Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Cain and His Legacy”. Another good lesson with some interesting insights. “Without the shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin...” (Monday’s lesson quoting ‘Patriarchs and Prophets’ pg. 71… which is quoting Hebrews 9:22). Yup. Without the shedding of blood there is no putting away (remission) of sin. Whose death? “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” (Romans 6: 5-6). Whose death? My death. Your death. We are to “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:11).
This is why the sacrifice of Abel was “respected” (Genesis 4:4) by God. It represented an understanding of Abel’s own death to sin … and life only in God. But Cain’s sacrifice came from a totally different motive. It was “not respected” (Genesis 4:5) because it came from a wrong motive. Not because Cain brought the wrong sacrifice… not because he brought the wrong thing. But because Cain determined to do things his own way… just like his own mother and father had done in the “Garden”. Because his sacrifice came from self-hardiness not from self-awareness. Because it came from pride and self-sufficiency, not from a knowledge of himself and humility. Because it came from an unconscious defiance of God, not from a conscious love for God.
As I contemplate the entire human story from Eden up to this very day, in light of our Dad’s love for us, I do not see a Dad who is angry with you and me. I do not see a Father who must have a penalty paid in order to forgive you and me. Instead I see a Father who comes alongside you and me. A God who comes as one of us, to live with us and to show us how to live. Who says, “Follow Me”. Who shares our death with each of us, so that we can share His endless life with Him. I see God working with each sinner, year-upon-year, decade-upon-decade, century-upon-century, millennia-upon-millennia to show us our true condition and to show us the way. The way to die to self with Him, so that we can live to serve with Him… live to truly love with Him.
The story of Cain and Abel shows us the truth about ourselves. That rebelling against God leads us further and further from truth and into an abyss of sin and death. It shows us the truth about our God, who works with each rebellious sinner. Works to bring each rebellious and wayward sinner back to their senses and back “Home”.
This is also the story of Easter. The beautiful, almost inconceivable true story of our God, who comes to share our humanity. Our God who shares our trials and our sorrows with us. To lead us to trust Him. To ease our fear of Him. To lead us to follow Him… all the way to the cross… to die to self with Him there… every day… because we ultimately trust Him. And then to rise to newness of life with Him… every day, too. A life of “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5: 22-23). Almost unbelievable. God could’ve just let us go… let us die. But He did not. He stepped into the breach to show us what a life of faith is like. To take us by the hand and by the heart so that we could die with Him. So that our “old man” could just die. And then rises to life with us so that the life we truly desire can be ours… His life.
May it be so for each of us, I pray. We cannot fight our rebellious tendencies. Our sinful selves cannot be reformed or improved. Death is the only way out. But die with Him, not alone. To stop resisting and allow ourselves to sink into death with Him. And then rise to the life that awaits each of us. Rebels no more. Sin can be defeated in our lives. It is the promise of Easter. The promise of Love.
With brotherly love,
Jim