast. True love would be seen in my making every effort to provide a strawberry shortcake for her breakfast, using the freshest, sweetest strawberries I could find. Why? Because love seeks to meet the needs and desires of another—this is its very essence. If I decided to ignore her wishes completely, and substituted her favorite with my own—bacon and eggs—would it not show my lack of love? Would it not reveal a selfish desire to have what I wanted instead? This would be a "sin" against her. On a far larger scale, we cannot claim to "love God" and yet ignore His wishes, substituting them with our own desires. This is sin in its ultimate expression. What most humans do not realize is that submission to God's design is a delight, not a burden! In our mistaken arrogance, we ignore God's standards and inevitably come under God's judgment as a result.

God's Standard

Have you ever read the Old Testament of the Bible (written before the time of Christ)? In it you learn three important things:

• The details of God's divine standards regarding right and wrong.
• The fact that mankind is incapable of meeting those standards on his own.
• The promise that, in the future, God would provide the remedy for our sin problem—namely, the Savior.

In the New Testament part of the Bible, written after Jesus Christ's life on this earth, we read about the fulfillment of God's promise—His remedy to the sin problem. One of the inescapable lessons of the Old Testament is that because of man's sin, his ability to have a relationship with God has been broken. God, an infinitely sinless being, cannot have a relationship with a sinful person. Remember, He designed us to be able to relate with Him. It was His desire to have fellowship with us, which would simultaneously bring true fulfillment to us as well. Because our sin, however, has made this impossible, the need for God's solution becomes quite obvious. That solution was itself the greatest example of God's love toward mankind, one well beyond our comprehension.

Both the Old and the New Testament reveal God as a triune God. Though He exists in three persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—He is one God. We human beings are not capable of fully understanding this concept. This should not surprise us, as there are many things that we cannot understand or comprehend. For example, can your mind truly grasp the billions of galaxies that have been so beautifully exposed to us with the Hubble telescope, or the vast unknown space beyond them?

God's Solution

God's plan to deal with our sin problem is centered around one member of His Trinity, the Son. Most people are, to some degree, familiar with at least the historical fact of Jesus' birth. What many do not realize is that His coming was the fulfillment of hundreds of prophecies, made centuries before. These prophecies, written in the Old Testament, predicted that God the Father would send a Savior, His Son, Jesus Christ. Notice that I said "a Savior." The world did not need a great teacher; it didn't just need a good example to follow. What we needed was a Savior, someone to save us from the consequences of our sin. Christ, the Savior, came to this earth to do that which we could never do for ourselves. One place in the Old Testament that speaks of Christ in the role of Savior is found in Isaiah 53:5 and 6:

"He [Jesus] was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him."

You see, Christ came to take our place in judgment; He came to be our Substitute. In the New Testament we read,

"He [God] made Him [Jesus] to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." II Corinthians 5:21

Jesus willingly took our place when he allowed his body to be nailed to the cross. He bled and died, taking the punishment that we deserved. God had spelled out the sentence for our sin in no uncertain terms:

"For the wages of sin is death." Romans 6:23

Christ took our place; He who was God Himself died instead of us! But the story doesn't end there. Three days later he rose from the dead and was seen by more than 500 witnesses—this to prove that he was no mere man, but the very Son of God. In His own words he declared,

"I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Me." John 14:6

We already mentioned the verse, "For the wages of sin is death." But you've not heard the next part of that verse, one of the most thrilling verses in the Bible:

"...but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Salvation from our sin penalty, eternity with God in heaven, fulfillment in this life now—these are all included in this marvelous gift! And you can have it simply by asking. In John 1:12 we read,

"But as many as received Him [Jesus Christ], to them He [God] gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His Name."

All God asks is that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, recognizing that He has paid the full price for all the sins of your whole life! My question for you is, "Will you believe?" There is no middle ground; you face two alternatives. You can choose to be eternally separated from God in a place of darkness and despair, with no hope at all—that is one option—or you can reach out by faith for that free gift of salvation which God now offers to you on the basis of what Christ accomplished on the cross. Truly God's solution addresses all our needs for this life and the next! When a person receives salvation through Christ, the breach caused by sin is removed, and he has free access for fellowship with God. That vacuum in the soul is finally filled!