The Gospel of Jesus Christ offers us the essence of the meaning of life. His death and resurrection laid the foundation for forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. A life apart from our Creator never fully satisfies, nor makes complete sense. The biblical story offers the meaning and answers to the fundamental questions of life. By understanding the incarnation of the Logos, we come to understand the God who created us in His image and learn to live as His creation made in His image and likeness. 

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The Questions of Life

 

​The quest for the meaning of life, as the quest to explain the problem of evil (see E10), is as old as humanity. We always tried to make sense of life and human existence and sought the best way to live on earth. Competing narratives and different ideologies (religious, philosophical or political) have offered various options. These dealt, in different ways, with the fundamental questions of life. These may be summarised as follows:

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• Who am I?

• Where do I come from? 

• Why am I here? 

• What shall I do? 

• Where will I go? 

 

Each of these questions deal with the fundamental aspects of life: the question 'Who am I?' is a matter of identity; 'Where do I come from?' is a matter of origin; 'Why am I here?' is a matter of meaning; 'What shall I do?' is a matter of purpose; and 'Where will I go?' is a matter of destiny or life after death.

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The biblical story gives us answers to each of these fundamental questions and explanations regarding all of these important issues. The good news is that life has meaning. Understanding who we are created in God's image will at once make us understand that we have intrinsic value and that life is meaningful. We can see ourselves as 'highly-developed monkeys,' a meaningless product as a result of the random, accidental assembly of atoms or as creations by a Designer with value, meaning and purpose. This is one of the major issues when it comes to competing narratives of human existence. There are those who deny God's existence (atheism) and those who deny that God can be known (Agnosticism). An alternative form is the notion that God made the universe but it runs by itself governed by the laws of nature, much like a clock made by a clockmaker (Deism). The fundamental question is, did God create man or did man invent God? If there is no God, why would man invent one? Why are there so many religions and philosophies that deal with the metaphysical questions if there is no Deity? It doesn't make sense. The fact that people seek religious practice of some sort speaks of man created by God to worship Him.

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The Immutable Centre

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In his newest book, Jordan Peterson writes of the 'immutable center.' There are things in the established order that should not be abolished, not even touched. Immutable means unchangeable. Some things are set and they are good. We abolish them at our own peril. As a psychologist he sees the ancient stories in Genesis as archetypical (a Jungian concept). The behaviour of Cain in relation to Abel speaks of broken relationships and the potential for evil humans are capable of. We should take note of these stories and learn from them to understand human nature and get it right in life. 

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One powerful ancient story is the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11). Men gather and want to build a tower that reaches into Heaven. The upward striving towards the ideal is a noble cause, yet not if it is done apart from God. This is a fundamentally wrong approach to life as we are created by God to worship Him. Yet man wants to live independently of God and build his own kingdoms and empires for his own glory. Millions have died in history when men were driven by some grandomania of self-glorification. They sought to shift the immutable centre of human dignity and many perished in the process as pawns in a game. The builders of the Tower of Babel, ironically, sought to prevent being scattered all over the world, yet that is exactly what happened to them! Ambitions for greatness apart from God, driven by self-glorification and inspired by pride, will not give us the desired results; it will create the very thing we sought to prevent. We are not made to live apart from God. The meaning of life is found in understanding who we are created in God's image. Satisfaction is found in living for the purpose God has prepared for us. Life is not meaningless; it has purpose. We only need to find out what it is and why it matters. Human beings simply cannot live without meaning and purpose.  

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The Importance of Meaning

 

The twentieth century has seen the tragic loss of human life and dramatic devastation of societies and cultures by the worst of ideologies (Nazism, Fascism and Communism). Austrian psychologist Viktor E. Frankl (1905—1997) reflected deeply on the meaning of life and the importance of it, both in academia and in a Nazi concentration camp. When Jews were rounded up in labour and extermination camps across Europe, Frankl concluded that he had to put his theories into practice. He found that meaning sustains people even during the worst of suffering and pain. The horrors of the Soviet gulags or Nazi concentration camps are a grim reminder of the brutality human beings are capable of. Learning how those who were directly affected by these inhumane tragedies speaks loud and clear about the importance of meaning in life. ​Making sense of life when all dignity is robbed and evil seems to prevail in unprecedented measures, all hope seems lost. How can one still believe in humanity in the face of such evils?

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Friedrich Nietzsche (1844—1900) famously stated that if you know your 'why,' you can endure almost anything in life (the 'how'). The importance of meaning in the face of evil is even greater than living in a world of ease. Frankl advocated for the importance of meaning; Peterson calls on people to shoulder responsibility in order to have a meaningful life. Scripture affirms that we are created by God and that He has prepared good works for us that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). We are not a product of random evolution; we are created with purpose and design by the God who knew us before we were even born (Jeremiah 1:5). We are 'fearfully and wonderfully' made by God in His image (Genesis 1:26-27; Psalm 139:13-14; see E22, E23, E24). With a worldview of God's purpose and a view of self as made by God, one realises that we have intrinsic value and that life is meaningful, hence, worth living and worth living for a good cause. 

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