Deum glorificare

Quæstio. Quis hominis finis est præcipuus?

Responsio. Præcipuus hominis finis est, Deum glorificare, eodemque frui in æternum.

This may seem like a bunch of gibberish to you...but it is likely that you actually know what this says - even if you don't read Latin. It is the first and most well known question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism (which doesn't seem all that 'short' anymore.)

It is typically translated in this way: Question 1. What is the chief end of man?

Answer. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.

In some sense this was the 1640's version of the 'purpose driven life'. What is our primary purpose in life? What gives life meaning? Why are we here?

I love the direct simplicity of this answer - our purpose in this life and our ultimate goal is to glorify God and enjoy His presence for all of eternity. That answer shaves away the meaningless fluff of life with a sharp razor getting all the way down to the life-blood of our existence.

James Torrance says that human beings were made to be the Priests of creation. He said it so well in his Didsbury Lectures in 1994: "God has made all creatures for His glory. Without knowing it, the lilies of the field in their beauty, glorify God with a glory greater than that of Solomon, the sparrow on the housetop glorifies God, and the universe in its vastness and remoteness is the theatre of God's glory. But God made men and women in His own image to be the priests of creation and to express on behalf of all creatures the praises of God, so that through human lips the heavens might declare the glory of God. When we, who know we are God's creatures, worship God together, we gather up the worship of all creation. Our chief end is to glorify God, and creation realizes its own creaturely glory in glorifying God through human lips" and lives.

"But nature fails in its realization because of our human failure. Instead of singing songs of joy, the whole creation groans in universal travail, waiting for the fulfillment of God's purposes in human lives. Does God then abandon His purposes for humanity and for all His creatures? Does God leave all nature to be subject to vanity and futility - to be ruthlessly exploited and abused - and forget He has made us in His image for a life of communion and shared stewardship?"

"The good news is that God comes to us in Jesus to stand in for us and bring to fulfillment His purposes of worship and communion. Jesus comes to be the Priest of creation to do for us, men and women, what we failed to do, to offer to the Father the worship and the praise we failed to offer, to glorify God by a life of perfect love and obedience, to be the one true servant of the Lord. In Him and through Him we are renewed by the Spirit in the image of God and in the worship of God in a life of shared communion."

What is our response to this? Thanksgiving (eucharistia) and praise! In response to the self-giving grace (charis) of God we offer our selves in body, mind and spirit. Christ is our High Priest, our true worship, our genuine sacrifice of obedience - He is the image of God who achieves our purpose and chief end to glorify God and enjoy Him forever! It is only as we abide in Him and as He abides in us that we are able to participate in authentic worship, live lives of significance moving toward our end goal in Him. If that is what it means to be 'purpose driven' then that is what I want - any other purpose is mist. Until next time - Blessings in Christ ~ RLS