The Dust Returning To The Earth, And The Spirit To God

Adapted From A Sermon By

Philip Doddridge

And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

(Ecclesiastes 12:7 ESV)

In this sermon, adapted from the faithful ministry of the eighteenth-century Nonconformist divine Philip Doddridge, we hear again the searching words of Ecclesiastes 12:7: “And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it..” Doddridge preached these truths at the funeral of one of his own flock—a godly brother whose life bore quiet, steady testimony to the grace of Christ alone.

With that brother’s departure still fresh, Doddridge sets before his hearers the brevity of the body and the eternity of the soul, always pointing away from man’s merit to the sovereign mercy of God in Christ. Though the language is earnest and weighty, we do not receive it as the invention of man, but as a faithful echo of Scripture itself, calling us to look to Christ alone.

This morning, let us listen to Doddridge as he spoke plainly to his larger flock—without softening the edge of his warning—trusting that the same Spirit who used these words then may yet use them now to awaken, to humble, and to draw poor sinners to the only Saviour. May we hear with open hearts, and may the glory be God’s alone.

Solomon, the greatest of princes and the wisest of men, pursued here a purpose at once the most important and the most difficult that can be imagined. He was deeply concerned to impress true religion upon a thoughtless world and to teach men this truth as the final conclusion of the whole matter, as the result of all his observations and all his experiences—varied and favorable though they were—to fear God and keep his commandments, which is indeed the whole duty of man, his entire obligation and his complete interest. He was especially eager to impress this truth upon young people, for whom it was, in certain respects, particularly difficult and particularly essential to learn.

Consider now the methods he uses for this purpose. He leads them, as it were, into the very situation into which we have lately been brought, to the very edge of the grave, and points out to them the end of all living. After describing with great eloquence the weaknesses of old age, he warns them also of the possibility that, before those weaknesses reach them, the complex structure of the human body might suffer a fatal breakdown. Then, in the text before us, he declares the solemn consequence of this event with regard to both parts of our nature, our mortal bodies and our immortal souls. He states that then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

Surely if this reality does not move the hearts of men, if this truth does not turn them away from the pursuit of emptiness even while youthful energy flows through their veins and all the deceptive promises of this uncertain life appear in their most attractive forms, then nothing will succeed in doing so. If men insist on chasing the pleasures of the body, which must so soon decay into dust, and if they ignore the welfare of an undying spirit that must shortly return to God its Creator, there remains no hope that Solomon—or One greater than Solomon, the Lord Jesus Christ himself—can present more serious prospects to the mind or urge a consideration of greater importance than the certainty that the body must soon be laid aside and the disembodied spirit must go to receive from God its final judgment.

If this truth does not compel us to flee for refuge and to seize the hope set before us, if it does not instruct us to pursue true riches when we are so soon to be stripped of all earthly possessions, and indeed if it does not awaken within us an intense longing to be found clothed in his righteousness and washed by his blood so that we may stand before God with confidence, then men must be left to spend their days in futility until, in a single moment, they descend into the grave—until the record of their folly is written in the dust and the sight of the divine tribunal reveals to them the overwhelming terrors they refuse to accept now, to all who have neglected proper preparation for that hour.

But we will hope for better things than these: we will hope that, by the blessing of God upon this solemn picture, you will be wise, that you will understand this truth, that you will consider your latter end. May divine grace bring about this blessed result! Teach us, O Lord, to know our end, and the measure of our days, what it is, that we may know how frail we are! So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.

Philip Doddridge preached these words with the most heartfelt desire to promote the true happiness of his hearers for time and eternity, and hoping to be an instrument in the hand of God to lead them into the only way of finding mercy from the Lord in that day. Let us therefore give ear to him in this sermon, that his words may assist our own meditations on these two solemn and evident consequences of death: the return of the body to the dust, and the return of the soul to God who gave it; and then we will close some practical application of both.

I. Let us for a little while examine the return of the body to the dust: And the dust returns to the earth as it was.

This reminds us of the origin of this physical part of our nature; that it was formed from the dust. All the strength and all the beauty of human nature are but a certain modification of animated dust: that man in his best estate might be kept humble, God constructed the noble frame of his body from these weak and lowly materials; according to the sacred historian, "Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground:"{Genesis 2:7} but a spirit of nobler origin awakened this physical form into life, sensation, and action:

God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and so he became a living soul; and had man continued in that state of innocence and holiness in which he was created, he would, notwithstanding the lowly origin of his physical part, have been immortal as the angels, immortal as the saints will be when inhabiting that glorious body into which this dwelling of clay will be refined and transformed.

But sin, having entered into our world, brought death in its train; and this is one grievous consequence of death, not only that the soul must be separated from the body, but that the body must decay into its original dust. Such is the force of that sentence pronounced on the very day of the first fatal apostasy, "You are dust, and to dust you shall return."{Genesis 3:19} It is a solemn and a humbling decree, but it is a wise decree. Let us for a few moments consider it in each of these aspects.

It is a solemn and humbling decree that the dust should return to the earth, that all its strength and all its beauty should decay and consumed. The prophet says all the goodliness of the flesh is as the flower of the field. It is like that flower in its frailty. Yet it is unlike the flower in another way. The flowers of the field often give off a pleasant scent even in decay, and their last remains still appeal to the senses. But the fairest human flower passes through awful decay as it returns to its original dust. It becomes unbearable to those who once admired it most fondly. It forces even the most affectionate surviving relatives to speak the words of Abraham about the once beautiful Sarah, who in the decline of life had captivated princes: "Bury my dead out of my sight."{Genesis 23:4}

In this way God displays his righteous indignation against sin. What could be more solemn than that? He pursues even the dead corpse of the offender, as it were, and executes judgment upon it. This serves as an emblem of the more dreadful judgment that would pursue the soul in a future and invisible state for this treason against the King of heaven—if infinite mercy did not interpose to rescue it. Oh, who would be proud of that form which must so soon become repulsive and intolerable? Or who would indulge that flesh which must so soon be covered by earth and devoured by worms?

And, to conclude this point, the wisdom of this decree becomes even clearer. Through it God at once displays all the wonders of his power, his faithfulness, and his mercy. He raises the body from the dust to which it has been reduced. He recovers it from the many new forms it has taken. He brings bone to its bone and muscle to its muscle. He changes dust and rottenness into a form of glory that surpasses even the brightness of the sun. This happens on the day when God will say to his church, "Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead."{Isaiah 26:19}

Then, if we are true Christians, the power and grace of Christ will be shown clearly. He will change these lowly bodies so that they become like his own glorious body.{Philippians 3:21} From this perspective the breaking down and humiliation of the grave become a cause for triumph rather than horror. The Christian may say, though in a very different sense from the original meaning of the words, gladly will I glory in my infirmity, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. But enough—perhaps more than enough—about the dissolution of the body in the grave. Let us now,

II. Trace the soul in its flight. Let us contemplate for a while that important subject, the return of the soul to God who gave it. Two thoughts are indeed suggested. God gave the soul, and at death it is to return to him.

1. We are reminded that God gave our souls. They are of divine origin. They were so, as we have already heard: In the first formation of human nature God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul. The same is true for every particular son and daughter of Adam. Therefore God is spoken of as [forming the spirit of man within him.]{Zechariah 12:1}

Consider him as the one who formed your spirits. He created them and sent them into these bodies, which they now inhabit, to stay in them for a few years. But can we say a few years more? No, perhaps they are just ready to be dislodged. Whether their stay is longer or shorter, he placed them in that home. He sent them into this world. He sent them, to be sure, on some important errand.

There was a reason for which, as our Lord says, we were born. There was a reason for which we came into the world. When we consider what these spirits of ours are, when we consider how much of the natural image of God they still bear even in this fallen state, and how much of his moral image they are capable of bearing, we must be sure that we were sent into existence for some great and important purpose. The errand is surely great. But oh, how little we consider it!

We were sent so that we might glorify God, so that we might do good, so that we might serve in our own generation God's great and gracious plan to make his creatures happy. Having talked with our heavenly Father on earth through the dear Redeemer—by whom alone in this fallen state we can come to know him—we might be found fit to live with God above, in the company of wise and holy, kind, devout, and happy spirits. See and remember the purpose for which God formed our spirits and placed them in these frail bodies. He is still waiting to see how these purposes will be fulfilled. But also, remember that we are further reminded,

2. That at death this spirit, this heaven-born spirit, is to return to God.

The spirit shall return to God who gave it. It shall return to be judged by him, to be examined, so that it may be sent to its long, its everlasting home in heaven or in hell. This is the clear but important truth that this statement suggests. It is a truth we all know. But because we are so likely to forget it, let us revisit it a little more.

Our spirits will return to God to be examined by him. He observes them now in all their actions, in all their secret workings, frames, and dispositions. This is a most serious thought. "O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up." {Psalm 139:1, 2} "The Lord's throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man." {Psalm 11:4} He is described as keeping a book of remembrance.

While some live in a careless way, while they pay no attention to their time, but let the days and months and years begin and end without notice or regard, their actions, their words, and even their thoughts are all observed and recorded amid this flood of emptiness. What an impartial and precise record of our lives! We might tremble even to read a single page of it! Yet it is already complete up to this moment.

The follies of our childhood, the sins of our youth, and the often more serious transgressions of our later years are all there. The books will be opened. So the wise man says in this very chapter, and he makes that his final word: God will bring every work into judgment, and every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Though the great judgment may still lie far in the future, you know perfectly well that the fate of every individual soul is decided at death—decided without change. Upon the spirit's return to God, it will be either approved or condemned. It will immediately receive its place among blessed or cursed spirits, among angels or devils, in the paradise of God or in an infernal prison.

Do you believe this? Do you believe it will certainly happen? And more than that, do you believe that you yourself will soon and surely have this meeting with the great Father of your spirit, and that you will be treated as an obedient child or as a rebellious one?

Lord, we believe; help our unbelief! Help our forgetfulness, our lack of thought. Teach us the practical, the saving use of this clear, undeniable, but forgotten truth. It is as certain as the body's return to dust. It is written in the dust of every past generation. Yet, sadly, it is too often like writing traced in dust—easily wiped away by any passing breath of air.

III. This is the third and final thing we must consider: the practical application of what we have heard. What is the use of hearing these things if they are not applied in practice? If the heart is not touched by them, what good was it to entertain the ear or the imagination? If this seems like an empty story, what can deserve serious attention? Let it teach us,

1. To realize this as our own certain fate and end. As Job, I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all the living. My body must return to dust. My soul must return to God who gave it.

Think of this as a certain and nearly approaching event. Is it not truly certain? Is there any real doubt about whether it is appointed for men once to die, and after death the judgment? Bring this truth home to yourselves. Look at this well-built body and say: Let the fairest, the most vigorous, the most temperate person—whose life might seem more secure than any strength could make it—say, "My body must return to dust. My parents, my children, my companions, my friends are in the grave. I will probably soon lie beside some of them, or at least lie as cold and as lifeless as they are.

Vain world, you are fading from my sight! I have very little more to do with you. My spirit, you must return to God. You must face him in a different way than you ever have before. He will not meet you as a mere man. The examination will not be shallow. It cannot be escaped by a little trickery or a few bold lies. No, O my soul! His eyes are as piercing as lightning and far more penetrating. They reach the deepest hidden places of the soul. Deception and fraud cannot survive before him. They will be detected, exposed, and punished.

O my soul! You have begun an existence that must end in heaven or in hell. Must end? No, it must continue there without end. Every week, every day, every hour, you are in danger of being called into this overwhelming presence. You were not created to be an unaccountable being. You know that human souls were made to be judged by God. If other human souls face this, then yours does too. O my soul! Who am I that I should be excused from what is so reasonable and so necessary—the common fate of all?"

Think of it with this personal application. It will likely impress your mind far more strongly than if you considered it only as a general fate for everyone. And then

2. Consider in what condition your spirits are for their return to God, by whom they may at any moment be reclaimed.

I would hope the best for those to whom I now speak said Doddridge to his congretation. But would it be wise kindness to assume that every soul in such an audience stands in the right condition for this solemn event? Sadly! What is this world in which we live? You know what Solomon thought of it when he wrote this book: "The hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead." {Ecclesiastes 9:3}

As soon as their spell of madness ends, they fall down and die. It is reasonable to think that for most of them, if they had lived longer, their madness would have gone on. Then, before they expected it, they would suddenly find themselves in the presence of God. They would become serious forever—but only when seriousness can bring nothing but endless despair and endless sorrow. Such sorrow and such despair that, next to being wiped out completely or sinking into eternal unconsciousness, a state of endless madness might even seem preferable. That way, rational thought would not torment them to the extreme degree it must when they look back and forward in that place.

Do I exaggerate this picture? Look around you, you who are wise and knowledgeable, you who know the world. Look around and see what many people are like, how they spend their time, and carry this thought with you: they will soon return to God. Some of us argue and fight about religion instead of living it. One judges his brother, another despises his brother, forgetting the judgment seat where both must appear. Some of us, perhaps, serve various desires and pleasures. We chase the path of physical enjoyments as if we had no spirit at all—as if we were only living bodies equipped with senses like the animals.

Others of us, who think ourselves wiser, make plans to grow rich and perhaps powerful in the world—as if we would never leave it, or as if God sent one generation only to pile up wealth for the next generation in their families.

Is this preparing for our return to God? Do these men truly believe they will return to their Creator? Do they believe they will return to a holy God while they ignore—or even mock—holiness? To a righteous God who will defend the honor of his broken law while they break that law every day? Do they believe they will return to a God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who sent him into the world to reconcile sinners to himself, while they keep ignoring and rejecting him and feel repelled by his very name?

Surely, if Solomon had seen this scene, he would have been as quick as ever to cry out about madness in the heart of man. Indeed, he would have felt it even more strongly when he saw that even the remedies offered by the great Physician—one far greater than Solomon—failed to bring them to the healthy use of their reason.

You all intend, at some point or another, to deal with these matters and to prepare your souls for your return to God. You will do it! ...But not now. There exists an aversion—horrible thought!—in our corrupt and depraved minds toward the great Father of our spirits. If we ever think of returning to him, it happens only under compulsion. We do not love him. We do not desire to commune with him. We act only because we fear his vengeance and the rod of his anger. We therefore see our return to him as something unpleasant, something to avoid if possible. We delay it as long as we can—until finally it never gets done. Then we are suddenly taken away in this miserable condition and state.

Oh, that we would really stop and seriously consider what it must be like for such souls to return to God. How can they stand before him? How can they escape? How can they bear his anger?

Do not make this your own case. Indeed, I fear for you says Doddridge. I fear that death may come upon you at an evil moment, while you waste time and continue sinning away the day of life and grace. Therefore, I would persuade and urge you to do what? To adopt this or that religious profession? As if an entire congregation of men would be saved or condemned based on whether they worshipped God in this place or in that? Blessed be God! We have not learned Christ in that way. No, I have something far greater and more important in mind!

Let me entreat and urge you, in the words of the inspired writer, since you will so soon return to God, to become acquainted with him and to be at peace.

How can this happen except through the Lord Jesus Christ? For he is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting our trespasses against us. {2 Corinthians 5:19} No man comes to the Father except by him. Therefore, make sure that since you will so soon go and appear before God, you secure the help of his Son. Let him take you under his protection, apply his blood to pardon your sins, and credit his righteousness to justify your souls in the Divine presence.

We testify nothing other than what Paul and his companions testified. Would to God that we might do it with the same power and success: repentance toward God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and bringing forth works that prove repentance.

Listen, and listen without delay. Do not assume that you are already safe. Do your hearts not trouble you? Why do you fear sudden death when the last day of life feels so painful, medicine so sickening, the deathbed so restless, the final farewell so sharp, the agonies so intense—yet you pray that you may not die suddenly? Why? Because deep down you know you are not ready. Remember that God may refuse that prayer. He may take you away in an instant, or he may leave you even on your deathbed, unable to make any further change.

Be entreated, then, to have pity on yourselves and on your precious but endangered—yet immortal—souls, today, while it is still called today. How happily the situation will then change! What security, what calm will follow! And this leads to this final thought,

3. Let those who, through Divine grace, are prepared, not feel reluctant to pass through this solemn event whenever God appoints it. What? Though part of this prospect remains inevitably unpleasant—what? Though the body naturally resists returning to dust—balance that against the glorious counterpart: The spirit shall return to God who gave it.

Oh, how comforting it is for the spirit of a good man! Having already returned to God through humble repentance and faith, how encouraging it is to think of returning to him in the other sense that our text describes. How it cheers the heart amid all the weaknesses of the body and the pains of death!

"I shall return to God. I shall go to that glorious Being—to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in him my God and Father. He is the guide of my youth and the comfort of my later years. Oh, how I will rejoice when I stand in his presence! I will rejoice to fall at his feet and say, Holy Father, I have come to you. Through your grace I have escaped from that world of confinement, darkness, temptation, guilt, and sorrow. Now I have come, at your call, to live with you forever—according to your gracious promises that I have trusted, according to the purpose of your grace in sending Christ into the world and in sending his gospel and grace into my heart to purify it and prepare it for yourself."

Do you feel the hope reviving? What is the short rest of the body in the grave, and its dissolution to dust, in the light of such a prospect?

I hope and believe, said Doddridge, that it was with these views our departed brother saw the gradual approach of death, and met it after so long a warning. I shall say nothing more of him than this, that I believe that all, who intimately knew him, can attest that his religion did not consist in mere notion or form; but that he was an upright as well as an inoffensive man; yet when I was with him in some of the last hours of his life, when reason in a great measure failed him, he recovered it so far as to declare, with his dying breath, that he saw nothing in himself to trust, but fixed his confidence in Christ alone.

There let us fix ours; and let us take care that we do nothing to disgrace that confidence, or dishonour him in whom we intrust it; and he will approve himself the faithful Shepherd of our souls, will extend his care to the last moments of our lives, until he takes the charge of our departing spirits to bring them to God, that they may be presented to him with acceptance, and fixed in that presence of his, where there is fulness of joy, even at his right hand, where there are pleasures for evermore.