What is the driving force behind life?

The driving force is mutation and natural selection. Another name for that is biological evolution.

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The origin of life apparently occurred through natural processes.

It has been demonstrated that basic amino acids, the chemical constituents of the proteins used in all living organisms, assemble naturally from inorganic compounds under conditions that replicate those of the early Earth.

Some have suggested that the first reproducing form was merely some of the abundant amino acids grouped together in a shape against which others would chemically fit and then break away retaining the same or mirror image shape.

Whether this was or was not the actual method, the first object that could self-replicate would likely not be anything that we would define as "life" by today's standards. Once there was an object from which copies naturally formed, the numbers soar. After 5 generations there would be 16 individuals. After 20 generations, half a million, and after 50 generations 500 trillion.

From the beginning of the ability to replicate, changes began to occur. Then as now, there are occasionally errors in replication and most of the errors are harmful to the individual and/or the reproduction process. Those mutated forms were unlikely to reproduce. But every now and then a mutation is beneficial. It may cause the organism to be stronger, endure buffeting (or other trauma) or to reproduce more quickly. These will quickly outnumber the rest of the population.

The first object that naturally produced copies probably was very poor at reproducing and may have been quite fragile. Being crudely formed, it may have taken hours to replicate or even years – but there was plenty of time. Within 100 generations, its descendants could probably reproduce in minutes.

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There are a great many things that people have not discovered about the origin of life, but it is not reasonable to assume that magic was involved.

The ingenious diversity of living things never occurs by chance. The secret of genetic manipulation has already been revealed, since this is the age of revelation. I hope you find the revealed counsel of YHWH.

There is no driving force behind life.

What causes molecules to work together is chemistry.

Over billions of years arrangements that have worked have survived and left similar offspring. It is the process of evolution.

All metabolically active cells are considered alive. Not all cells are alive. For example, erythrocytes (red blood cells) in the peripheral circulation are not alive. They are not metabolically active. They have lost almost all their organelles so they can be packed full of haemoglobin.

Evolution of self-replicating molecules.

> what actually causes molecules to work together to form cells

Physics, chemistry, and (these days) a pre-existing system to build upon.

> what causes cells to come together to create larger organisms

(these days) a pre-existing system to build upon.

> At what point is a cell considered "alive"?

About 3.8 billion years ago.

Membrane-enclosed system of replicating nucleic acid(s).

You have continuity with chemical reactions that have been going on for about four billion years.

> when does an organism become sentient?

We kind of define that ourselves. One of the definitions would include the ability to look at a mirror and say, "Hey, that's me."

Humans, chimps and some other primates pass that test. So do elephants. Be nice to elephants.

> Why do living organisms want to survive so badly?

It's built-in. The organisms that didn't survive left less descendants than those who did. You can replace "organisms" in that previous sentence with "allele sets" if you're a selfish-gener.

Once physicist solve "The Theory of Everything" then we will know. There's a Wikipedia article on the theory. Until then... it's a mystery.