Why did God create us?

What then has been the object of the Creator in bringing into being such a universe of nebula, stars, planets, moons and comets? The answer cannot be other than exceedingly simple: "For Thy pleasure they are and were created" (Rev. 4:11). In bringing such a heaven and earth into existence we may be sure He had an object worthy of His wise and gracious mind. Rational beings do not work without some object in view. None but the insane do meaningless actions.

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.

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.

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.

"For by Him [the Son of God] were all things created that are in heaven and in earth," and not only created "by Him," but "for Him" — a most significant statement surely, and one which throws creation into an extraordinary place of importance, that is, for the special purpose and enjoyment of the Son of God — the Christ… These "all things" depend, both for their origin and support, on the will and pleasure of the Son of God.

It is active now, not to bring about a world or worlds in which the power of God is displayed, but A FAMILY in which His love can find its joy. His purpose was to have children, only such could satisfy His heart: those who should be morally like Him, able to appreciate His love and respond to it. The universe would have been nothing to Him apart from this. It was created for the Son of God and for them who were to be His companions, His brothers.

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… 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 ones are not expelled from Him.

If God is so great and so glorious, as shown in His creation, it is surely reasonable that the creature should render to Him the thanks and praise of which He is worthy. But man is so held in the bondage of sin, and in the power of Satan, that he will deny the very existence of God, and even if he accepts that God exists, it is but to refuse the adoration and homage that are His due.