What is the chief and highest end of man?
Man’ s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.
This opening question and answer is a big one for life. The sooner we arrive at this answer the sooner we find great comfort in whatever else we find God purposed for us. What are you born to do? A butcher, a baker, or a candlestick maker as the saying goes. Maybe none of these and that is perfectly fine because this question is not about your job; its about “who” you are at the core of your “human” being.
What are all “humans” here for?
The first important clue to the correct answer is given in Romans 11:36: “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” We are first and foremost God’s possession because we are His creation. He created us and we are His, first and last and all in between. As Creator He rightfully can and does demand from His creation that it fulfill its purpose for which He called it into existence. This is a helpful and foundational thought to dwell on every day. 20 minutes of orientation to your purpose makes for a better day, every day.
Good morning. What am I today? Oh yeah, I’m an image bearer of the God of all creation. I have a name to live in. This is the idea behind this next passage of scripture, 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NASB): “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” This is a pretty lofty goal for a Monday morning or a Wednesday night. Just how am I going to do this exactly? Glad you asked. The Psalmist says, “You {God} will guide me with Your counsel, And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:24–28 (NASB)
The pattern for our lives is none other than the perfect human, Jesus who prays to His Father on our behalf and asked for us, “that they {church, His people, believers} may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I also have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” John 17:21–23 (NASB).
“Man being at first created upright, but afterwards being not partially but totally ruined, finds his entire salvation out of himself in Christ, to whom being united by the Holy Spirit freely given without any foresight of future works, he thereby obtains a double blessing—viz. full imputation of righteousness, which goes along with us even to the grave, and the commencement of sanctification, which daily advances till at length it is perfected in the day of regeneration or resurrection of the body, and this, in order that the great mercy of God may be celebrated in the heavenly mansions, throughout eternity.”
― From an epitome of the institutions, by Gaspar Olevian. A preface to the Institutes of the Christian religion by John Calvin.
So there we are, all of us believers, a band of image bearers destined to be conformed, not to this world, or to our best lives “now”, but instead to the perfection of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. So then, whether a butcher, a baker or a candlestick makes, we are reflections of the righteousness that is not our own. His righteousness makes us to be loved in the Beloved and that is our chief end. Love and Glorify God and fully enjoy Him forever.
Soli Deo Gloria
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