Why did God create us?

It was not for this that man was created, for it is written that whoso offereth praise glorifieth God: God created man for His glory — a well-tuned instrument — to respond to the touch of His infinite goodness with intelligent and joyous thanksgiving. But the devil spoiled God's handiwork by introducing distrust of God into the heart of man; and the chord was lost, and the music died out, and instead of songs of praise greeting God's advent in the garden, Adam — a fallen man, a sinner against God, cowered away in dumb fear from the One who loved and had lost him.

The whole creation was ordered for the pleasure of man, and man was made for the glory of God. Day by day, as God acted, He revealed His Power and wisdom and tender care for man, and when the day came for him to be set in his ordered place it was to be surrounded by all these evidences of God’s care and interest.

Man was created by God for His glory and pleasure, and these were lost in man, through the fall; but God's glory and pleasure are now secured in man, in an entirely new way, through reconciliation. Although men in their sinful state are indifferent to their relations with God, it never was so with God, for seeing the awful condition into which sin had brought him, "it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart" (Gen. 6:6). God could not allow such conditions to be perpetuated; His honour and glory must be secured; and how matchless the wisdom that devised the means whereby His banished be not expelled from Him. Combined with such wisdom is infinite love, and the way has been opened for the recovery of man to God in perfect consistency with divine righteousness and holiness. This being so, we can understand something of the deep pleasure brought to God in having us before Him with every attribute of His character vindicated, and the demands and desires of His holy nature satisfied.

God is the Creator, and Revelation 4:11 tells us that He made all things for His own pleasure, and Man is amongst these things, the chiefest and the best of His work in this lower creation. Great pains did God take with this creation when He made him in His own image and likeness, and He made him for His own pleasure, for “His delights were with the sons of men.” But how could He find pleasure in anyone who did not love Him? That were impossible, and when man listened to the devil's lie, he ceased to love God, whatever he may have done before, and he hid away from God for fear of Him. We do not hide from those we love, neither do we love those whose presence fills us with fear.

What was God to do? It was right that He should tell man what was right. And nothing else than this could be right, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart. ” Every reasonable person will acknowledge that if God be God, and our Creator, we owe this at least to Him that we love Him and honour Him as God. Then for His own glory and for the good of man it was right that God should give to man this command.

God alone is sufficient for Himself. He requires nothing external to Himself to make His happiness supreme. The creation, which is the work of His hands, has added nothing to His happiness. He brought it into existence for His own pleasure. But that fact does not prove that He could not have done without it. He created it to please Himself, and when created, He had pleasure in it, for His thought was expressed in it; and that thought could not be otherwise than pleasing to Him. But it could not increase His happiness, for all that He saw in it was, so far as it went, the reflex of Himself, and by it nothing was added to the infinite wealth of felicity which lay in Himself.

In the first chapter of our Bibles we are told of the creation of man and the reason for it. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” The US is the Triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are admitted to the divine counsel and plan, and from it we learn that man was to be created to be the visible representative of God in the world; for that is what “image” means; and for this he was to be like God in character, for without this there could be no effective representation.

With the light of the revelation God has been pleased to give us the question should not be difficult to answer. But before we come to that revelation might we not wisely ask ourselves why the creature exists? Surely it is not that he should go 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 may have been given to him by the One to whom he owes his existence. Right through the whole revelation God has given to us runs this glorious truth, that the end that God has in view is that He may be known by His creature.

The opening chapters of Genesis disclose to us the fact that God not only created man with a capacity for holding intelligent intercourse with Himself, but also actually desired and sought his company. Directly sin entered, this happy intercourse was broken up, and Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence of the Lord when He walked in the garden in the cool of the day. Mankind soon lost any desire for the company of God. God has never deviated from His desire for the company of men, and He purposes ultimately to secure it.

It is important to see that the great object of the gospel is that God might be known in the hearts of men, and that men might live before Him in the divine nature. Indeed, this was His eternal thought, for from before the foundation of the world His purpose was to have us “Holy and without blame before Him in love.” No doubt it was for the joy and delight of His own heart, for if His purpose was formed before the world was, it is clear it must have originated with Himself; and if it originated with Himself it must have been for His own pleasure, I might say for the need of His own heart, for no need existed anywhere else. I do not mean need in the sense of want causing unhappiness, but in the sense of a desire to create intelligent beings, and bring them into the blessedness, as far as the creature could be brought, in which He dwelt Himself, the blessedness of eternal love. The way which He has taken to bring all this about, allowing the misshapen footprint of His foe to mar His perfect handiwork, and rebellion against His authority to stalk naked through the earth, while His patience and long-suffering have come to light, we may contemplate with adoring hearts, now that we see the end He has in view, conscious that that end will be attained, for the might is His, and the victory is sure, His dealings with man, with whom apparently He plays a losing game, may furnish the antagonistic and infidel mind of man with data for reasoning, and for judging his Creator, but the faithful heart follows the divine pathway through the world in the spirit of worship, knowing that it leads to glory everlasting.

To take His place in the centre of a universe that would be radiant with the knowledge of Himself, His creature finding his perfect satisfaction and delight in the knowledge of his Creator fully revealed, and the Creator having His delight in the blessing of His creature, was the purpose of the mind divine; and it was by means of man, through man, in man, and for man’s glory, that this eternal purpose was to be brought to pass.