By Faith You Can Be Dirt And Not Be Dirty

“For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

(Ephesians 2:8–9).

You can be dirt without being dirty! You can be humble without being humiliated. You can be down without being out. You can be low, and yet be exalted. Now that I have your attention, let’s GO!

In The Beginning

Do you realize that God formed your original ancestor, Adam, from dirt? I know, you read that God formed him from the dust of the earth. You get the point, though, right? The most powerful, handsome, stately, and intelligent man ever created was made from dirt! But, it was dirt in the hands of God with divine breath that made Adam a living soul.

He was perfect. His wife, whom God made especially for him, and the mother of all living, was also perfect. She was the standard to which all women would aspire. Created from the dirt, our foreparents were not dirty; when Adam and Eve first stood up in the hands of the Creator they were untarnished, the image of perfection. The moment God finished creating them both He saw Himself in them and said, “it was very good” (Genesis 1:31 NKJV).

Of course, you can see in your own life, never mind the lives of others, that something went wrong. We all have made choices that continually tarnish our characters, but God still loves us! He makes provision to transform us and make us holy despite the challenges.

Mud that Mends

The Bible tells us the story of a man who was born blind. He lived during the time of Christ. To make a long but incredible story short, the Lord used that man’s experience to bring God glory. Without any hesitation Christ picked up some dirt mixed it with his spit and anointed the man’s eyes. Dirt? Spit? Yes! Jesus used the basic element, from which he made humanity, and healed the man. Jesus used dirt, but not to make the man dirty, to the man whole. Christ showed us how mud can mend when the ingredients are in the Masters hands.

Saved From the Inside Out

Consider our sin predicament for a moment. We are helpless and hopeless without God. Without Him, our lusts and worldly habits will take us right to the bottom of the ocean of sin and drown us. But, God gives us eternal life as a gift. In the process, He strips our mindsets of the pride that puts self and all of our wonderful so-called accomplishments first. Christ promises that when we humble ourselves understanding we are nothing more than dirty with the breath of God inside of us that this mindset is what allows God to exalt us.

Dirt cannot be boastful; after all, it’s dirt. It’s when we cherish pride instead of the blessed gift of salvation through Christ alone that we become dirty. Dirt, the essence of our being, is not what will keep us out of Heaven. It’s the dirtiness sin that will do that. But by faith you can be dirt without being dirty! You can be humble without being humiliated. You can be down without being out. You can be low, and yet be exalted. “It is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” When we accept the gift of Jesus Christ, His life, death, and resurrection, by faith, we welcome Him into our lives to transform our dirty vessels into clean vessels made from dirt.

By God’s grace, this is the faith I live by. I pray the same for you, in Jesus’ name.