The evolution of Adam - The dust of the ground

Last week we looked at how Jesus Christ could act in the role of the Redeemer and how he gained power over death through inheritance.

Having a mortal mother, but an immortal Father meant he inherited characteristics from both of those realms and was able to exercise power in both and between both of these realms.

He clearly states in John 10:

17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

On this basis it is then profitable to look at the way in which The Christ's body is referred to first, in its mortal state, and then in its resurrected state because there are interesting scriptural phrases that are utilized that are similarly used when making reference to the body of Adam.

But first lets start off with Adam being formed of the dust.

Most would be familiar with the statement that Adam was made from the dust of the ground from:

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.

Based on this some conjure up mental images of God molding clay into man and animals.

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But yet, If we read later scriptures we find that all people and animals are considered to be formed from dust:

Palms 103:14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

Palms 104:29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

Ecclesiastes 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

It is very clear from these verses that not only Adam is considered to be formed of the dust of the ground but that all people and animals were too. It is clear that the biblical authors considered that upon death all returns to dust, which is the same dust from which it was made.

In more modern terminology we would simply say that the human body if formed or comprised of atoms and molecules that are common to all life and the earth as a whole.

The fact that we are born of a mother and that we now know our physical body is assembled from physical elements via biological processes make our birth and bodies no less miraculous and wonderful.

What sets us apart from the rocks, which are made from these same elements, is the breath of life... as Ecclesiastes states:

the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth

It is this spirit or breath of life that animates our physical bodies and connects us to the divine.

Without this spirit we are no different from the dust of the earth... as becomes very clear when we die and our bodies decompose and decay to be recycled into the circle of life.