The Only Thing That Wasn't Good

I’ve been wrestling lately with a question that seems simple on the surface but gets deeper the more you pull at the thread: Why did God create us?

It’s easy to say "for His glory," and that’s true, but it can feel abstract. I’ve tried to dig into Scripture to find the root of it—something I can pin down. I don’t believe God created us because He was lonely; God is self-sufficient. He doesn't need anything. But looking at the narrative of creation, I’ve become convinced that while He didn’t create us out of need, He absolutely created us for relationship.

The logic starts before humanity even takes a breath. In Genesis 1:26 (NASB), God says, "Let Us make mankind in Our image." Right there, in the very first mention of our design, we see community. God is speaking within the Trinity. He is relationship. So, if we are made in His image, we are made for relationship too.

This becomes the "proof in the pudding" when we get to Genesis 2. God creates a perfect world. He creates light, land, seas, and animals, and after each one, He declares it "good." But then, He looks at Adam—who is sinless, perfect, and in paradise—and says the opposite.

"It is not good for the man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18, NASB).

That stops me in my tracks every time. The only thing in a perfect universe that God labeled "not good" was solitude. Why? Because a solitary man cannot fully reflect a relational God.

To fix this, God didn’t create a servant for Adam; He created a partner. He made a relationship. This mirrors why God created us in the first place. Ephesians 1:5 tells us He "predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself." He wasn’t looking for employees to manage the garden; He was looking for a family to share it with. We see this in Genesis 3:8, where God is "walking in the garden in the cool of the day," seeking them out. He wanted the walk, not just the worship.

The Cost of the Walk

Tragically, Adam and Eve traded that intimacy for information. They wanted the autonomy of "knowing" good and evil rather than the safety of trusting God. They broke the relationship to gain control.

But this is where the logic of "Relationship" hits me the hardest. If the relationship was cheap, God would have just started over. Instead, He paid an infinite price to restore it. On the cross, Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46, NASB).

Jesus experienced the ultimate "not good"—total separation from the Father—so that we never have to. He took the isolation so we could have the adoption.

The Horizontal Proof

This restoration isn’t just about me and God, though. If we are restored to the image of a Triune God, that restoration must spill over into how we treat people. We cannot claim to have a "vertical" relationship with God while ignoring the "horizontal" relationship with others. As 1 John 4:20 (NASB) puts it, "for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen."

We need relationship with God because that is what we were created for, and we need relationship with each other because we were created in His image.

Co-Laboring

This even changes how I view my work. Adam wasn’t just given a wife; they were given a garden to tend together. Relationship grows through shared purpose. We aren't just God's children sitting around; we are His "fellow workers" (1 Corinthians 3:9). We experience this relationship most deeply not just when we are singing to Him, but when we are working with Him.

The Conclusion

This train of thought leads me to a sobering realization about eternity. If we were created for relationship, then "Eternal Life" isn't just living forever—it is the restoration of that relationship. As Jesus said in John 17:3, "This is eternal life, that they may know You."

Conversely, Hell isn’t just fire and brimstone; it is the total, finalized removal of that relationship. It is being "away from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). It is the ultimate realization of "it is not good for man to be alone," stretched out for eternity.

The logic holds up: We were designed by a relational God, for a relationship with Him and with each other. When we try to walk alone—whether in life or in our spiritual walk—we aren’t just being independent. We are returning to the only state God ever called "not good."

We were made for the walk.