So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
Q1: What is the chief end of man?
A: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.
You are who you are made for. That is vastly different from what is commonly said today. We often hear that we are our own masters. We must follow our hearts. We must always say “yes” to ourselves. Denying oneself seems to be the ultimate heresy today. The focus of today is for me to become the best version of me. This is why scores of people are on an endless journey to “find themselves”. To be sure, the desire to know who we are and what we are here for is a perfectly legitimate desire. Matter of fact, it is of the utmost necessity that we learn this answer in this life. Our eternal destination depends on it! But, how can you actually “find yourself”?
There is a Latin phrase that is most helpful for this question: extra nos. It means “outside of ourselves”. You cannot find yourself by only looking at yourself because you were made by Someone else (Col. 1:16) and for Someone else (Rom. 11:36). Your purpose in life is actually to look outside of yourself to the one true God. Counterintuitively, that is how you will actually find out who you are meant to be (See Psalm 8 & John 3:30).
The Scriptures tell us that we belong to God (Ps. 100:3). But, ever since sin entered the world (Gen. 3) we have been cursed by an inward-obsessed gaze. Even with this self-obsession, all people know that there is a God and yet we turn from this God and to ourselves (Rom. 1). Just because we ignore God does not mean He ceases to exist. Our conscience screams at us to worship Him as God (Rom. 1:21). God’s Law never goes away, never waters down, and never relents. As Acts 17:30 says, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”
How are we to repent? How are we to be delivered from such ruthless bondage to our sin? How will there be a change in our dead hearts to ever look extra nos? Thanks be to God! He, being rich in mercy, sent His only begotten Son into this world (an extra nos salvation) that even though we were dead in our sins He made us alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:4-5). Christ’s perfect obedience of always honoring God as God can now be credited to us by grace through faith in Him (2 Cor. 5:21)!
“But”, you may ask, “does this news do anything?” Yes! This news is God’s power for the entire work of our salvation (Rom. 1:16). By believing in Christ for salvation you are not only declared righteous by God the Father but the Holy Spirit will also begin the work of sanctification through your union with Christ. This means that by the Holy Spirit you will learn more and more to glorify and enjoy God. The more you look extra nos to Jesus Christ the more you will fulfill your chief end in life.