The burden of this book can be expressed in the following five statements:
Man is the meaning of the universe.
Christ is the meaning of human life.
The church is the expression of Christ.
The church life is the real communal life.
Go therefore and disciple all the nations.
The Bible is the divine revelation. It unveils to us not only God but even more, the purpose of God. In fundamental Christianity most of the messages are concerning man's personal salvation. It is difficult to hear anything on God's purpose. I hope that all of us can see what the purpose of God is.
If we want to see God's purpose, we must come to the divine book, the Holy Bible. The center of God's eternal purpose is man. According to the Bible and even according to scientific study, it is clear that man is the center of the universe. The universe is composed of the heavens, the earth, and millions of things created by God. The sun is the center of our solar system, but this solar system is just a small part of one galaxy, and there are millions of galaxies in the universe. We have to realize what the center of God's universe is. From God's Word we see that the center of God's universe is man. If there were no human life on this earth, the universe would become meaningless.
The Bible says in Genesis 1 that God first created the heavens and then the earth. After this He created all the things of life. He began with the creation of the things of the lowest form of life, the life that is without consciousness, which is the plant life. Following this, God created the animals. The animal life is higher than the plant life because the animal life is a life with consciousness. Eventually, God created the human life. Therefore, we have the plant life as the lowest life, the animal life as the higher life, and then the human life as the highest life of all the created things.
Suppose that there were no life in this universe—no plants, no animals, and no human life. What kind of universe would that be? Would you like to live in a place without any green things or without any animals? Surely no one would like to live in such a place. Without life, the universe becomes meaningless. God, however, created all kinds of life—the plant life, the animal life, and the human life. The different kinds of plant life —the trees, the flowers, and the grass—are for beauty. New Zealand is really a beautiful land because it is so green. It is beautiful because of the abundance of life.
In addition to the plant life, there are the different kinds of animal life. The plant life is for beauty, and the animal life is to satisfy man's interest. This is why many people like to have a dog or a cat in their home. Without the human life, there would be no one to enjoy the beauty of the plant life and the stimulation of the animal life. Man is the one who manages and enjoys these created lives. This is why God did not create man first. He first created the plant life and then the animal life. Then He created man to enjoy and to exercise dominion over all things. By this we can see that man is the center of the universe. Without man, there is no meaning in the whole universe. The heavens and the earth, with the plant life and the animal life, become meaningless without man as the center.