The Purpose for Our Lives
God’s personal love for the believer emphasizes the object—those who express faith alone in Christ alone. Through grace, the love of God has provided everything necessary to make us acceptable (1 John 4:10). This is the doctrine of propitiation (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2) as the foundation for the doctrine of justification (Romans 3:28; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
Propitiation means that on the cross, Jesus Christ satisfied the righteousness of God the Father on our behalf. God’s salvation plan for man is the cross of His matchless Son, through whom we receive God’s own righteousness by imputation. By God’s imputation, the believer receives a position secure and absolute. We are declared righteous forever. This is grace.
The ultimate expression of God’s love is made possible and absolute for all who believe in Christ Jesus. It is divine righteousness in us that God blesses. God does not bless human righteousness because human righteousness is produced by and from the sin nature. God blesses imputed righteousness.
Bible doctrine is to be applied toward mankind, and remembered in worship toward God. We are saved by grace to live by grace, and grace always excludes human merit. The believer must exercise faith, which is the only means of perceiving and applying Bible doctrine and living the Christian life.
We have a spiritual destiny appointed by God. Our love for God causes us to obey the divine ordinances of Scripture. We must be aware of the untruths of the devil’s world and we can recognize untruth by living in truth, in Christ, and in fellowship with the Lord, because of Bible doctrine stored in our soul. Therefore, we must separate ourselves from Satan’s nefarious, multifaceted systems. Just as God has a system for living the Christian life, Satan has a plan for living under the influence of the world. Our emphasis must always be separation unto God, which automatically separates us from the world. You cannot serve two masters. You must be true to God, with God. You need to remain faithful to God, to His Word, and to yourself. In so doing you maintain, and God develops, your Christian integrity. We are not to be self-righteous crusaders against the world, but rather doers of the Word, not the world.
Our capacity to appreciate God, God’s plan, God’s Son, and God the Holy Spirit is developed through the intake of Bible doctrine and the application/execution to the details of life. The purpose of the life of the child of God is to respect and obey God by representing God’s Son to unsaved mankind, and leading unsaved mankind to a saving faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross.
Naming our sins, when necessary, enters us into fellowship with God. In fellowship, we have the same resources as Christ utilized while He walked the earth to control our thinking—the Holy Spirit and Bible Doctrine. Doctrine metabolized in the soul is the raw material from which the Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit. In the absence of confession and Bible doctrine, the sin nature dominates the soul and human good is produced, which is immediately rejected because human good does not please God, does not glorify God. God must produce the fruits of the Spirit. God can only do this when we are in fellowship with Him.
Intrinsic good is produced by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:28). We are to be conformed to the image of Christ as we live His prototype life here on earth (Romans 8:29). We are to emulate our Lord to a lost and dying world whose leader is Satan. Our leader is Jesus Christ. Follow His lead, His example, His life.
God’s Word strengthens objectivity and sustains the relaxed mental attitude. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin as Bible doctrine helps bring to memory God’s Word for each situation. Christ enjoins us to emulate toward others the same attitude Christ sustains toward us. We all have to face the ordeals of unjust and prejudice treatment at the hands of saved and unsaved men.
In Matthew 10:37&38, as believers we are told by Christ to “take up our cross and follow Him.” To take up our cross is a soul activity; it is mental separation from all the influences of Satan’s world and our own flesh. Love anchors the soul. Love fills the voids caused by the world and the flesh and the devil. Love is the ultimate. The devil’s world is filled with pseudo blessings and pseudo happiness, which draws us away from God, away from Bible doctrine, and away from fellowship with God.
Regardless of our dedication or altruism, we cannot improve Satan’s evil systems, but we can refuse to participate. We can avoid Satan’s influences by opting to remain in fellowship with the Lord, and by studying and applying His Word to our daily lives. It is God who opposes evil and He will eradicate evil in His perfect time. Jesus Christ controls history even in the devil’s world. Satan motivates human good, and our sin nature produces human good as a result.
God’s purpose for our lives on earth requires that we separate ourselves mentally from the world unto Him. Choose Christ in every situation, use Bible doctrine, renew your mind with the mind of Christ (2 Peter 12; Romans 12:2; 1 Corinthians 2:16).
Fuel your love for Christ with divine viewpoint and Bible doctrine. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.