Ever ask yourself, or God, “Why am I here?” We think of the here and now, but we most often miss the ultimate point of it all. We get insight into this in the Book of Revelation, when time as we know it will pass and eternity begins.
When the time of man began, there were Adam and Eve in the garden. It was a beautiful and perfect place with an abundance of food, no sickness, no death and no sin. Adam walked with God in that place and had a close, personal relationship with his creator.
They fell out of fellowship. Man’s relationship with God was broken, and so the garden was closed to Adam and Eve. Human history began, with thousands of years of man turning away from God, only to repent and come crawling back.
God sent His Son for us
God sent His Son to live a sinless life and offer it on the cross to pay the penalty for man’s sins. After the death and resurrection of the Messiah, the mission became one of sharing the good news of salvation in Christ to the peoples of the world. When the end comes, the earth will be made new
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.
They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4)
John saw the throne of God
The Apostle John, who penned Revelation, was probably overwhelmed by all he saw and heard, as an angel took him on a wild tour in heaven. He saw the throne of God.
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”
Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.
To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.
He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars — their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
This is the second death.” (Revelation 21`: 5-8)
We are always in God’s presence in Heaven
Heaven is a place where man is always in the presence of God in a close, personal relationship.
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.
On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.
The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21: 22-27)
God wants to dwell with us in eternity
The essence of God’s desire and man’s purpose is that God will dwell with man for eternity and they shall be His people. God desires close fellowship with man. With no sin, no death and nothing to interfere with that perfect relationship, eternity with God is a glorious experience that never ends.
There was no sin in the Garden
In the garden there was no sin. Adam and Eve were, so to speak, innocent, or so we think. We think therefore than man’s perfect state is innocence.
That is not the case. If Adam and Eve were innocent they would not have been deceived by the serpent. They would not have sinned against God. Those in right fellowship with God are certainly not innocent.
To the glory of God, sinful man’s redemption by faith in Jesus Christ. It is by far the greater state, as God’s completed work on the cross. He makes it clear that man is helpless and hopeless without the risen Savior.
Why am I Here? Redemption is the perfect state of man
Therefore, through the power of the shed blood of Christ, man is redeemed. The perfect state for man is redemption, not innocence. We are a work in progress. We are being transformed to the likeness of Christ, to whom all glory and honor is due.
Why am I here? I’m here to receive redemption from God.
Praise the Lord. Amen.