Summer 1976
Perspective and Purpose

Wade Taylor
President of Pinecrest

Nowhere in the Word of God are we told that the goal of the Christian life is heaven. Jesus did not say, “I am come that you may go to heaven;” rather, He said the most crucial thing He could, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). The basic issue of the Word of God is not heaven and hell—but that of life and death.

This takes us back to a first principle. In Genesis 2:17 God said, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that they eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” In partaking of the tree, man died spiritually and was separated from God. 1 Peter 3:18 tells us therefore, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” Jesus came to bring us back to God; thus, the heart of redemption is the restoration of relationship with God. He takes us just as we are; broken, twisted sinners, redeems us through Christ, and counts us as though we had never sinned. This is the beginning of the full salvation He has for us. Now He begins to work within us to produce that which He sees us to be in Christ. Romans 8:29 expresses His purpose and plan for us once we have been redeemed: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Thus, God’s concern is not to get us to heaven, but the impartation of the life of His Son in us that His image may be reproduced within us.

Notice that we are predestinated “to be conformed.” This signifies a process, the work of which originates with God and is His purpose and desire for us. Therefore, if our life is in His hands, then everything He will do or allow can be but for this purpose. This is again expressed in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” The word “good” means “God-like.” This is the good He desires to accomplish in us. Notice carefully that this is limited to those who are willing to have His purpose—the image of His Son—reproduced within them and wrought out in their lives.

He has placed us in the environment of this world that He might cause all kinds of circumstances to come against us as tools of His workmanship until all is cut away and nothing remains but Christ. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). When we see this truth, we can embrace the greatest trial with joy, for every circumstance of our life has been set before us by God that the image of His Son may come forth in us. Every bitter thing becomes sweet, for the life of His Son is made manifest in us.