In this chapter we will consider a fundamental matter: the meaning of the universe. We often hear of people who do not know the meaning of the universe or the value of human life. What is the meaning of the universe? This universe was created by God and has a meaning that is related to the gospel. The gospel preached in Christianity is not high enough. This gospel includes merely being forgiven of sins, going to heaven, and enjoying eternal blessings. However, according to the Bible, the gospel of God is not this low. The gospel unveils the meaning of the universe. The gospel is not simply that the Lord Jesus was crucified to shed His blood and die for us. The entire Bible, from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22, is a book of the gospel. The entire Bible is a gospel message.
The gospel of God saves us out of a human life that is without meaning into the meaning of the universe. Salvation involves being saved from a human life that otherwise would be meaningless. We have been saved from a human life void of meaning into the meaning of the universe. God created a man who had great meaning and purpose. Regrettably, man fell, and the meaning of his life was lost. This means that man lost his original purpose. With His salvation, God rescues us and brings us back to our original purpose. When man fell, he lost the meaning of his existence, but now that we are saved by God, we have been brought back to our purpose, which is the meaning of the universe.
We can find the meaning of the universe in the following verses. Ephesians 1:4-5 says, “Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” Genesis 1:26-28 says, “God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. And God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” Next, Romans 8:29-30 says, “Those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers; and those whom He predestinated, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified; and those whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
The above verses speak of God’s good pleasure. This good pleasure was not an afterthought; it was present before the foundation of the world. Before the creation of heaven and earth and even before time began, God had a good pleasure. According to this good pleasure, this delight, God designed a plan. God planned the universe with the heavens, the earth, and a large variety and number of organisms. Not only so, God also planned to create man. God’s purpose in creating man was for man to express God and represent Him, that is, for man to be His expression and His representation. Hence, God created man in His image and according to His likeness. The heavens and the earth and all the things in the universe were created according to God’s will.
Scientists and physicists study God’s creation, but their studies are like a small grain in a field that is as expansive as the universe. Even though we are in the space age, human beings have traveled only from the earth to the moon, and we still have a rather limited knowledge of the universe. Astronomers say that the distance from the earth to the center of our galaxy is at least sixty-four million times farther than the distance between the earth and the moon. The vastness of the universe cannot be fully comprehended by the human mind. God is too great. The things that He created are too vast and too numerous to count. Nevertheless, the Bible clearly tells us that the meaning of the universe is related to God’s desire to gain a group of people to be His expression and representation.