Out of the Dust

I heard this joke that I’d like to tell you: “One day, a young boy sat in the pew at church, listening attentively as the pastor preached a serious sermon on the realities of the fall into sin. His eyes grew wide as the pastor’s voice rose while he quoted from the Book of Genesis: ‘You are dust, and to dust you shall return’ (Genesis 3:19). An impression was made. Later that same day, this child’s mother heard a yell from her son’s bedroom. She went running up the stairs and he met her halfway. ‘Mom,’ he said with great concern, ‘Do you remember that the pastor said that we are dust and to dust we will return? I just looked under my bed and someone is either coming or going!’”

Cute, but which is it? Coming or going? Genesis 1:1 tells us: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 2 tells us that “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (2:7), a perfect creature. God breathed life into him and bestowed His image upon Adam. It was a beautiful act of love that united God and man together in a perfect relationship. And as God said, “It was very good.”

In fact, it was too good to last. Adam and Eve soon disobeyed God’s command not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam and Eve were convinced by Satan that God was holding something back from them. They became suspicious and imagined, “There must be other blessings, more information that God has reserved for Himself, and we are being cut off from something good.”

All the devil had to do was say, “Did God actually say . . . ?” (3:1). Contradicting God directly, the devil told our gullible ancestors, “You will not surely die . . .” (3:4). Eve and Adam were easily convinced that there was something desirable that God was not sharing—so they took the fruit—and ate. And their eyes were opened wide—not wide-open in joy or wisdom, but in terror!

It’s true that they knew more after eating than they had before, but what they learned was not the knowledge that Adam and Eve sought. They learned about death, and from that day forward, they would know the curse. They learned that the image of God had been lost, and they learned that the breath of life would not be in them forever. They knew they would die; they would return to the dust from which they came. The Father made that future death a certainty and He told them, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (3:19).

For Adam and Eve, nothing could be worse, no declaration could be more devastating, and nothing could be more final. Those who knew God’s love and walked with Him in the Garden in the morning had lost the image of God and destroyed their relationship with Him. There was no hope and there was no possibility of redemption.

But God is gracious. God is merciful. And God is love. Because of who God is, He made Adam and Eve and all of their children a promise. God promises us that He will raise ALL His children from the dust again. God promises us to restore life and to restore His image in us. God promised in that Garden that a champion, a Messiah, would be given to mankind through the woman’s seed. God promised that this Messiah would do battle with the evil one and that Satan would be condemned to the dust of defeat. God promised—and the great battle began.

We are in that battle today. The pain and suffering of the battle rage on and they take their toll on us. Every living creature since the days of Adam and Eve has toiled with the reality of sin and the devastation it brings. Every day we feel the knife of sin as it cuts through our bodies with sickness and disease. Every day we experience the gnawing of sin as its tears at our hearts and souls. Every day we feel the darkness as it chokes us off from our God. Satan, the world, and our sinful flesh separate us from God and seek with all their evil might to make this separation permanent.

But into the midst of this battle, into the midst of our oppressive need, God sends his Son. God sends his only-begotten Son into our flesh that he might do battle against the evils of the world on our behalf. Christ has come to deliver us from sin, death, and Satan. He comes into our world, to walk in the dust of our destruction, to do the saving work that we cannot do. Christ fights for us—not with us— but for us, in our place. Christ fights for us, taking the battle to the cross of Calvary. There He poured out His life. There He died.

From the cross to the tomb Jesus went and was laid dead to return to the dust of death—a death that is our doing. Christ was buried in the dust of our deaths . . . but He wasn’t there for long! After three days, He won the victory by rising from the dead. He is the firstfruits of those who rise from the dead, for truly, He is the one who overcomes the curse. From out of the dust, Jesus is life!

Because He has risen from the dead, so shall we! Christ’s victory has written our names in the Book of Life. Daniel tells us that those who are wise by faith and have been clothed in Christ’s righteousness have had our names recorded in that book, and our names will never be erased.

Fellow Christians, I want each of us to remember that from out of the dust of death, ALL the dead will rise. God promises all people a share in Christ’s bodily resurrection. Believers, those who have been written into the Book of Life, shall awake to everlasting life—to shine like stars forever with Christ. Unbelievers, those who reject Him who saves, shall awake to shame and contempt—to suffer everlasting death with Satan and his evil angels.

On that Last Day, our return to Eden will be accomplished. On the day of resurrection, God will complete His work of re-creating this fallen world. Out of the dust of death He brings forth life, and we, His new creation, live in this life from everlasting to everlasting. On the Last Day, He who created us out of the dust will re-create us, raising us from the dust. We look forward to living forever, united with God as He intended from the beginning.

Let’s not forget this wonderful promise of the Resurrection. We are surrounded by unbelievers and doubters of the Truth. Even one of our country’s Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, once produced an edition of the Bible from which he had edited out all references to miracles and other “unbelievable” occurrences. Jefferson ended his book with “There laid they Jesus, and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed.” That’s it. That’s how Jefferson’s so-called “Good News” ended.

But praise God that we know there’s more! We believe, teach, and confess that … “Our Lord is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!” His tomb and ours are empty, and He who has risen from the dust of death will raise us up to take part in His everlasting life to shine like the stars. May you abide in Him to the end. Amen.