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Two Ways to Go, January 19
Genesis 4:1-5
And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain
and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his
countenance fell.
Genesis 4:4, 5
.
Cain came before God with murmuring and infidelity in his heart in regard
to the promised sacrifice and the necessity of the sacrificial offerings. His gift
expressed no penitence for sin. He felt, as many now feel, that it would be an
acknowledgement of weakness to follow the exact plan marked out by God, of
trusting his salvation wholly to the atonement of the promised Saviour. He chose
the course of self-dependence. He would come in his own merits. He would
not bring the lamb, and mingle its blood with his offering, but would present
his
fruits, the products of
his
labor. He presented his offering as a favor done to
God, through which he expected to secure the divine approval. Cain obeyed in
building an altar, obeyed in bringing a sacrifice, but he rendered only a partial
obedience. The essential part, the recognition of the need of a Redeemer, was
left out....
Cain and Abel represent two classes that will exist in the world till the close
of time. One class avail themselves of the appointed sacrifice for sin; the other
venture to depend upon their own merits; theirs is a sacrifice without the virtue
of divine mediation, and thus it is not able to bring man into favor with God. It
is only through the merits of Jesus that our transgressions can be pardoned....
It is claimed by some that the human race is in need, not of redemption, but of
development—that it can refine, elevate, and regenerate itself. As Cain thought
to secure the divine favor by an offering that lacked the blood of a sacrifice,
so do these expect to exalt humanity to the divine standard, independent of
the atonement. This history of Cain shows what must be the result. It shows
what man will become apart from Christ. Humanity has no power to regenerate
itself. It does not tend upward, toward the divine, but downward, toward the
satanic. Christ is our only hope. “There is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved.” “Neither is there salvation in any
other” (
Acts 4:12
)
[26]
27
Ibid., 72, 73
.
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