Why God created us

Have you ever wondered why God bothered to create human beings? Those who contend that God doesn’t need us—and that seems to include just about all of the articles I’ve read on the internet—often cite Paul’s speech to the Athenians in Acts chapter 17, where he says this (Acts 17:24-25):

The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; ²⁵ nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things. [NASB translation, emphasis added]

Although I don’t think that was really Paul’s intent, the articles are certainly correct in the sense that we normally think of the word, “need.” God doesn’t need us in order to survive, or even in order to be happy. But I do think God needs us in another sense of the word—because of love.

Numerous scriptures talk about the love of God. For example, Romans 5:6-8:

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Or 1 John 4:7-10:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

And of course, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Thomas Aquinas pointed out that love is something we want to share. If you love someone, you don’t keep it a secret—you want to share it with the person you love, and with others. Love which is shared grows and spreads to others.

God created us in order to share His love with us. And here is where I differ with the articles I read. I believe God did in a sense have a need for us, because I think His love is so great that He needed to share that love.

So He created us to share His love with us. 

And love’s nature is to give. That means God also created us so that He could give to us. Everything we have, and everything we are, is a gift from God, including life itself.

For me, God’s greatest gift is what Paul describes in Ephesians 2:4-9:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

God created humans because He wanted to share His love with us and give to us.

What does He want from us in return? Just one thing—that we would love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. (See Mark 12:28-30.)