It’s a fair question.
Why Christianity? What’s the goal, the reason for our life in Christ? What are we aiming for?
There are more than a few answers to that question.
Consider a diamond, different angles unearth different perspectives. All of which are meant to complement one another and highlight the multi-faceted beauty of the subject. It’s the same when answering such a question as Christianity’s purpose.
In this post, I’d like to share an answer common among our Eastern Orthodox siblings in the faith.
To make humanity divine
Around 335 AD, St. Athanasius made the following comment in his renowned treatise, On the Incarnation.
For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.
Jesus became human so that humans might become like he always has been—divine.
The purpose of his saving work isn’t to forgive us of our sins and then leave us be. Christ’s aim is for us to actually become as he is. To share in the divine life lived within the very heart of God.
Salvation is divination.
Living into our destiny
This is what it means to be united to Christ as a new creation.
We are no longer merely human. We have been radically re-made to live as children of God, as people who are tethered to divinity and destined for life with God.
And in our time on this side of the veil we stumble, suffer, and strive to live into the divine destiny we have in Christ.
Not forgetting that,
….we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)
It’s a long and difficult path to our future glory with Christ.
But our faith is that he has accomplished our salvation on the cross and will finish the work of ushering us into the divine life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.