Why Do We Exist?

“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” – Ephesians 1:11-14

We exist, our very being, in order to be the “praise of his glory.” We are sealed for eternity by the Holy Spirit for the very same purpose…that we will be “to the praise of His glory.” We exist to bring glory to God. In these particular verses it is a bit more specific than that. The “we” in verse 11 could well point to Paul and his Jewish-Christian contemporaries (the first to put their hope in Christ) and the “you” in verse 13 could point to Gentile Christians. Or it could be a general statement of “we” those who were Christians before the Ephesians and the “you” being the Ephesian Christians both Jew and Greek. Nevertheless, it all works out in verse 14 when Paul uses the pronoun “our” in verse 14 to bring all of those people under the blessing of redemption and the status of being God’s possession…that still all exist “to the praise of His glory.”

You exist to bring glory to the Creator of the universe. When we live as Christ lived we do exactly that. Christ was solely interested in bringing glory to His Father and He knew that He did so through obedience to the will of his Father. The same is true with us. When we live in line with the will of God we bring God praise resulting in his good pleasure.