Man is made from dust. And what binds the lifeless, shapeless, functionless form of dust into the subsequent vessel of glory and higher function that is “the masterpiece of man” is nothing less than “the God particle”. For until God Himself reaches down upon bended knee, to infuse that which is the dust lying prostrate before Him with His very own breath in its very own nostrils, it will remain as is, prostrate and lifeless, as mere dust, indefinitely and for all perpetuity.

     When the LORD instructed the disciples to shake the dust off when they went two-by-two into the world, He was effectively telling them to wash their hands off of all those who would hinder the expansion of the kingdom of God and the furtherance of the great commission of the gospel. He was exhorting the disciples to WALK AWAY, being representative of having a clear conscience. Just like dust clings to everything in the natural, Jesus was saying that in the kingdom of God, there may be no hitch hikers, that unless they were transformed from the fallen nature of dust into the elevated likeness of the divine nature, they may not hitch a ride upon the feet of His messengers into the kingdom of God.

     In the same way, we are to shake off our own dust too. When we shake the dust off ourselves, it is representative of shaking off those dust particles of ourselves that have refused to bind with the God particle that is the Spirit that gives honour and life to all that is mere dust. We have to forcibly shake those parts of ourselves off as the fallen nature of dust that refuses to glorify God by rejecting God’s truth. We have to shake off those parts of ourselves from clinging to us, being representative of the process of circumcising our own hearts, of all that will not glorify God, just like we shake off all the dust that clings to a living room rug. Just as dust clings to the surface of everything, we are to let those parts of ourselves that remain dust go, that they may fall to the ground from whence they came. We release those parts of the flesh that refuse to be transformed into the likeness of the divine nature (gold) and the image of He who is the master Potter (silver).

“Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean” (John‬ ‭13:10‬). Although the dust that is man has been raised to life by the breath of God Himself, and cleansed by baptism into righteousness, until this earth is glorified into the new earth, through the feet of a man, man remains in contact with the uncleanness of the world. The disciple of God needs to wash his feet to remove the dust of the world and the dust of his fallen nature from himself. Our moral life needs to be constantly changed and cleansed from all that which would pollute it. And it is ONLY Christ who can cleanse the dust of man from the contamination of the fallen nature and the pollution of the fallen world. Which is why He insisted that if Peter did not let Him wash His feet, that Peter would have no part of Him. 

"No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me." (John 13:8). The lesson is that all of us, from the Apostles downwards, need the daily renewing of the grace of God. And that none of us should find in failure, or even in the evil which clings to our daily path, reason for questioning the reality of the supernatural change which has made us all, instead of simply dust, the righteous child of God instead.

     The dust that becomes the divine nature that is clay, by which man is wholly raised up from a once empty and dry husk into a glory-bearing vessel of honour hosting the refreshing rivers of living water, only becomes a being that carries life and love when it is mixed with the water of the Holy Spirit. For it is only when man shakes off all that which remains stubbornly as dust, that man then stands up as the masterpiece of His creation. 

For those who reject the cornerstone, it is for those who God reserves the fate of “from dust to dust”. 

But for those who are His, we have this assurance, that THEY WILL NEVER RETURN TO DUST!!