Lesson 6 God's Purpose with the Human Race You have now taken some important steps into a new kind of world: a world of truth and sound knowledge. You have already learnt the following important facts: 1. There is a holy, just, perfect, loving and everlasting God, who is Lord and Ruler of all. 2. God is a personal God and can be approached as a loving Father. 3. God created the universe, including the sun, stars and planets, as well as everything that exists anywhere. The beginning of this entire universe is the result of the creative action of God Almighty. 4. All main divisions of life (plants, animals, birds, fish and man) were created by one God. 5. God created human beings to be like himself and put them in charge of the earth and its other inhabitants (Genesis 1:26-28). God has a Purpose with Mankind Unlike many of the other religions of this world the Christian faith is not vague or indefinite about man's origin and purpose. God clearly tells us in the Bible: "They are my own people, and I created them to bring me glory" (Isaiah 43:7). Man's main purpose on earth is to glorify God. Therefore we should live  in such a way "that in all things praise may be given to God"  (1 Peter 4:11). God also had a second purpose with man. It is to rule over the world and all life on it. God commanded man to cultivate and guard the world and all its riches (Genesis 2:15), but not to waste or destroy anything in a wild, reckless way. Man became God's manager of the world, but God remained the owner. God says: "The world and everything in it is mine" (Psalm 50:12). Let us all therefore hold strongly on to this fact: we were created by God himself. We are not creatures of chance, or an accident of evolution. We are not like leaves tossed around by the winds of "Karma" as so many believe! We come from God, and in the end we shall return to live with him if we live according to the teachings of the Bible. Humans are Different The Bible tells us not only that we are made by God, to serve him, but also that we are given certain special gifts. While our bodies are in some ways similar to other living creatures, we are also very different from the rest of creation. The greatest of the blessings given to us is that God gave us a nature like  his own. The Bible says. that "man was made like God" (Genesis  9:6). We have already seen that man has a spiritual centre in him. He was meant by his Maker to have a close relationship with God. It is written that: "Man cannot live on bread alone, but needs every word that God speaks" (Matthew 4:4) This means that the human race is not only meant to eat, drink, mate, grow old and die like the rest of the creation. Humans are made to have spiritual contact with God! For this reason man is a unity of two elements: 1. A body, which is the visible element of each person, and 2. A soul or spirit, which is the spiritual, invisible element of each person. This includes the feeling and the will. This is the part of man by which he is able to make contact with God, and which hungers after spiritual things. When these two elements are separated, man dies, and his body disintegrates. But the invisible element, the soul or spirit, lives on, until one day each person will become whole again when his body is resurrected on the day of the great resurrection, and he becomes a whole person once more (1 Corinthians 15:42-49). From what we have said already, another very wonderful truth follows, especially in this world of war and hatred between people and nations. This is the truth that all human beings, all peoples and nations and races and languages, descend from that human pair, Adam and Eve, who were created in the beginning (Acts 17:26). Finally, the Holy Bible teaches that in the form in which God first created man, he was a perfect, sinless, deathless being, free from pain and suffering. Test Yourself No. 6 Answer the questions below, and then compare your answers with the answers you will see when you click here: [answers] 1. How did man come into existence? 2. Describe man's condition when he was first created, according to the  Word of God. 3. Name the two elements of every human being: 1. 3.1 2. 3.2 3. Why did God create man?