Is everyone born for a purpose in God’s plan?

I don’t think everyone is born for a purpose in God’s plan.  Many people do have a purpose in God’s plan and there are different purposes.

Ephesians 2:10

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Proverbs 16:4

The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

We read in Romans 9:17-18

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”  (18)  So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

So God prepares vessels for honourable use and other vessels for dishonourable use.  For those who seek after God and strive to follow Jesus, God will help them to be an honourable vessel.  2 Timothy 2:21

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

The dishonourable vessels are the bad guys.  God uses bad people for His own ends, as we see above with Pharaoh.  These dishonourable vessels are not made bad by God — they make themselves bad.

Scripture often makes a distinction between 2 groups of people:

1. Those who seek after God — sometimes called the sons of God
2. Those who live for themselves — sometimes called the children of men

The first group are precious to God and he takes good care of them.  These people are referred to in the following passages:

Romans 8:28-30

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  (29)  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.  (30)  And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Ephesians 1:3-5

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,  (4)  even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love  (5)  he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

We see from the above passages that God knew before the foundation of the world, who would love him.  Because God knew they would love him, he wrote their names in the Book of Life.  God calls them and moulds them into the image of his son.

That is the first class of people — people very much born with a purpose in God’s plan.

The second class of people — people who live for themselves — are in a very different position.  They have no time for God.  In Psalm 53:2-3, we read how God views these people:

God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.  (3)  They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

These people may or may not have a purpose in God’s plan,  but unless they repent, any purpose they do have, will not be to their advantage.    In fact, the lives of those who have no time for God, are futile, like the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices.  Jesus says of these Galileans in Luke 13:2-5

“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?  (3)  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.  (4)  Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?  (5)  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

These Galileans were in the group of people who would perish – they will not be given immortality at the return of Jesus.

To summarize — some people are born for a good purpose in God’s plan, some evil people are used for other purposes by God and some people just live for themselves and have no real purpose in God’s plan.  They will just live, then die and cease to exist, as Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 says:

For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.  (6)  Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

How important it is for us to cleanse ourselves from what is dishonourable – to repent and follow Jesus, so that we can truly have been born for a good purpose in God’s wonderful plan and be raised by Jesus at his return, to eternal life.