“By faith
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he
obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it
he being dead yet speaketh.” -- Hebrews 11:4
Because he believed God Abel
brought the sacrifice God required of him, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ alone
for righteousness, redemption and acceptance with the holy Lord God. Paul’s
declaration of Abel’s faith in Christ arises from that which is recorded in
Genesis 4:1-10. Here the Holy Spirit tells us three things about Abel and his
faith. (1.) Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. (2.) He obtained
witness that he was righteous. And (3.) Though he is dead, he yet speaks.
A More
Excellent Sacrifice
First, we are told, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more
excellent sacrifice than Cain.” -- We must not presume, as many have, that
since Adam and Eve are not mentioned in this chapter as examples of faith they
must have been unbelievers. There are many men and women of true, saving faith
who are not mentioned in this chapter. It appears to me that this inspired list
of the great examples of faith begins with Abel because Abel was the first man
mentioned after the fall who exemplified true faith in the worship of God and
because he was the first person martyred because he believed God.
An Act of Faith
Abel’s sacrifice was
superior to Cain’s because Abel’s sacrifice was a sacrifice of faith looking to
Christ. He offered the kind of sacrifice God required and because he offered
his blood sacrifice upon the altar of God as an act of faith. Abel looked through his sacrifice to the
sacrifice of Christ. -- Cain, in his sacrifice, looked only to himself and his
works. Abel’s sacrifice was a lamb, a type of Christ, the Lamb of God. Abel
offered the Lord a firstling of the flock, a picture of Christ who is the
firstborn of every creature. He also offered the fat of the lamb, or one
of the fattest of his flock, which speaks of the excellence of Christ. His sacrifice
was offered up, “in the process of time”
(at the end of days), as Christ came “in
due time,” “when the fulness of time
was come,” in the end of the world, “to
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” The Lord God accepted Abel’s
sacrifice, “had respect” to it, and
rejected Cain’s sacrifice.
Abel’s sacrifice of faith was the response of his
heart to the Word of God. Faith in Christ
presupposes divine revelation. I said, we must not infer, because Adam is not
mentioned in this chapter, that he was an unbeliever. There are many reasons
for believing otherwise.
One reason is this: “Faith
cometh by
20
hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Abel learned the gospel from someone. He did
not come up with the idea of blood atonement by a whim of his mind. Abel
learned how to worship God from his father. The Word of God is always operative
in the conversion of sinners, in the worship of God, and in faith. Faith is the
response of the heart to the Word of God (Rom. 1:15-17; 1 Cor. 1:21-23; Heb.
4:12; James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23-25).
The Lord God revealed four specific things to
Adam and Eve in the garden that are clearly manifest in Abel’s worship
(Gen. 3:15-21). (1.) In order for a sinner to stand accepted before the thrice
holy God he must have a covering. – The Righteousness of Christ! (2.) That
which is of human manufacture (fig leaves) is worthless before the Lord. (3.)
God himself must provide the covering
(righteousness) for us. The sinner’s only righteousness before God is the righteousness
God gives by imputation. (4.) The covering God requires can only be obtained by
death. -- By Blood-Shedding. – The
Blood Of An Innocent Victim!
“In
Genesis 3:15 and 21 we have the first Gospel sermon which was ever preached on
this earth, and that, by the Lord Himself. Life must come out of death. Cain
and Abel, and the whole human race, sinned in Adam (Rom. 5:12, 18, 19), and the
wages of sin is death, penal death.
Either I must pay those wages and suffer that death, or another — an innocent
one, on whom death has no claim — must pay those wages in my stead. And in
order to my receiving the benefit of that Substitute’s compassion, there must
be a link of contact between me and him. Faith
it is which unites to Christ. Saving faith, then, in its simplest form, is
the placing of a Substitute between my guilty self and a sin-hating God.” – (A.
W. Pink)
Cain’s Offering
What was
wrong with Cain’s offering? In Genesis 4:3 we
read, “Cain brought of the fruit of the
ground an offering unto the Lord.” Cain was not an open infidel. He
acknowledged the existence of God He was not irreligious. He came before God as
a worshipper; but he refused to conform to the Word of God. Clearly, four
things were amiss in his sacrifice. (1.) It was a bloodless sacrifice; and “without shedding of blood is no remission”
(Heb. 9:22). (2.) It was but the fruit of his hands, the product of his work.
(3.) Cain deliberately ignored the curse of God upon the ground (Gen. 3:17).
(4.) He despised the grace and trampled under his feet the blood of Christ made
known in Genesis 3:15-21.
Cain was
a hypocrite. He refused to comply
with the revealed will of God. Yet, he attempted to cover his rebellion by
coming before God as a worshipper. He would not obey God’s revelation. Yet, he
brought an offering to the Lord. He did not believe God. Yet, sought to
patronize him. This is the “way of Cain”
spoken of by Jude (Jude 11). It is the way of self-will, self-righteousness,
unbelief, disobedience, and religious hypocrisy.