Question concerning Abel, faith and being justified

The Bible tells us that Abel is a prophet, and that although he never spoke when he was alive, he is still speaking to us today. What does he say? He says, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.'

You see, Abel believed the Bible. He only had Genesis 1-3, which he would have learned from his parents, but he believed it and it was quite enough to save him.

Look at Gen 3:15. God is pronouncing judgement upon the serpent. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your Seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel.’ Who is this who is the Seed or Offspring of the woman but not of the man? Who else but the Lord Jesus Christ, born by the power of the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary? He is the One who will suffer (the bruising of the heel), but will crush the head of Satan. This is God’s way of redemption; to release His people from the power of sin and death through a second Adam (1Cor 15:22 ); through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this salvation was announced to Adam and Eve in Eden and signified by God Himself when He clothed the guilty couple. ‘Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them’ (Gen 3:21 ), and in order for that to happen, an innocent creature had to die, signifying that, ‘without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin’ (Heb 9:22 ). The justice of God does not permit it.

Now all this Abel knew. He would have heard the whole story from his parents. This was his Bible, and God the Holy Spirit opened his heart to receive it all as truth. He saw himself in his true colours, as a sinner in desperate need of redemption. And he saw that his only hope lay in a covering or atonement for his sin. He needed a Saviour- one who would take away his sin by being a perfect, holy, spotless sacrifice of propitiation, acceptable to God. In short, he looked down the centuries and saw by the eye of faith the Lord Jesus Christ bleeding and dying on the cross for him. ‘For so God loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ And Abel, moved with love for the God who loved him so much, took the finest lamb of his flock and sacrificed it to the Lord as a foreshadowing of the Lamb of God, who should take away the sin of the world (John 1:29 ). ‘By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice’ (Heb 11:4 ). It was not the sacrifice that made him righteous before God. Hebrews 10:4 tells us that the sacrifice of animals cannot take away sin. It was his faith that made the sacrifice acceptable to God inasmuch as it looked forward to Christ, the one true acceptable offering to God.

Abel knew nothing of circumcision, and nothing of baptism. The one was an ordinance for the Jewish people, the other is an ordinance for Christians, but neither brings salvation. Only the blood of Christ does that, whether looking forward to the cross as did Abel and Abraham (John 8:56 ) or back towards it as Christians do today. No religious rite can bring us to God, only trust in the work of Christ.

So, have you stood where Abel stood? Have you seen yourself as a guilty sinner, justly condemned by God? Have you looked back down the years by faith, as Abel looked forward, to the cross? There is no sacrifice now; Christ has made one perfect offering forever (Hebrews 10:12 ), but when you take the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, do you remember the Saviour who stood between you and hell and took your punishment upon Himself?

Now what shall we say about Cain? Well, he believed in God, you know. Oh yes! A regular church-goer Cain was. Gen 4:3. ‘And in the process of time……Cain brought an offering of the Fruit of the ground to the LORD.’ If he’d been a member of your church, he’d have had a standing order, or Gift-aid. So many bushels of wheat a month, tax deductable. In fact, I suggest that Cain is alive and well and living in churches up and down the country. But, ‘the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering’ (Gen 4:4-5 ).

In the light of this, how can anyone say that doctrine doesn’t matter? Here is a straightforward doctrinal difference between Cain and Abel and one is acceptable to God and one isn’t. Cain’s doctrine acknowledges God as Creator, but not as Saviour. Cain feels a little queasy with all this blood theology. Cain says, “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere.” Cain’s into the Inter-faith movement, the Ecumenical movement and the Emerging Church movement, but the prophet Abel says, “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1Cor 2:2 ). The prophet Abel says, “Jews request a sign, and Greeks demand wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified” (1Cor 1:22-23 ). The prophet Abel says, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 ).

At the heart of Cain’s religion is self-will. The belief that God will be satisfied with what I choose to give Him. Thus whilst Abel brings the best he has, ‘The first-born of his flock’, Cain finds a few potatoes and a turnip and brings that (cf. Malachi 1:7-8 ). When Cain looks at the cross, he doesn’t see his Saviour bleeding and dying in his place, he sees a sort of example of goodness and kindness that he thinks he can follow. Cain imagines that if he turns up in church once a week, puts a few coins in the offertory box and keeps himself from some of the grosser sins, God will be quite happy with that. Some people do a whole lot more than that, but it’s still Cain religion, because it’s what a man does for himself, it’s Adam’s fig leaf again! The prophet Abel depends on none of that; his whole desire is, ‘That I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Jesus Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith’ (Phil 3:8-9 ).

Taken from my blog post https://marprelate.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/the-prophet-abel/

Amen! We should be able to disagree with each other without getting in a tizzy.
We're going to have to spend eternity with each other, guys. We'd better get used to getting along together. Please feel free to respond, Percho.

 

Just to be clear. There was no "written" Genesis 1-3 at the time of Cain and Abel. The pentateuch was not written by Moses until about 1400 bc +|- a few yrs. Cain and Abel were alive about 2500 yrs or so before Moses.

I do think that they knew much more than we know.