God created us with personality, intellect, will, morality, motives, emotions, and passion—so that we, as persons, could reflect His character and glorify Him. We are not the end; God is. A statue in a city serves as an illustration. The statue itself is not the point—it points beyond itself to the one it represents, reminding viewers of that person’s significance.

These are not the promising headlines of a management seminar or an Eastern meditation workshop, but rather offerings from a well-known Christian retreat center in Germany with a long-standing evangelical tradition. It is unsurprising that the natural man, in his search for value and meaning, arrives at himself. What is surprising, however, is that Christians—those who have come to know the Lord Jesus as their Creator and Savior—would pursue such seminar offerings.

On the other hand, as so-called Bible-believing Christians, we often drift to the opposite extreme. Aware that our flesh still seeks its own glorification, we frequently emphasize self-denial—and often hardly dare to ask what kind of glory human beings (especially redeemed human beings) actually possess.

The Greatest Purpose in Creation

To develop a balanced—or rather, biblical—view of the glory of man, we must first understand God’s purpose for creation, and thus the meaning of all existence. Far too many Christians—at least in German-speaking contexts—assume that the meaning of life is to be born again. Becoming a Christian, receiving forgiveness, obtaining eternal life—this was, for me as well, the unspoken “meaning of life” for the first 15 years of my Christian walk. And while salvation is indeed vital for fallen humanity, it is not the highest goal of mankind. To many ears, this statement almost sounds heretical.

But if evangelism—and thus the salvation of man—were truly humanity’s highest purpose, then Adam and Eve would have had no meaning in life immediately after their creation. For before their fall, they could not yet be saved. Would they then have been created without purpose?

This clearly contradicts Scripture (see Genesis 1:31: “…and behold, it was very good.”) Adam was exactly as his Creator intended him to be, and he possessed purpose by virtue of his creation. He did not need to acquire meaning after—or through—his fall into sin. From the beginning, his purpose was to know God, delight in Him, grow in love for Him, and serve Him so as to reflect and glorify Him.

There is one supreme goal in the entire universe: the glory of God. From God’s perspective, this is not selfish because there is no higher being and nothing greater to glorify. Since God alone is worthy of worship (1 Cor. 10:31; 2 Cor. 5:9,15; Rev. 4:11; 5:12), He created everything for His glory (Rom. 11:36; Eph. 3:10-11; Col. 1:16).

Christ Is the Prototokos

Since the word “firstborn” appears in many translations of Colossians 1:15, we often focus on refuting false interpretations by emphasizing that this verse refers not to Christ’s createdness but to His preeminence.

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