What is the meaning of life?

He is surely qualified to tell us what life is. What does he say of it? "Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity." Suppose these were the words of a disappointed man, whose hopes had been crushed and who had been treated roughly along the way. No one could wonder at such an opening. But these are the words of the most prosperous man, humanly speaking, the world has ever seen.

Man does not last, his thoughts perish, his works crumble to dust, his name is forgotten. He was not created for death at first; now he is born to die. But God abides… He is not charged to proclaim grace, and he is not given power here to offer salvation. He speaks instead to God's creatures, who as creatures answer to the One who made them… "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

Before we come to that revelation, might we not wisely ask ourselves why the creature exists? Surely it is not that he should come out fresh from the hand of his Creator, forget all about Him, and live to please himself. Surely it is rather that man should serve his Maker, and bask in the sunshine of whatever light has been given to him by the One to whom he owes his existence. Right through the whole revelation God has given us runs this glorious truth, that the end God has in view is that He may be known by His creature.

The sea is the human heart. If you could direct into those discontented hearts every river of earthly pleasure, they would still remain unfilled, unsatisfied. Men hunt for satisfaction where it never can be found. An iceberg yields no heat, salt no sweetness, and wine cannot be pressed from turnips. Man's heart was made for God, and only God, in Christ, can fill and satisfy it.

To know the Almighty is to know protecting power. To know Jehovah is to know faithfulness to promise. To know the Father, in the exercise of love, is eternal life. It is to know Himself in His own blessedness in relationship with the Son. So it is added, "and Jesus Christ whom you have sent"… To be in relationship with these is the very essence and reality of eternal life.

"To me to live is Christ." Let Christ then be the controlling object of our life in the power of the Spirit of God. There is no rest while the heart is divided between Christ and self, or the world, or our friends, or our fellow believers.

If for a while we are left on earth, it is that we may represent the Man who has gone to heaven — Christ Jesus, the Man in the glory. What high honour has been put upon us! To remain a while, as witnesses for Christ, in the world from which He has been rejected. We may fill a lowly and obscure position in this world, but we are here for a high purpose. Nothing less than to represent Christ in the common round of life. This indeed will brighten the dullest life, and sustain in the saddest.