The Goal of Christianity for Humanity
The goal of Christianity is not to be right or to be better than other people. The goal
of Christianity is the goal of Christ: to heal the world, set the captives free, and establish God’s rule and reign on the earth as it is in heaven.
16 Then Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. And when He stood up to read, 17the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it was written:
18“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20Then He rolled up the scroll, returned it to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him, 21and He began by saying, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:16-21 BSB
The fact that the majority of the American Church does not believe in miracles of healing or deliverance from
demons is an outright tragedy because this is the work of Christ. Jesus clearly stated His agenda to heal and set the captives free.
The Goal of Christianity for the Planet
Jesus came to heal the material world. This truth is mostly lost in the Western world, though thanks to the work of people like NT Wright and others, many Christians are recovering the knowledge of God’s intentions for the earth. God does not plan on destroying His good creation but recreating it.
“They will not hurt or destroy in all
My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the earth.” Isaiah 11:9
God does not intend to destroy planet earth but to cover it with His glory. Instead of the popular images of humans raptured into the sky, the Bible paints a picture of the New Jerusalem “coming down” from Heaven to Earth. This event is celebrated beautifully in the old Hymn “This is My Father’s World”:
This is my father’s world
The battle is not done
Jesus who died will be satisfied
And earth and heaven be one.
You may say, “What about the apostle Peter’s statement about the earth being ‘burned up’”?
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
2 Peter 3:10 NASB 95’
Alternative translations say, “The earth and its’ works will be discovered.” The fire Peter references is a refining fire
or purging fire like the kind that burns the trash and leaves behind pure gold. Peter’s words regarding the planet’s taste of fire should be compared with the Biblical language of “dying” to yourself. When the Bible urges us to put to death the deeds of the flesh, it is not saying that we should physically kill ourselves, but only our corrupted passions. The fact that Jesus came to save the material world is made clear in Jesus’ own bodily resurrection. Jesus didn't die and become a spirit; Jesus died and rose again bodily, even though His body had been previously destroyed. The goal of Christianity is to rescue the material world, the creation project that God made and called “very good.” (Genesis 1:31).
The Goal of Christianity for individuals
“On that day you will ask in My name, and I am not saying to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you…”
John 16:26-27 NASB
The Goal of Christianity for individuals is for each of us to know that we are loved by a God who calls Himself our “Father.” And this love is so real that God put on human flesh in the form of Jesus to bear our suffering so that we might be liberated from it.
“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried.” Isaiah 53:4 NASB
Furthermore, Jesus did this for us while we were still sinners. God didn't wait until we were worthy of love, but He loved us while we were unlovable.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous person; though perhaps for the good person someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:6-8 NASB
The Goal of Christianity is for individuals to know that we are loved perfectly by our Father in Heaven, demonstrated in His Son’s sacrifice.
The Goal of Christianity for Human Vocation
The goal of Christianity is to restore humans to their vocation to rule and reign over the earth in the name and loving wisdom of God. From the beginning, the human vocation has been the same:
Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26-28 NASB
After Jesus rose from the dead, He told the disciples,
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me! So you must go and make all the nations into disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to observe everything I have commanded you.”
Matthew 28:18-20 NTE
And in John’s Gospel, Jesus said,
“as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” John 20:21 NASB
The goal of Christ Jesus was to arrest the lordship of the world from the powers of darkness and restore authority to His image bearers. The goal of Christianity for the human vocation is to make us a kingdom of priests who bring God’s creation into God’s good order so that it might bear fruit and beauty.
The Goal of Christianity is for all that is right and good in the world to be saved, and all that is evil to be destroyed.
“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve…”
Joshua 24:15 NASB
Surrendering to the goals of Christianity, or instead to the goal of the will of Christ Jesus, though it may still take some wrestling to complete, is a no-brainer on paper. Jesus only wants good for us, while the satan, the author of all rebellion, wants to kill us. It's time to choose. We may not have another day.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23 NASB