Sunday Postscript - You Are Dust

Well maybe if I try shorter, more frequent posts I can actually keep this thing current.  So here is an abbreviated Postscript from my message yesterday.  The title was “Our Estate of Misery” and the text was Genesis 3:16-19 (the curses upon Adam and Eve for their sin).  The one point I want to focus on is one that really struck me while I was working on this message.  God’s words to Adam in vs. 19 “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."  And specifically the words “for dust you are”!

What a statement of great humiliation for Adam.  It is true that he and Eve were made of dust (2:7) but, he was not just dust, God had breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living being.  But he was not just any living being, for he (and Eve) alone, above all living creatures, were created with the glory and honor of being made in God’s image (1:26).  But then “he ate” and fell into sin along with the entire human race.  Now certainly the image of God remains in mankind, it is not completely lost; but, it is greatly marred and destroyed.  

And so God says to Adam, “You are dust”!!!! Those words must have cut deep into Adam’s soul.  Imagine the humiliation – once being in such an honorable position and now “You are dust”!  How humbling these words.  Why would these words be so grievous to Adam and yea even to us today?  For in this brief judgment of God is the fact that Adam’s God-likeness had become unrecognizable to God.  God no longer looked upon Adam and saw a perfect reflection of His image – He just saw dust!

Friends, this is where you are in God’s sight outside of Jesus Christ. You are dust! And to dust you will return.  The image of God in you is shattered and unrecognizable to God.  But, praise God, who is abundant in grace and mercy, He remembers that we are dust (Ps. 103:14).  He knows that dust cannot do anything to save itself.  Having fallen so low, as low as the dust is to the earth, we can praise God that He considers the estate of the lowly and in love lifts us up through Jesus Christ.  

And yes, tough we are dust, in Jesus Christ we are once again formed and fashioned into His likeness, bearing His image – both now in this life and most especially in the life to come  “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:2.  May Christ alone be glorified.