Sober Words
Sober Words
Coming Face to Face With Dust
For you are dust and to dust you shall return. Genesis 3:19
There are few things more sobering than to stand face to face with someone and hear them declare the words of Genesis 3:19 over you. In our Ash Wednesday service last night, I had the pastoral privilege of locking eyes with several people and saying “for you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
Like saying “you’re going down” or “there’s no way you’re getting out of here alive,” Genesis 3:19 is a curse verse. These words serve as reminder that in our sin and rebellion against a Father who desired us to enjoy life forever with him in paradise, we got what we wanted. Instead of life with God, we chose death without God.
What do those words do in us when we hear them spoken? For some of us, we might delay them in our hearts. Think to ourselves, life is too short so let’s make the most of the little time we have! For others of us, we might believe them to be the end of the story. Feel a sense of impending doom that around any corner, at any moment, death may be lurking and live in the horror movie of “when’s the shoe or the ax going to drop?”
This curse is real to every human story. Real that no one does indeed make it out of this earth alive. But this curse is not the end to every human story. God doesn’t delight in doling out words of curse. It grieves his Creator heart that any person would perish. When he asks “where are you?” in the garden, He knows Adam and Eve are hiding. He asks so they know He’s a God who seeks us out and pursues after us with His love.
That’s why the words of Mark 1:15 which we also spoke over people last night at our service are so necessary to hear: repent and believe the gospel! The gospel is the good news that Genesis 3:19 does not need be the end of the human story. The good news that there is a Father who was pleased to send His Son to become the curse so that we could once again have the blessing. Repentance is nodding a head to Genesis 3:19 and turning a heart to John 3:16 - that God loved the world, gave his Son, so we didn’t have to die but instead could live forever.
Lord, help us during this season of Lent to put off the old clothing, the old sentence, the cursed man by putting our curse onto Jesus. And help us too to put on the new man, the eternal man, the one who brings us into life eternal through His resurrection. May the words of Genesis 3:19 lead us to the hope and reversal found in John 3:16. Amen.
Thoughts for reflection:
What evidences do you see in your life and the world around you of Genesis 3:19?
How might you avoid the reality of Genesis 3:19 in your day to day life?
Why do we need both Genesis 3:19 and John 3:16 in our life of faith?