The Purpose of Life

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. - Ephesians 2:10

At some point in our lives, we start wondering what our purpose in life is. Ephesians 2:10 has always been a reminder to me that God has set aside tasks for us to do that he had planned from the foundations of the earth. Notice, however, how specific this verse is in defining our purpose.

It states that we were created in Christ Jesus to do good works. That's awesome, because those of us who believe have a reason to live intentionally! We can go about our daily lives not wondering what it is that God wants us to do because we have faith that the Holy Spirit will direct us to accomplish his will and his plans wherever it is we may go. In the verses leading up to this verse, we are reminded what life as the non-believer was like.

Verse 2 said that we walked in accordance to the prince of the power of the air (the devil), verse 3 says that we were children of God's wrath (those who were on course to hell), and (following verse 10) the Bible says that we were without hope and without God in the world. What a sad and bleak existence we lived before Jesus made himself known to us!

Woven between these verses is a wonderful reminder, though: "Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus." (v.4-7) Wow!

Let's praise God for his grace and mercy! While we were totally undeserving of forgiveness and totally deserving of wrath, God turned us away from the Law of Justice and handed us over to the Law of Grace through Jesus Christ his only begotten Son.