Pastor Les Walthers
Grace Reformed Baptist Church
Rocky Mount, NC

"By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Genesis 3: 19 To be reminded that we are but mere dust is not very complimentary, but it is nevertheless a reality. There are those who prefer to think that we evolved from monkeys. I much prefer to believe the Biblical account of creation which says that man was created out of dust by God. But not only was man created out of dust, the Scriptures also teach with equal authority that man will return to dust. There is, however, more to man than mere dust. According to the account of creation, we read in Gen 2:7 "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." These words describe for us the spiritual aspect of man. Man has a never dying soul. That is an astounding fact to which apparently very few give any real serious thought.

It is apparent that many give much serious thought to their physical well being. No doubt it would be quite surprising to know how much money is spent on exercise equipment, health club memberships and so- called health products; not to mention the endless hours of time that is spent in achieving the "perfect body." A body which by the way one day will return to dust regardless of the effort made and the money spent. This is not to say that all efforts at having and maintaining a healthy body are wrong. To the contrary, the physical body which God has entrusted to us is a sacred trust and reasonable effort should be made to keep physically fit. In fact the Scriptures tells us, "For bodily exercise profiteth little......" So there is some benefit to be gained from the disciplines of physical exercise.

The rest of the verse gives us the right perspective, "For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." (I Timothy 4:8) The body will continue to exist for eternity, either in heaven or hell. But the body’s final destination is determined by the spiritual condition of the soul at the time of death. Someone has well said, "Where death overtakes you, it leaves you. Where death leaves you, judgement will find you. And where judgement finds you, it will leave you for all eternity." That being true, much more attention should be given to the eternal state of the soul than is given to the temporal welfare of the body.