Weekly HomiliesFirst Sunday of Advent: Created
This week’s homily is supposed to answer the question, “why is there something instead of nothing?”. Science can tell us how the universe has unfolded, but it cannot tell us why it exists. More than presenting proofs for the existence of God, this message is really about why God created us.
The short answer to the question “why did God create us?” is “for His pleasure.” Revelation 4:11says, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Colossians 1:16 reiterates the point: “All things were created by him and for him.” Being created for God’s pleasure does not mean humanity was made to entertain God or provide Him with amusement. God is a creative Being, and it gives Him pleasure to create. God is a personal Being, and it gives Him pleasure to have other beings He can have a genuine relationship with.
Being made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27), human beings have the ability to know God and therefore love Him, worship Him, serve Him, and fellowship with Him. God did not create human beings because He needed them. As God, He needs nothing. In all eternity past, He felt no loneliness, so He was not looking for a “friend.” He loves us, but this is not the same as needing us. If we had never existed, God would still be God—the unchanging One (Malachi 3:6). The I AM (Exodus 3:14) was never dissatisfied with His own eternal existence. When He made the universe, He did what pleased Himself, and since God is perfect, His action was perfect. “It was very good” (Genesis 1:31).
Also, God did not create “peers” or beings equal to Himself. Logically, He could not do so. If God were to create another being of equal power, intelligence, and perfection, then He would cease to be the one true God for the simple reason that there would be two gods—and that would be an impossibility. “The LORD is God; besides him there is no other” (Deuteronomy 4:35). Anything that God creates must of necessity be lesser than He. The thing made can never be greater than, or as great as, the One who made it.
Recognizing the complete sovereignty and holiness of God, we are amazed that He would take man and crown him “with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5) and that He would condescend to call us “friends” (John 15:14-15). Why did God create us? God created us for His pleasure and so that we, as His creation, would have the pleasure of knowing Him.
That is a great question that goes right to the heart of who God is. God is fully good, fully loving, fully beautiful and absolutely true and these characteristics continually flow out of him. Within the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – three persons, one substance), the relationship of love, grace, goodness and beauty is so full that it overflowed through the act of creating a beautiful and good world. God brought the world into existence and as the capstone of this good work, he created people in his image so that they could share in his overflowing love, grace and goodness through their relationships with the Trinity.
God did not need the world or need people because God has no lack. Instead, God is so full of all that is good, that it overflows and spills out of him. His very nature is to share his goodness, grace and love. He created people out of love for the purpose of sharing love. People were created to love God and each other. Additionally, when God created people, he gave them good work to do so that they might experience God’s goodness and reflect his image in the way they care for the world and for each other. They were created without flaw or sin and God intended that they live this way eternally.
When God created people, he also gave them free will so that they could freely share in his love. They were not robots who had no choice. Instead, God gave people the opportunity to either receive and live in his love or to reject him. Giving people free will dignified their choices and recognized the image of God within them. After creating them, God told the first humans that there was one boundary they could not cross in order to live in fellowship with him. However, the first people chose to cross that line and disobey God’s instruction. In doing so, they severed their relationships with God and each other and ushered sin, decay, corruption and death into the world. The perfect world was now broken.
However, God is good, and God is light. God did not want people to live in brokenness, darkness and separation. So, he set about making the broken world right so that people could be forgiven, healed, restored and made whole. Jesus Christ, fully God, became fully human and showed people how-to live-in God’s kingdom.
Amen
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