Yesterday, I posted about burial and cremation and suggested that I think burial gives a better testimony to belief in the resurrection.
This topic brings out many different ideas and opinions.
One of my friends asked about the verse relating to our returning to dust. This is worth exploring a bit.
"For dust you are and to dust you will return." Genesis 3:19
Taken at face value, this verse would seem to indicate that since we are destined for dust, what difference does it make if we get there through years of decomposition or quickly through cremation?
What is this verse teaching and what does it mean for us?
Let's go back to Genesis and see what's up. This will be well worth our time.
Back in Genesis 2, we read this:
"Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Genesis 2:7
Notice in this imagery, God gives (breathes into) humanity the breath of life.
Apart from God's life in us, we are just dust.
This wonderful gift of life is God's work, according to Genesis.
Adam is, of course, given one prohibition and warned about the result:
"...but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:17
Remember, all he is is dust with God's life breathed into.
This life was to be an eternal life - no death. This is important.
Adam and Eve - the first and typical humans - do indeed sin, as we know.
Now, our verse again.
"By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.” Genesis 2:19
Don't miss this:
This statement about returning to the dust is part of the curse.
Returning to the dust is not a good thing!
It's the result of sin.
Sin leads to death and death is not good.
This is not the 'cycle of life.' It is rather the cycle of sin and death.
We should be mourning the fact that we return to the dust.
The good news is that in Jesus the power of death has been broken and undone.
When Christians die, our feeling about them shouldn't be, 'well they are returning to dust as they should be'
Our feeling should be, they will rise again.
Not, well, their soul is in heaven, that's what really matters.
That is NOT NOT NOT the biblical hope.
Remember, we were created by God to be a physical body with the breath of life in us. Body and soul. Together.
When we die not and are in God's presence in some meaningful way, things are still NOT as they should be. We are waiting for the wholeness of all God has promised to be restored. Or rather resurrected.
Daniel saw this:
"Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." Daniel 12:2
Here is some of what the New Testament says about our bodies.
"We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:51-54
(Read the rest of the chapter 2 for some many riches about Adam, Jesus and the resurrection.)
"Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17
To summarize: As Christians, when we die, our thought should not be, 'well our bodies are just returning to dust where we belong.'
We should be thinking, we won't stay here. These bodies are going to be resurrected, changed, transformed. That's what the Bible says.
I believe that burial most testifies to this reality.
The bible doesn't say that we should deal with our physical remains in a particular way and I'm not going to argue that you need to do one thing or the other.
But I will fight for the reality that physicality matters. The body matters. It's not just a shell for your soul. Our bodies are a core part of who we are.
And our bodies will we resurrected, not discarded.
Theology is important. And ours has not always been very biblical.
If you are having trouble reading this on my blog, go to the link below-STEVE
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