How Does One Find Hope, Love, and Purpose?
Because of our condition as fallen, corrupted beings, humanity is naturally disposed to reject the truth about our origins, our nature, and our destiny. We don’t want to believe in a Creator and Lawgiver, we don’t want to accept that we are sinful creatures in rebellion against our creator and culpable for violation of His law, and we live in denial that the penalty for our rebellion is eternal damnation. Little wonder that our culture can’t even define truth, let alone embrace it.
The postmodern world view is profoundly schizophrenic. On the one hand, our culture trumpets scientific naturalism—a form of materialism that claims the observable world is all that exists, and that a human is, therefore, nothing more than a sophisticated biochemical machine that has developed by random chance with a brain that is merely a three pound computer made of meat (e.g., Jerry Coyne, University of Chicago professor of Ecology and Evolution). On the other hand, our culture clings to the notion that people have value and dignity, should be treated with respect, and should have the freedom to make choices. These views are radically contradictory, and believing both at the same time is absurd to the point of insanity. In a book entitled Total Truth (Crossway Books, 2005), Christian thinker Nancy Pearcey explains,
“The postmodern dilemma can be summed up by saying that ethics depends on the reality of something that materialistic science has declared to be unreal….This is the tragedy of the postmodern age: the things that matter most in life—freedom and dignity, meaning and significance—have been reduced to nothing but useful fictions. Wishful thinking. Irrational mysticism” (pp. 107, 110).
The inevitable result of this incoherent world view is a culture filled with hopelessness and despair. Because we really are creatures made in God’s image, we have within us a yearning to find significance, meaning, and purpose in our lives. But the worldview of our age insists those things are imaginary. Only through faith in Christ can we find real hope, genuine love, and a valid sense of purpose.*
*Adapted from the introduction to the sermon, “The Benefits of Jesus’ Relationship with the Father” [John 16:25-33], number 73 in the series on John’s Gospel, January 20, 2019.