Why did God cause me to exist?

I am someone who, in the timeframe from Pentecost to Christ’s second coming to earth, God has drawn to Himself (Jn 6.44) for salvation, perfect reconciliation to Himself (2 Cor 5.17-21) through identification with Christ.

The fact that God did bring me into existence, and even more predetermined my destiny, is evident from Rm 8.29-30.

The question then is, why did He do that?

Explicit Reasons:

1. To glorify God. Since God wants me to do everything for His glory, 1 Cor 10.31, it follows a reason for my existence is to glorify God.
   1. Here are a few of the many ways my existence does that:
      1. Ps 139.14 The wonderful way the material and immaterial parts of me, my body and soul, are fashioned glorify God.
      2. Eph 2.10 The righteous acts I do in life, in obedience to God and by faith in Him (Heb 11.6), glorify God. (cf Mt 5.16)
   2. These are some references to God’s general intent to glorify Himself through His creation, which includes me:
      1. Num 14.21 All the earth shall be filled with God’s glory.
      2. Hab 2.14 Everythng on earth able to experience the glory of the Lord will do so
2. To have a righteous, loving relationship with God. Given God’s creation of Adam, then Eve, and His daily “walks” with them in the garden of Eden, and the fact that though He gave them duties to perform His omnipotence and asceity insist He had no need of any of their work, it follows that God created them for a holy personal relationship with Him.
   1. A side question is why then was Adam given work to do? “gotquestions.org” addresses this question, “Man’s first job was naming all the animals (Genesis 2:19–20). God could have named the animals Himself, but He enjoyed working with Adam the way a loving parent enjoys watching her preschooler learn a skill. So we were created for work, but not work in the way we usually define it. Work was designed to be a fulfilling way we experience God by working in harmony with Him to accomplish His goals.”
3. To do good works. Here are some sample Scripture references about good works God intends for me to do:
   1. Jn 14.12 After Christ returned to Heaven, having completed His redemptive mission on earth, God intends for me and the others He saves to carry on the works Christ did while on earth, but at a greater scope.
   2. Mt 28.18-19 I am supposed to fulfill the mission God gave me to make disciples to Him from all people of the earth.
   3. 1 Pet 3.13-17 (especially vs 17) To suffer for doing good.
4. To be Christ’s physical presence on earth. Eph 1.23 I am meant to be part of a group of people, the “church”, which comprises Christ’s physical presence on earth in the timeframe when the church is present on earth while Christ is physically in heaven; e.g. in the time from Pentecost to Christ’s second coming. Of this function Calvin wrote, "This is the highest honor of the church that until He is united to us, the Son of God reckons Himself in some measure incomplete. What consolation it is for us to learn that not until we are in His presence does He possess all His parts, nor does He wish to be regarded as complete."
5. To be part of Christ’s “bride”. I am meant to be part of the church which God meant to be in a unique relationship with the second person of the Trinity, Jesus the Christ, best represented as a human wife’s relationship to her husband. The following verses establish this relationship:
   1. 2 Cor 11.2 depicts the Church similar to a Jewish woman betrothed to the Jewish man for a future marriage.
   2. Jn 14.2 depicts Christ, like the Jewish betrothed husband, preparing prior to the wedding the home for his betrothed wife.
   3. JN 14.3, Eph 5.25-27, and Rev 19.7-8 depict the church, completed and purified, as the Jewish betrothed bride presented to her husband for their wedding.

Implicit Reasons:

1. To display God (to whom or to what is not addressed). Note these two quotes from John Piper,
   1. “The point of being created in the image of God is that human beings are destined to display God. That’s what images do. And the point of being redeemed by Jesus, and renewed after the image of our Creator, is to recover this destiny.”
   2. “Images are created to image. Right? Why do you ever set up an image of anything? To image it! You put up a statue of Stalin, you want people to look at Stalin and think about Stalin. You put up a statue of George Washington to be reminded of the founding fathers. Images are made to image. So if God made us, unlike all the other animals, in his image, whatever it means in detail, this it means clearly: God is the reality and we are the image. Images are created to set forth the reality. Why did God create man? To show God! He created little images so that they would talk and act and feel in a way that reveals the way God is. So people would look at the way you behave, look at the way you think, the way you feel, and say, ‘God must be great, God must be real.’ That is why you exist.”