“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7
The Scriptures tell us that, when God created man, He formed man’s body of the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
While few would question today that our bodies are made of dust – the very elements found in the ground – there are many who are unwilling to believe the second part of this passage: namely, that life was given to man’s earthly body by the breath of God and that, as a result, man became a living soul.
The naturalists and evolutionists of our day have come up with explanations (though unfeasible to the sensible) for the physical formation of organisms, but they have no answer as to the original source of life. How is it that a certain combination of physical elements became a living being?
Those who believe the Bible know that the physical elements which make up our bodies are God’s creation and that the formation of our bodies is God’s design. But we also know that life (both physical and spiritual) was given by none other than God Himself! “In Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28; cf. John 1:1-4).
When the Prophet Daniel was brought in before King Belshazzar to interpret the writing of the fingers upon the wall (Daniel 5), he told the foolish king that he had lifted himself up against the Lord of heaven and not glorified “the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways” (v. 23).
Not only did the LORD God breathe into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, He formed us in our mothers’ wombs and gave us life, and He holds that very life in His hand, as we read in Psalm 139:13-16: “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.”
What a great difference there is between the teaching of the Bible and the doctrines of evolution and meaningless fate! The LORD God who created the heavens and the earth specifically formed and created our bodies and breathed into us the breath of life. He holds our very lives in His hand. When He gives the breath of life, we live. When He takes the breath of life from us, we die and our bodies return to dust (cf. Eccl. 3:18-22).
Were it not for man’s sin and disobedience to the LORD God, the breath of life would not be taken from us; but, because of the sin which corrupts our hearts and minds and keeps us from wholly loving, honoring and walking in harmony with the God who made us, He takes His breath from us and our bodies return to dust.
Yet, in His love and mercy toward us in Christ Jesus, He has provided a way for us to live together with Him in righteousness and true holiness forever. He sent His only-begotten Son into the world a true man (with a body made of dust like ours). Jesus Christ, God the Son in human flesh, fulfilled with perfect obedience the righteous demands of God’s holy commandments; and He took the guilt and punishment of our sins upon Himself, suffering and dying upon the cross, and being condemned and forsaken of God the Father in heaven because of our sin and the sins of all in the world. And Jesus, though He yielded up His breath and spirit unto God upon the cross, was raised to life again on the third day that He might give us life through faith in His name – everlasting life with Him in heaven!
Though the day will soon come – unless Christ first returns – when God removes from us the breath of life, and your body and my body return to the dust from which they were taken, Jesus Christ paid for your sins and mine – indeed for the sins of the whole world – and God offers and extends to you, to me and to all people a full and complete pardon and a life which will never end through faith in the Son and His sacrifice on the cross for the sins of all.
The Bible tells us that “Jesus Christ the righteous … is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1, 2). It tells us: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Through faith in Christ Jesus, we live. And, though our bodies may die and return to the dust, they will be raised up again on the Last Day from the dust of the ground, and God will again give us life – life without end!
Dear Father in heaven, thank You for forming me of the dust and giving me the breath of life that I might learn of You and the glorious salvation You have provided for me through the innocent sufferings and death of Your Son, Christ Jesus, my Savior. Create and sustain in my heart faith in You and Your mercy, and grant me the gift of life eternal through faith in Christ Jesus. In His name, I pray. Amen.
[Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Bible.]