The Atonement should have a profound practical impact on our lives. When we understand what our Lord went through, his victory over the flesh, and over those who put him to death, it should be a motivating force to enable us to live by faith. On the other hand a misunderstanding of the atonement, or a misapplication of the Word of God, can have serious consequences in how we deal with our brothers and sisters. This is the lesson that comes from the story of Cain and Abel.
Last month we had a look at Adam and Eve and the fact that, naturally speaking, we rely on our gut instincts, our animal nature. And now we are going to look at the account of Cain and Abel, which teaches us about the contrast between a man who lived by faith and a man who let his animal instincts direct his thoughts and actions. Abel is the first man recorded in Scripture who lived by faith:
“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 speaks” (Heb 11:4).
True righteous living isn’t about offering animal sacrifices. We know this from such passages as Hos 6:6, quoted by Jesus — “I will have mercy and not sacrifice”. So when we look at the example of Abel we must move beyond just seeing an animal sacrifice. Anyone can offer a sacrifice; it’s easy. In fact when we look at the negative example of Cain we’ll consider someone who had such a formalistic religion and that type of religion has been copied throughout history.
So what’s so special about Abel’s sacrifice? Perhaps there’s a clue in what Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount where he uses the same word translated “excellent” (Gk. pleion) in Heb 11:4.
“For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed [pleion] the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:20).
There are two types of righteousness mentioned here; righteousness by faith and righteousness by works of the law. The scribes and Pharisees were expert at external righteousness and appeared extremely righteous through their ability to do the “right” things. But we know from passages such as Matt 23:25-28 that while they had an outward appearance of righteousness, inwardly they were full of hypocrisy and uncleanness. Our righteousness has to be “more excellent” or “exceed” that type of righteousness. Our righteousness needs to be a righteousness that comes from faith and that’s what Abel’s righteousness was all about. In contrast to that we’ll see that Cain was the first Pharisee. The word pleion is also used by Jesus to contrast love with offering sacrifices ritualistically:
“And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more [pleion] than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:33).
Loving God is more excellent than burnt offerings and sacrifices. Again, the former describes the religion of Abel and the latter the religion of Cain. When we apply this simple concept to the doctrine of the Atonement an important lesson comes out. There are views of the Atonement that emphasize mechanics and turn salvation into some sort of formula. If we adhere to that sort of idea of what salvation is all about we can end up like the Pharisees and like Cain: looking at salvation as a kind of legal contract between God and us, that if we do certain things God owes us salvation. That was the religion of Cain, but Abel’s understanding of the Atonement was different and he realized that salvation was based on the love of God and living by faith.
Let’s look at Cain first. Without the benefit of hindsight it actually looks like Cain was the good guy and Abel, well, he just did things his own way. When he was born his mother Eve said “I have gotten a man from Yahweh” (Gen 4:1) and what she really means is that she believed Cain to be the promised seed who would crush the serpent and bring about salvation (Gen 3:15). We can forgive Eve for thinking this since God had promised the seed of the woman would do this, she was the woman, and here was a seed — a seed, she said, from Yahweh. We also find out that Cain was “a tiller of the ground” (Gen 4:2) and the offering he brought to Yahweh was the product of him tilling the ground (Gen 4:3). Here Cain seems to be following God’s instructions quite well since in the previous chapter we’re told that God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden “to till the ground” (Gen 3:23). To all intents and purposes it looks like Cain is doing the will of God.
In contrast to that Abel was a “keeper of sheep” (Gen 4:2) and brought an offering of a lamb (Gens 4:4). God never said anything about keeping sheep. He had said about keeping the garden (Gen 2:15) but it looks like Cain was more involved with that by tilling the ground. So it looks like Cain is following God’s instructions and Abel is doing something else entirely. However this isn’t the last time in Scripture things are not quite as they appear. When we come to the contrast between Saul and David later in the series we’ll see this story all over again: Saul the one who seemingly followed God’s instructions and David doing his own thing, like eating the show bread which it was not lawful for anyone but priests to eat. And ultimately we see this same thing with the contrast between Jesus and the Pharisees, for instance when Jesus incensed the legalistic Pharisees by healing on the Sabbath.
When it comes to the Atonement we need to understand this lesson because it’s against our instincts. We want a religion that is easy to follow, like ticking off a list of duties. And when we do our list of duties: pray, do our readings, go to meeting and so on, all of which are necessary things, but lack faith, they are meaningless. When it comes down to it, the difference between Cain and Abel was not about what particular offering they brought but the attitude with which they did it. Abel walked by faith, Cain walked by law. Abel’s religion wasn’t a do-your-own-thing religion. He offered a lamb with a sense of purpose that testifies to his spiritual mind. On the other hand Cain, while appearing to do things in the right way by bringing an offering from tilling the ground, showed his true colors when he murdered his brother. A tree is known by its fruit and Cain’s tree was completely corrupt.
Let’s look at Cain’s character first so we can end on the positive note of what Abel represents for us. In last month’s article we looked at the nature of the flesh, that left to ourselves we think in an instinctive animal way. Cain is an example of that sort of mind and helps us understand why the flesh must be mortified. The KJV is rather clumsy in the key verse: the NIV is better here:
“But on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it’ ” (Gen 4:5-7 NIV).
Cain was angry because his offering was rejected and that’s why God spoke the words in verse 7 — “sin lies at the door” (KJV). Some understand this to mean that there was a lamb lying at the door of Cain’s house and he was being given the opportunity to offer it as sin offering, correcting his earlier mistake. But that would go against the spirit of the passage which is not about the offerings per se but about the attitude of the two brothers. God wasn’t teaching Cain the importance of offering the correct ritualistic sacrifice. Really what Cain is being told is that sin is like an animal inside him, at the moment lying down, or crouching, but ready to pounce unless he keeps it under control. The phrase at the end of the verse in other versions reads something like: he (sin) desires to rule over you but you must rule over him. That is quite simple to understand. Sin is like an animal inside and it wants to dominate us, but we must instead dominate it, fulfilling the spirit of Gen 1:26, to have dominion over the animals.
Cain’s attitude and actions are the prototype of so many other people in Scripture and to the battle between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman in general. The most notable of these is when the Jews put Jesus to death. Even Pilate recognized “that for envy they had delivered him” (Matt 27:18). The Jews let the animal inside, beginning with envy (as Cain’s sin began with envy), leap out in murdering the one who Abel points forward to. John’s first epistle tells us that Cain murdered Abel “because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous” (1John 3:12), that is, Cain’s envy and anger of the acceptance of his brother’s offering, caused him to give in to the thinking of the flesh. Those animal instincts are in every one of us and we need to follow God’s advice and exhibit self-control in dominating the animal inside. Jesus himself came in the flesh and that’s one of the reasons why he had to die on the cross: ultimately the only way to fully dominate the animal is to kill it. It cannot be redeemed, it cannot be saved, it can only be destroyed. Jesus bruised the serpent on its head.
We also see in the example of our Lord the antithesis of Cain’s attitude. Cain was envious of his brother, and envy and anger produce murder (Matt 5:22), or as John puts it when talking about Cain:
“Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1John 3:15).
John writes this in the context of discussing the greatest attribute of God — love. To love our brother, John says, is what obedience to God is all about. On the cross Jesus exhibited that love, for “God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). The Atonement isn’t just a negative doctrine about dominating the animal; it’s also a positive doctrine about being fruitful, exhibiting the fruit of the spirit. Ultimately the way to dominate the animal is to overcome evil with good (Rom 12:21).
And so we come to the example of Abel who offered a lamb. Why did he offer a lamb? One thing we know is that he offered his best. Whereas Cain brought “of” the fruit of the ground (Gen 4:3), Genesis records that Abel brought “of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat” (Gen 4:4). That is, Abel brought his best. But this was not just a random act; Abel did not choose to sacrifice a lamb haphazardly. Look at what had happened previously in the name of true religion. In chapter 3 God himself had provided the example by clothing Adam and Eve with coats of skins (Gen 3:21). In order to do that he would have had to have slain an animal, teaching the principle of the need to put the flesh to death. We can infer that Abel understood this principle and offered a lamb because he was imitating God.
“Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour” (Eph 5:1-2).
The word translated “followers” can mean “imitators” and that’s what Abel was doing. The fact he walked in love and paid the ultimate price by giving his life all pointed forward to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the doctrine of the atonement. It’s about God manifestation, about being a son or daughter of God and trusting in our father, for the righteous shall live by that faith. By walking in love we shall overcome the animal inside and our participation in the sacrifice of Christ shall indeed rise up to God as a sweet-smelling savour. Loving our brothers and sisters does take sacrifice. It takes patience, it takes kindness, and it takes ruling over the envy or anger we sometimes feel rising up inside us. Some have paid the ultimate price for their sacrifice but like Abel’s, their blood shall speak of the righteous who shall live by faith.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One