DUST IN HEAVEN

Dust in Heaven

Dusting (also known as rearranging dust!) is an endless chore, for apparently the dust in our houses is mostly dead skin that has flaked-off us. Will there be any dust in Heaven? We might as well ask if there will be people in Heaven, for the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground. (Gen. 2:7; 3:19)

‘Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature [lit. soul], that was its name.’ Genesis 2:19. The word ‘soul’ has to do with breathing. The word ‘animal’ is from the Latin anima meaning breath, soul, or life. Man and animal share the dust of the ground and breathe the same air. Thus both are living souls. It is God who animates.

Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit David the Psalmist says of the LORD, ‘For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.’ Psalm 103:14. The same psalm begins and ends with David saying, ‘Bless the LORD, O my soul.’  Man is able to bless or praise the LORD because, unlike the animals, the LORD God created man in His own image. (Gen. 1:27) Man is a soul-spirit with a body. (1 Thess. 5:23)

Were the Creator-God to clothe Himself with the dust of the ground He would look like man. This He did when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14) But as the two natures of Christ are eternally distinct, so the soul of man must not be confused with some aspect of God. The soul is not a divine spark. The Creator creature distinction remains forever. God is God, man is man, and animal is animal. (Gen. 1:25)

Both man and animal were affected by Adam’s sin because God cursed the ground from whence they come. (Gen. 3:17) Men began to behave more like animals than the Creator. (Rom. 1:23; 2 Pet. 2:12) And so, like animals, man returns to the dust. ‘I said in my heart, “Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals. For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?’” Ecclesiastes 3:18-21. Speaking of man, the writer of Ecclesiastes goes on to say, ‘Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.’ Ecclesiastes 12:7. So how can there be dust in Heaven if it keeps on settling on earth when we die? Well, there is dust in Heaven because of the resurrection. First by Christ’s resurrection, then the collective resurrection of the people He has redeemed.

Christ rose bodily from the tomb and ascended bodily into Heaven. Therefore the dust of this earth has entered Heaven in the Person of Jesus Christ! By His death on the cross He has redeemed God’s creation from its curse. However the full consummation of Christ’s redemptive work comes with His return to earth. Then this earth will be renewed. (Rev. 21:1&2) But just as Christ rose with the same body with which He died, so will His people rise with their same bodies – but without the effects of sin. So also the earth (from which we are hewn) will be renewed as it is incorporated into Heaven.

The dust of the earth is everlastingly held together in Jesus Christ. For ‘He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation … And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.’ Colossians 1:15&17.