Ecclesiastes 3:16-22
FROM DUST TO DUST - "Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?" (Ecclesiastes 3:16-22).
One day we're all going to die! And when that day comes, what we believe regarding heaven and hell will be irrelevant because reality will have replaced theory and our impending judgment will commence.
Where we go when we die has been a topic of great interest to people for generations. Many religions speak of afterlife with varying degrees of requirements or works associated with them, while other schools of thought debunk the idea of immortality altogether, rejecting that heaven or hell is even real. Nevertheless, the most important thing we must consider is what the Bible clearly states so we would not be misguided or misinformed regarding what we believe as Christians.
In Ecclesiastes 3:16-22, Solomon paints an interesting correlation between man and beast, declaring that both share the same inevitable fate because all will return to the dust of the earth from which they were formed. However, as Christians, we believe our soul differentiates us from all created things and allows us the opportunity to cross over from mortality to immortality, that is if we choose to accept the terms and conditions ordained by God in His Word for our salvation. In other words, we must accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to be saved or suffer the consequences of hell for our unbelief.
It is not a complicated equation if we think about it. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Therefore, our response is based on one of two choices. "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved" (Romans 10:9-10). Moreover, failing to choose is the same as choosing not to accept Christ’s free gift of salvation, so none are without excuse on judgment day.
Those who confess their sins and accept Christ as Lord and Savior are assured salvation when they die. Those who reject Him are judged for their pride and unbelief and cast into eternal hell. Unfortunately, the Bible does not offer a grey option, only black and white. For works cannot save us, other religions do not provide equal and alternative routes to heaven, and fantastical theories such as reincarnation and purgatory do not offer second chances, intermediary cleansing, or purification before entering heaven.
The Bible is clear: ONE WAY, ONE TRUTH, ONE LIFE. Thus, our spiritual fork in the road requires a conscious decision and indifference is not an option we’re allowed to choose without consequences.
“I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes – that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens – that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence – the fall of leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche. He who believes in God must believe this truth. There is no standing point between this and Atheism. There is no halfway between an Almighty God, who works all things according to the good pleasure of His will, and no God at all!”
For Solomon, the reality of where our souls reside when we die was perplexing. Jesus had not come to earth yet to fulfill His mission of salvation, so Solomon would have been understandably skeptical and confused about afterlife. All he knew was what he had been taught his whole life that adherence to the law saves.
However, fast-forward 2,000-years and we know that by accepting Jesus' sacrifice on the cross of Calvary for the forgiveness of sins, we are assured salvation and eternal fellowship with God forevermore. Solomon did not necessarily have that reassurance, though. All he knew was that entrance into heaven one day was based on good works and religious piety which required strict obedience.
Today, many people struggle believing that faith in Christ alone will gain us entrance into heaven when we die. Rather, they believe (as Solomon did) that works are required. Their rationale is based on logic because the Gospel message seems too good to be true, but they miss the fact that we’ll never be good enough to earn our way to heaven.
Heart change must occur first which requires we repent of our sins and turn from our wicked ways. That is why a prayer of salvation is not a repeat-after-me exercise to appease God and check a legalistic box, but an assurance that we have counted the cost and chosen to follow Jesus knowing full well that good works are the result of our salvation.
“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:27–28).
If we could just pray a magic prayer and be guaranteed eternity in heaven with no strings attached, we’d live however we wanted without a care in the world for what Scripture teaches. No, God expects we obey His Word which details how we’re to live for His glory and not our own.
Sometimes, we confuse the Gospel message and misinterpret God’s love as unconditional even though it is conditionally based on our acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior. We cannot lose sight that while grace is a free gift, it came at an immeasurable price because God sacrificed His own Son to pay our eternal ransom and set us free.
"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’" (Matthew 7:21-23).
James 2:14-26 also teaches that works do not save us but clarifies that works are the litmus test which prove heart change has genuinely taken place. However, that is not the undertone Solomon uses in Ecclesiastes 3:16-22 when he concludes, "We are all going to die, so what is the point?"
According to Solomon’s logic, works hold no eternal or spiritual significance so we can dismiss them as indifferent and meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Therefore, whether righteous or wicked, works are universally a byproduct of life for man and beast, not a precursor for what awaits us in the afterlife.
The reality is that works do play a critical role determining where we’re ultimately headed when we die, but only in the sense that they signal what is going on inside our hearts. Keep in mind, God is continually testing our devotion to His Word amid social pressure for us to be culturally relevant and slack in our moral character.
He wants to see how committed we are to our faith doctrine despite whatever persecution we face. For if we have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we can anticipate He will discipline and correct our behavior. Therefore, we must remain committed to the straight and narrow path of righteousness by allowing the Holy Spirit free reign to sanctify our hearts from the inside-out.
"For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons" (Hebrews 12:6-8).
As born-again Christians, our response to the vanity Solomon conveys is to immediately reconcile our salvation decision. Scripture states, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Therefore, we have no excuse which holds any value whatsoever to justify prolonging a decision.
God is painstakingly clear, but we must see the big picture in play and determine to reconcile once and for all where we’re headed eternally. Again, good works cannot save us in any way because to believe such false doctrine reduces the unquenchable sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf. It assumes His death, burial, and resurrection were not enough to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, so we must somehow pay our fair share because we’re unwilling to accept charity.
Sadly, nothing but pride could convince us that the blood of Christ is not enough to wash away our sins. However, far too many Christians embrace that relative truth, hoping their good outweighs the bad on judgment day because they’ve allowed false doctrine to taint their understanding of salvation from a Biblical perspective.
“A sinner does not “decide” for Christ; the sinner “flies” to Christ in utter helplessness and despair saying – Foul, I to the fountain fly, Wash me, Savior, or I die. No man truly comes to Christ unless he flies to Him as his only refuge and hope, his only way of escape from the accusations of conscience and the condemnation of God’s holy law. Nothing else is satisfactory. If a man says that having thought about the matter and having considered all sides he has on the whole decided for Christ, and if he has done so without any emotion or feeling, I cannot regard him as a man who has been regenerated. The convicted sinner no more “decides” for Christ than the poor drowning man “decides” to take hold of that rope that is thrown to him and suddenly provides him with the only means of escape. The term is entirely inappropriate.”
The incomprehensible truth of the matter is that Jesus had to be brutally crucified like a convicted criminal to completely atone for the sins of humanity (past, present, and future). God’s wrath demanded it. "But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
That is why the cross of Calvary is our reminder that Jesus is the bridge which connects God’s justice and His love for all eternity. Granted, Solomon did not have the benefit of knowing what we do today, but we can be assured that if he did he would have not delayed in making the wise choice to reconcile his eternal future immediately.
"If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts" (Psalm 7:12-13).
The question we must reconcile is whether we have bought into the ideology that being a decent person, attending church every Sunday, or hoping our good outweighs the bad on judgment day has become our personal theology. If it has, the Lord will righteously declare, "Depart from me, I never knew you" (Matthew 7:23). Therefore, we cannot bank our eternity on wishful thinking and blind hope when God’s plan of salvation has been clearly revealed. The absolute truth of Scripture articulates what is at stake and how we can reconcile our hearts to the Father, but we must choose to embrace it as our moral compass.
“So, then, God has a sword, and He will punish man on account of his sins. This evil generation has labored to take away from God the sword of His justice; they have endeavored to prove to themselves that God will “clear the guilty,” and will by no means “punish evil, disobedience, and sin.” But the cry of the age is, that God is merciful, that God is love. Yes, who said He wasn’t? But remember it is equally true, God is just, severely and inflexibly just! He would not be God, if He were not just; He could not be merciful if He were not just, for punishment of the wicked is demanded by the highest mercy to the rest of mankind.”
Charles Spurgeon spoke those words to his church congregation on December 7, 1856, yet his words could not be more appropriate to our present day as well. The reality that to dust we will return one day must compel us to reconcile once and for all what we believe about eternity.
Consequently, do we know where we’re headed? Have we placed faith in Jesus Christ or are we skeptical that heaven and hell even exists? Regardless of where we stand, Scripture is painstaking clear that our day or judgment awaits and only the blood of Jesus is powerful enough to reconcile our hearts to God and enter His presence for eternity. No good works will ever make us worthy of salvation. They merely prove to whom we belong in thankfulness for what He has done to save us.
"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation" (Romans 5:6-11).
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on March 25, 2016 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
