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30th May 2026
SaturdayReflection
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John Piper
Founder & Teacher, Desiring God.org
"Why Do I Exist?"
.... Isaiah 43 v 6-7
It's essential to know and study and maybe memorize.
It seems like a huge and awesome blessing that the Creator would explain to us why we exist.
Why do I exist? Why does anything exist?
And I've never tired of returning to these verses, because when I read them in context over and over, I not only see fresh glimpses of God's peculiar design for me as a human being, but I also feel welling up in my heart fresh zeal to bring my life into alignment with God's ultimate purpose and so experience the greatest significance possible in this life and not waste my one single life that I have to live on this earth.
And that just has been huge for me.
I mean, over and over again, it has kindled in me, "Don't waste your life. There's a purpose for your life.
God has revealed it. Get in line with it. This will make everything count."
So, hear the words that I've returned to over and over - this is Isaiah 43:6-7
I will tell the north to let them go and the south not to hold them back.
Let my people return from distant lands, from every part of the world.
They are my own people, and I created them to bring me glory."
Let's look at it through the Jewish lens.
This is a statement made to Israel.
We just have to own that right off.
We're Gentiles reading it, and we take it for ourselves (as we should), but you have to give that a little bit of thought.
This is made to Israel. The paragraph - verse 1 - begins, "Now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel."
There are unique ways by which God is glorified in the history of Israel.
No doubt about that. And he's talking about that here.
But it would be a mistake not to see ourselves - as Christians, lovers of Messiah Jesus - in this verse and not to see his purpose for the nations as well in this verse.
Because the Bible teaches that not just Israel but all the nations, indeed all humans created in God's image - to image forth God;
that is, to glorify God by virtue of being created in his image - all of us exist for the glory of God.
"Every tongue," Paul says in Philippians 2:11, willingly or unwillingly, will "confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Not just confess Christ, but confess Christ "to the glory of God the Father."
"People should put their eyes to the lens of our life and see through it the greatness of the glory of God."
As far as Christians are concerned, the whole New Testament is designed to show that Gentile believers,
- Gentile believers in Jesus -
are now included in God's chosen people, the true Israel.
So, if you are in Christ, in the Jewish Messiah, by faith,
"you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:29).
Therefore, the fullness of God's blessing in Isaiah 43 applies not only to Jewish believers but also to Gentile believers.
So, we should read this chapter and revel in it as ours - Gentiles, believers in Messiah.
God is saying, in effect, "The universe is about me, folks. It's about me.
The bigness of the universe is about my bigness.
The workings of the universe in their amazing, intricate wisdom are about my wisdom.
The weight and greatness of the universe are about my power.
The gift of the universe to the human race is about my grace."
God's purpose in creation is self-exalting.
It's about him. "From him and through him," Paul said, "are all things" (Romans 11:36).
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This is an edited version.
The full article is avaiable on request
'John Piper'
is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God:
Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently
Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy
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