Faith to approach God
By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks (Hebrews 11:4).
The story of faith begins with Abel. He and his brother Cain had never had the fellowship with God that their father and mother had known. Abel is the first man referred to as “a keeper of sheep” – a shepherd – in Genesis 4:2. His brother Cain was a farmer. These two brothers represent two themes which run through the whole Bible: the spiritual man and the natural man. Cain is an extreme illustration of the natural man, filled with envy, rage, violence and deceit. Cain has no place in Hebrews 11, but Abel, the first man of faith and the first martyr, does have.
Faith begins by approaching God on the basis of sacrifice and the need for salvation. In the lamb Abel sacrificed as his substitute, God reminds us of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Abel reminds us of a sinner, in need of salvation, expressing faith in a sinless sacrifice, the Lamb of God. He later reminds us of a Saviour, a Shepherd that died at the hands of wicked men. It always amazes me how God takes every opportunity to embed within His word the Person and work of His beloved Son. He did this before sin entered the world, when He caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep so that God could take a rib and form Eve, a beautiful picture of Christ loving the Church and giving Himself for her. God also did this when He made the first sacrifice to clothe Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21).
Cain and Abel present two different approaches to God. Cain approached God with the fruit of the land he farmed. He came to God offering the efforts of his own labour – good works. Abel learned, by direct revelation or from his parents, that the way to God was through the sacrifice of a life. Abel’s sacrifice, as we have said, looked on to the time when Christ Himself would come into the world as the Saviour and sacrifice Himself upon the cross. Christ took our place and died in our stead. He was the great substitute and the only way to God: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). We approach God in this way for salvation and enjoy the fullness of His salvation. The Christ who died for us now lives for us in heaven: “He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
The story of faith begins by introducing us to the all-sufficiency of Christ represented in a tiny lamb. Through Abel’s faith and obedience, he was made righteous. First of all, faith teaches us salvation and righteousness are in Christ. All the sacrifices of the Old Testament looked forward to the one great sacrifice Christ would make: “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12). The life of faith begins at the foot of the cross. It grows in relation to the place the Saviour occupies in our hearts.
Secondly, faith is stimulated by His love and grace. By abiding in Christ by faith, we shall in the words of Psalm 1:3 be
… like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
