Have We Misunderstood Our True Purpose?

If you grew up in church, you likely absorbed a simple storyline about the Christian purpose without ever seeing it written down.

Stay faithful.

Avoid major sin.

Hold on until the end.

Then go to heaven.

Everything else serving, giving, loving your neighbor feels important, but secondary. Almost like extra credit on the real assignment: securing your eternal destination.

But what if we have gotten our purpose all wrong?

That is the challenge theologian N.T. Wright raises in his recent work. For years, Wright has argued that the Christian story is not ultimately about escaping earth for heaven. In God’s Homecoming, he sharpens that claim even further. The biblical narrative, he insists, is about God coming home not us leaving.

And that shift changes everything.

The Escape Plan We Assumed

For many believers, the central promise of Christianity has been personal afterlife security. Salvation is framed primarily as “going to heaven when you die.” Church becomes a spiritual fueling station for the long journey out of here. Faith becomes a private contract between you and God.

It sounds spiritual. It even sounds biblical.

But when you step back and look closely at Scripture, the emphasis is different.

When Jesus teaches His disciples to pray in Matthew 6:10, He does not say, “Help us get to heaven.” He says, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

That is not evacuation language. That is arrival language.

Globally, about 2.3 billion people identify as Christians today. Yet surveys consistently show that many primarily associate salvation with “going to heaven.” The assumption runs deep. But historically, the early Church proclaimed something larger: that in Jesus, God had launched the renewal of creation itself.

The question is not simply, “How do I get saved?”

It is, “What is God saving the world for?”

How the Story Shifted

Wright argues that part of the confusion emerged centuries ago. As Christianity spread through the Greco-Roman world, it interacted with the philosophy of Plato, who taught that the material world was inferior to the spiritual realm. For Plato, the goal was for the soul to escape the body and ascend.

Over time, that philosophical framework blended with Christian teaching. “Kingdom of heaven” began to sound like a place believers go after death rather than God’s reign breaking into history.

The result? The Christian purpose quietly shrank.

Instead of anticipating the renewal of creation, many began focusing almost exclusively on the departure of souls. But the Bible’s final vision, found in Revelation 21:3, is not of humans going up to God. It is of God coming down to dwell with His people.

Scripture ends with homecoming.

If that is true, then our purpose cannot be reduced to waiting for heaven. It must involve participating in what God is already doing here.

The Real Christian Purpose

In Ephesians 1:10, Paul describes God’s plan “to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.” That is cosmic language. It is not about private spirituality alone. It is about restoration at every level.

If the Christian purpose is renewal rather than escape, then the Church is not a waiting room. It is a preview.

Wright describes the Church as a working prototype of new creation a community meant to reflect, however imperfectly, the future God has promised. When believers pursue unity, forgiveness, generosity, and justice, they are not distracting from the “main point.” They are embodying it.

This perspective reframes discipleship entirely.

It means how we spend money matters.

How we treat enemies matters.

How we vote, build, forgive, and tell the truth matters.

If God intends to renew the world, then our daily lives are not incidental. They are participation.

Why This Feels So Different

A “get me to heaven” gospel fits neatly inside modern consumer culture. It is individualized. Measurable. Comfortable. It requires little structural change.

But a “God is renewing creation” gospel demands more.

It asks what kind of community would make sense if heaven were coming to earth. It forces us to confront injustice, poverty, division, and broken systems not as political distractions, but as areas awaiting redemption.

According to research from the Barna Group, younger Christians are increasingly concerned with justice, community impact, and tangible expressions of faith. Perhaps they are sensing that the Christian purpose must be larger than personal destiny alone.

If our theology only prepares us to die well, but not to live faithfully in a broken world, something is missing.

Unity as Spiritual Warfare

This broader vision also explains why the New Testament speaks so urgently about Church unity.

If the Church is meant to be a sign of God’s coming renewal, division distorts the sign. A fractured body misrepresents the message.

In Ephesians 2, Paul describes Jesus breaking down dividing walls of hostility. That language is not sentimental. It is confrontational. It assumes conflict and calls believers into something radically different.

The Christian purpose, then, is not passive waiting. It is active participation. Paul even describes believers as being seated with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) not reclining in comfort, but sharing in His reign and mission.

That sounds less like retirement and more like recruitment.

The End of the Story

The final chapters of the Bible describe a renewed creation where God dwells with humanity. The imagery is earthy: a city, a river, trees bearing fruit, nations healed. It is not a disembodied cloudscape. It is restoration.

This means the work you do in love is not wasted. The forgiveness you extend is not temporary. The justice you pursue is not peripheral.

As 1 Corinthians 15:58 reminds us, “Your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” That chapter often read at funerals is actually about bodily resurrection and the renewal of creation.

If we have gotten our purpose all wrong, the correction is both humbling and hopeful.

The Christian story is not about abandoning earth.

It is about God making His home here.

And inviting His people to live now as citizens of that coming reality.

Maybe the question is not whether you are going to heaven.

Maybe the deeper question is whether your life reflects the kingdom that is already breaking in.

If this perspective reshaped your understanding of the Christian purpose, consider sharing it with someone else or subscribing to our newsletter for more reflections like this.