One of the most frequent questions I get from strangers is, “Where are you from?” They detect that my accent is different from theirs. I have lived in the USA from 1971 and yet I still have a problem with “r’s”, and my “a’s” and “i’s” are similar. What an affliction! My accent betrays my origins. If we want to get to know people we inquire about their origin where they were raised. We carry our origins throughout our lives. None of us is self-invented. We all come from somewhere. We are also all going somewhere. Knowing who we are can help us to get to where we want to go. Knowing our origins can help us to know our purpose.
‘Genesis’ is Greek for beginning, or birth, or history of origin. It can also refer to a basis, or a rationale, a purpose, or a reason. It does not simply denote the first instance in time. When scripture, e.g., teaches that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10) it does not refer to time but to reality. Fear of the Lord is the origin of the wise life, not in the sense of the first step, but in the lasting sense of providing its basis. What we are seeing in the book of Genesis is the source, origin, basis, or rationale for God’s ultimate purpose of salvation. God’s plan or project is the beginning out of which and for which God creates. To know its origin is to know its purpose. What is the ultimate purpose of creation? It is the salvation of humanity.
John’s gospel makes this clear in an echo of Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). God spoke the cosmos into being: “And God said”. In his all-powerful Word, God created. This world was created by the Word. Why? So that the Word could become flesh and dwell amongst us, and reveal the glory of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Creation is connected and fulfilled in the Incarnation, in the revelation of Christ, for our salvation.
Genesis does not tell us how time began, how the cosmos began, but why we exist at all. We are here to fulfill God’s purpose and plan of salvation. Genesis 1 does not focus on the physical processes that gave rise to the created world but on the divine purpose for creation. The cosmos is the theater of God’s drama of salvation. Because of the vastness of the universe it is hard for some people to accept that this is the focus of created life.
Atheistic scientists claim that there can be no intent or purpose undergirding the world. The atheist has a problem with purpose, for if there is no God there can be no ultimate, eternal purpose. Bertrand Russell’s most famous essay, and one of the most widely read manifestoes of naturalistic humanism of the twentieth century, concludes with these words,
Brief and powerless is Man’s life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way; for Man, condemned to-day to lose his dearest, to-morrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day; disdaining the coward terrors of the slave of Fate, to worship at the shrine that his own hands have built; undismayed by the empire of chance…..(A Free Man’s Worship, 59)
Robert Roberts comments on this belief:
Naturalism is the view that nature with all its processes is all there is, that there is nothing beyond it, nothing eternal, and that moral and spiritual values are inventions of the human mind doomed to perish like everything else. Russell proposes that in this meaningless, crushing physical universe where our bodies are trapped and doomed, we can satisfy our yearning for something eternal by worshipping the product of our own minds – our art, science, and philosophy. (Spiritual Emotions, Robert C. Roberts, p.150)
By contrast, St. Paul was clear about the purpose of God in creation. “For by Christ all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.” (Col 1:16)
You want to know your purpose – the purpose for your coming into the world? Look at your origins. The agent of your creation is the purpose of your creation. Paul is directly interpreting Gen 1:1. “For he chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” (Eph 1:4)
If you understand that your life was made by Christ for him, you will know where you are going. If you want your life to be fulfilled, you will seek to find your fulfillment in Christ. The meaning of your life will be found in your Creator and Savior. We take our bearings from him. In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:3). If we want to know the mystery of the reality of our lives, and all life, we will focus on Christ. The principle uniting the universe has a heart and a face. It is personal, not impersonal.
The plan and purpose of God is love, and it is revealed in its fullness in the person of Jesus Christ…. Our goal should be to move forward ever more deeply into the beginning, into the mystery of Christ. (R.R. Reno, Genesis, p. 38)
In the words of T.S.Eliot:
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
…..And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
(Little Gidding, lines 240-42, Four Quartets)
We know who we are when we know where we came from and for what purpose.
Here are some of the big questions which affect our peace of mind, our ability to function, our sense of value. Why does the universe exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? Why do I exist? When did I first begin? Was my birthday my first day? In the beginning were my genes! I am whom I am from my biological conception. What is the purpose for my creation? Why did Christ create me?
The answers of the Bible seem to be these. The reason I was born was to come to know Him who is love. He created me for the purpose of knowing him, of being loved by him, of being fulfilled in him, forgiven by him, sanctified by him. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.” (Ps. 139:13,15)
Who did all this? Whose eyes saw us? God the Father, the eternal Word and the life-giving Spirit. God gives us both life and purpose for living.
When we forget this we fall into doubt and despair. We lose our way. In our suffering: in illness, in unemployment, in financial difficulties, in loneliness, disappointment and rejection, it is easy to forget the woods for the trees. We think that we are alone, having to manage only with our own human resources, meager though they may be. We don’t have to. We have the resources of the creator of the universe at our disposal.
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