Tools for Monday: What is the Ultimate Purpose of Life (Part 3)
We continue today in discussing our goals, purposes, or aims in life. The New Testament has a uniquely picturesque term to describe a goal. It is the word telos. A telos may be defined as something like the finish line of a race. It is the tape which a runner breaks upon completing a marathon. When Jesus died on the cross and exclaimed, “It is finished,” he used a form of the word telos (John 19:30). This means that Jesus forevermore completed the goal of conquering sin.
In our Monday blog series, we’ve essentially described the different kinds of telos (the plural technically is called teloi) that often come into conflict. Yogi Berra famously said that when he came to a fork in the road, he took it. Unfortunately, life is not that easy. The reality is that there are many forks in the road of life. And the forks in the road even have many forks!! Yet, if we are clear on our telos, then we will be able to discern which fork to take that much more effectively.
For instance, we’ve talked so far about the goals of naturalism and idealism. But these types of teloi simply don’t measure up to the biblical narrative, especially because they both deny the human fall into sin. It seems then that the most appropriate telos is to seek out a Person greater than us who can save us from our sin and transform us. Praise be to God that we have such a Person in the Lord Jesus Christ!
So what are we saying? The ultimate telos of life is neither a philosophy nor a completed to-do list. The ultimate goal of life is not to do something. It is to surrender to Someone. The telos therefore is a Person, who is Jesus Christ. The goal of life is a reconciled relationship with God found in the Messiah toward whom we run by faith. But we realize that he is running alongside us, as well. The God we seek is the God who seeks us. Once we leap by faith and receive the grace of Jesus, we are free and clear to discern rightly what forks in the road to take—not because we’re smarter and wiser—but because the Spirit of the Living God indwells us.
Next week, we will talk about the ways in which the Holy Spirit helps us to discern what forks in the road we should take.