Have you ever wondered what the end goal is for our faith? We become Christians and enter into a living relationship with the true and living God. We embrace Jesus as our Savior and Lord. Then we begin to think through all the implications of what that means. As we read Scripture we look for how we can better serve Him, represent Him, and become like Him.

Along the way we adopt many goals based on the commands of Scripture, but they often get lost in the busyness of coping with life. The challenges that crop up in every stage we navigate through can distract us or divert us into tributaries that waste our time and hinder our progress.

Lately (after some forty years of following Him) I’ve been pondering where God wants me to end up. Is heaven the end goal? There I will be free from pain and trouble, safely living out eternity with my glorious Redeemer and Lord. Like all Christians, I really look forward to that! But in my heart I wonder … Is there an end goal for this side of eternity, a place I should be striving to reach by God’s grace?

When I was a young Christian I listened carefully to sermons and Bible teachers, hoping someone else might help me uncover the real point of my faith. After all, shortcuts save time, right? I read books by those who’d gone before me with keen anticipation, assuming they would know. But while I learned many valuable lessons from other Christians, I did not find this key element. Maybe it was there and I just wasn’t mature enough to recognize it. Or maybe the writers were focused on something else.

Now that I know my heavenly Father better, now that I am more intimate with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, I know there is an end goal for all Christians that isn’t based on being super spiritual, smart, or gifted. It’s available and accessible to every believer who’s humble enough to believe it. And like every other treasure we uncover, it’s hidden in plain sight in His word to us, the Bible.

I was reading in Deuteronomy the other day and there it was. In the context God is extending to the rebellious Israelites an offer they should have jumped at. It was to enter into a loving and merciful relationship with Him far beyond anything they could even imagine. They could become HIS people and enjoy the special blessings that come from that, but they had to choose it. It would not be automatic. They could either choose life or death, He explained, and if they chose to enter into life with Him, He would make sure they had everything they needed for the journey.

“What I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach … No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it” (v. 11, 14).

Choosing life would mean loving Him, listening to His voice, and holding fast to Him. And here’s the key verse I never noticed before (v. 20):

“For the Lord IS your life.”

He didn’t say they would find a good life in Him. The kind of life He was offering them was not separate from Himself. The Lord IS your … our … life! This revelation opened up other Scriptures, sending my mind in all sorts of directions. Jesus declaring himself to be “the way, the truth, and the life.” And “the resurrection and the life.” John writing in his gospel that in Jesus was life (1:4), and in his epistle that “he who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12). Proverbs 8:35 that says “Whoever finds me finds life and receives favor … but all who hate me love death.” The evidence from Scripture is clear. In God is life. Apart from Him we may have a human existence but are not truly alive. It’s His work in us but we have to cooperate with Him. We have to recognize where our source of life is and embrace, choose, to live there. Not just receive salvation and then go our own way, but abide in Him, that we might bear fruit. Jesus makes this clear in John 15.

Some questions immediately spring up.

Is He my life?

Is He what truly matters to me?

Can everything else I enjoy be released (not without pain, of course) in order to cling to Him?

Or are other things more essential for me to feel happy and fulfilled?

I believe the end goal for the Christian in this life is to be so at one with Him that what He thinks, wants, and feels about things trumps everything else. Are we so in love with Him that all other loves pale in comparison? Are we so identified with His purposes that we find our greatest fulfillment in seeing His will done on earth as it is in heaven?

In Colossians 3:1-4 Paul picks up the truth found in Deuteronomy 30:20.

“Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now HIDDEN WITH CHRIST in God.

When Christ who is your life

appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Recognizing Jesus as our very life is where we find ultimate fulfillment as Christians. Until we love Him more than anything else we have not reached our end goal. Like Paul, we are still on the way.

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Philippians 3:12). He sees the goal, and he’s committed to getting there. But he also understands this is not an easy one-two-three process.

Yes, it is attainable. But as fallen creatures we wrestle with many challenges that divert us and hinder us from walking in a straight line towards our main goal. Knowing Jesus in such intimacy and loving Him with a pure and undivided heart is not an easy road. However, we cannot afford to waste time making excuses. Like the apostle Paul, we must press towards the mark of making Christ our very life, the reason we “live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

If He is my life, my worth is not dependent upon how productive or attractive or useful I am to the world. My value is so bound up in Him that it cannot be separated out from what He is doing and Who He is. We are living life out together … I have died to my sinful life before I knew Him and my life is now hidden with Christ in God.

For most of us, this goal is still theoretical and lies somewhere in the future. But (like Paul) we should be moving towards it with ever-increasing determination, believing God will accomplish it as we cooperate with Him. We may lose everything else we once held dear in the process, but that doesn’t matter. As long as we have Him, we have life. We have everything we need “for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him” (2 Peter 1:3).

Jesus wants us to recognize how crucial He is in our walk of faith and to find our fulfillment, our rest, in Him. Recognizing Him as our life enables us to live humbly in His presence and enjoy His fellowship, giving us a glimpse of what we can look forward to in heaven. “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

Let’s live like we believe it!