Bodies from Dust, Spirits from God
- Michael E.B. Maher
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Our bodies come from Adam
Genesis 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 being.”
We have seen thus far that mankind is made up of two primary parts, i.e. an outward man and an inward man. As already mentioned, our outward man is our physical body. And so in this section we want to discuss how God creates the body of man, i.e. where our bodies come from. In the book of Genesis quoted above we have the account of God’s creation of the first man, Adam. In this passage we can see that the spirit of man came from the breath or word of God, but we see that God made Adam’s body from the dust of the earth. In other words, God used the existing material that He had already created, i.e. the dust of the earth, to form (create) the body of man.
1 Corinthians 15:47-49 “The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. (48) As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. (49) And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”
God uses the same material to form our bodies today that He used when He formed Adam’s body, i.e. from the dust of the earth, for the above quoted passage of scripture teaches us that our bodies are still made of dust. When God forms our bodies today however, He doesn’t go to the earth and form a new body for us. He uses the sperm and egg that we have inherited from our parents, which they in turn inherited from their parents all the way back to Adam. And so we can see that man’s body comes from Adam.
Acts 17:26 “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit reveals to us that from the blood of Adam, God has made the bodies of every person that has ever been born into the earth, and God will continue to do so until the end of the age. And so we have clearly established in this section that our bodies are inherited from the original body of Adam.
Our spirits come from God
Revelation 4:9-11 “Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, (10) the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: (11) "You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”
We have seen thus far that man is a spirit being and that he lives in a physical body. So where does the spirit of man come from? There is only one creator, which is God. The Holy Spirit makes that truth very plain to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, when He tells us that all things are created by God. Even angels, who are extremely powerful beings, and have been given power over God’s creation, nevertheless have no ability to create, for they are themselves beings that have been created by God. And so we see that other than God, there is no one else that has the ability to create. Therefore because God is the creator of all things, we see that the spirits of men are also created by God and come directly from Him.
Hebrews 12:9 “Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul tells us that God is the Father of spirits. The spirits that the Holy Spirit is referring to in this passage are the spirits of men. And so we can see from this passage that not only is God the creator of man’s spirit, but because He is also the Father of man’s spirit, it is entirely scriptural to say that man’s spirit is born of God.
Numbers 27:15-18 “Then Moses spoke to the Lord, saying: (16) "Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, (17) who may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep which have no shepherd." (18) And the Lord said to Moses: "Take Joshua the son of Nun with you, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit through the prophet Moses tells us that God is the God of the spirits of all flesh. The reason that God is the God of the spirits of all flesh is because the spirits of all flesh come from God, for as we have already seen, without the spirit no flesh could live. And so we see in this passage that Moses is confirming the same truth to us that the writer of the book of Hebrews did, i.e. that the spirit of man comes from God.
Ecclesiastes 12:5-7 “For man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets. (6) Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well. (7) Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit describes what happens to man when he dies physically. He tells us that the dust will return to the earth, referring to our physical bodies decaying and becoming the dust that it was made from. But the Holy Spirit goes on in this passage to tell us that the spirit will return to God who gave it. That does not mean that everyone who dies goes to be with God, for we have already seen that only believers go to be with the Lord. But rather, what the scripture is saying is that God decides where the spirit goes after death. But the point that I wanted to make from this passage is that man’s spirit comes from God, for the scripture says that God gave the spirit. And so we can see from the passages of scripture that we have mentioned in this section, that it is clearly evident that God is the creator of the spirit of man.
Michael E.B. Maher
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