Life’s Ultimate Questions
Every human being who has ever lived or will ever live has asked,
is asking or will ask four basic questions: Who am I? Why am I
here? What is wrong with the world? and How can what is wrong be
made right? While we may not say them, it is in the soul of every
person to wrestle with these questions.
Allow me to answer these questions first from the perspective of
our culture and then from the perspective of the Bible.
ANSWERS FROM OUR CULTURE
Who am I? You are an accident. You are a mistake. You are a
glorified ape. You are the result of random evolutionary process.
That’s it. No rhyme. No reason. No purpose. This is the pathetic
reality when evolution runs its full course. If the idea is
carried to its logical conclusion, human beings have no value.
You are ultimately nothing.
Why am I here? You are here to consume and enjoy. That’s the only
thing that matters. When the famous philanthropist John D.
Rockefeller was asked, “How much money is enough?” he was as
honest as any man has ever been. He responded, “Just a little bit
more.” Consume and enjoy—that’s why you’re here.
What is wrong with the world? People are either insufficiently
educated or insufficiently governed. That’s what’s wrong with the
world. People either don’t know enough, or they’re not being
watched enough.
How can what is wrong be made right?
The solution is more education and more government. Teach people
more stuff and give them more information. How do we combat AIDS?
Through AIDS awareness. How do we combat racism? Anti-hate
classes. What about the man who beats his wife? Anger-management
classes. Just give people more information and everything will be
fine.
The answers provided by our culture leave us wanting and empty.
Let’s now take a look at how God’s Word, the Bible, answers these
same questions.
ANSWERS FROM THE BIBLE
Who am I? You cannot figure out who you are until you first
discover who Jesus Christ is. Jesus “is the image of the
invisible God…. by him all things were created…all things were
created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:15-16). He is the
exact representation of God. He is the picture of God in human
. He is God on this earth. He is God with us, God among us.
The Bible says that I am created by God—in his image and likeness
(Genesis 1:26). Not the result of random processes. The Bible
says that whether I am tall and beautiful or small and not so
handsome, whether my body functions perfectly or is severely
deformed, I am the crowning glory of the creation of God, and as
a result I have inherent dignity, worth, and value.
Why am I here? “All things were created through him and for him….
that in everything he might be preeminent” (Colossians 1:16b–18).
The ultimate purpose of all things is to bring glory and honor to
Jesus Christ. That’s why I exist. That is why you exist. And
because of this, contrary to the view of our culture, the reason
for my existence goes far beyond consumption and enjoyment.
What is wrong with the world?
I am. You are. Despite the fact that we are the crowning glory of
the creation of God, created to live and bring glory and honor to
the Lord Jesus Christ, we are instead hostile and disobedient
toward the One by whom and for whom we were created. “All we like
sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way”
(Isaiah 53:6). The Bible calls this disobedience towards God
“sin”, and it says that “all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God” (Romans 3:23). In short, sin is what’s wrong with
the world.
How can what is wrong be made right? What is wrong can only be
made right by the substitutionary, atoning death of Christ. “He
[Jesus] has now reconciled you in his body of by his death,
in order to present you holy and blameless and beyond reproach
before him” (Colossians 1:22). There is no other means by which
we can be made right with God. “There is salvation in no one
else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by
which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
The Bible says, “For our sake [God] made him [Jesus} to be sin
who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). There was nothing else that could
have been done that would have allowed God to be righteous and
also the one who makes us right. In the mercy of God the her
he punished his Son in our place in order to satisfy his
righteous wrath against sin. Our only hope is to believe in Jesus
who was crucified for us and rose again (1 Corinthians 1:23,
15:3-4). The sinless Lamb of God gave his life to pay a debt that
he did not owe on behalf of sinners who could never pay him back!
The Ultimate Answer
If these two sets of answers—from our culture and from the
Bible—are placed side by side, something very interesting
happens. With the answers from our culture, you are left
worthless, empty, and hopeless. You’re on your own to pursue
satisfaction…and you’ll never find it. But the Bible says you are
precious. You have purpose. You were purchased.
The only way what is wrong in your life can be made right is for
you to believe what the Bible says. Believe that Jesus took the
punishment for your sins by dying on the cross as a substitute
for you and that he rose from the dead three days later, showing
that God had accepted his death on the cross as the payment for
the sin-debt that you owed to God. If you believe this to be
true, repent of (completely turn from) your sinful patterns of
life, and place your faith completely in Jesus Christ. God
promises “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will
be saved” (Romans 10:9).
The Answer to life’s ultimate questions is Christ. Those who walk
lessly through this life will never be satisfied with the
answers our culture gives. Christ is the only one who will ever
satisfy. Have you entrusted your life to him?