Faith Life 10 (FAITH, A RESPONSE TO REVELATION)

GRACE ABOUNDS ONLINE BIBLE STUDY

THEME: FAITH LIFE OF CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS (Part 10)

TOPIC: FAITH, A RESPONSE TO REVELATION

SPEAKER: Peter Ayoola Fakeye (PAF)

Hebrew 11:3; Genesis 4:3-5

In today's study, we will be learning from the life of Abel, how Faith in Christ transformed him. The Bible says; "by Faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain...." Abel offered an animal to God as his sacrifice, but Cain didn't offer an animal, Instead he offered the fruit of the ground.

Abel understood that they should have been struck dead when their parents fell into sin in the garden, instead, God offered a lamb in their stead. He understood that they were accepted and treated with mercy and grace based on the sacrifice of the Lamb. Therefore, they could stand in God's presence based on the covering of the Lamb (Genesis 3:21). This Lamb is a symbol and shadow of Jesus Christ, the Lamb who came to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29).

 You will never be able to render a quality and accepted service to God when you don't have a revelation of Christ. If you don't understand the sacrifices of Christ and render your service and your devotion on that basis, then your services and devotion won't make any sense to God.

Faith is a response to the revelation you have received about Christ. Biblical faith never rests on manmade ideas. It rests on the revealed word of God. Abel, by faith, had obeyed God’s command, but Cain intentionally refused to submit to it.

Genesis 3:7,21

The above bible verses show to me that Cain knew what he was doing, but because he was not acting in Faith, he doesn't care about God's way and ordinance is. We can see that Cain repeated the same error his parents made at the garden.

Four things I want you to learn from the above scripture:

Firstly, to stand before the holy God, they needed a proper covering.

Secondly, humanly manufactured coverings can not be adequate to give you protection. We see that Adam and Eve try to sew fig leaves together, just like how Cain also brought the fruit of the tree. These are not substantial to gain acceptance from God.

Thirdly, God would provide the necessary covering apart from their efforts. God has always been the one providing the sacrifice for our covering.  We just need to accept it by Faith that it is enough, and we don'tneed nothing more than that.

Fourthly, the only acceptable covering for their sin required the death, or shedding of blood of an acceptable sacrifice. We all need a covering; we need a substitutional sacrifice, whereby Christ Jesus occupied the sinner stead on the cross om our behalf, so that we can occupy His righteous place. Therefore, you must recognize that on this basis, you are accepted. 

I have seen some believers who make case for Cain and said, "well that was what was available for him."  We will discover that, it's not true

Genesis 4:7

God himself wanted to accept Cain and that's why he even approach him to do the right thing. As much as God want His grace to be extended to us, He won't break His law and order of doing things. This is why the holy Spirit always woo us to the object of our faith, which is Jesus. 

If God was not interested in Cain, He wouldn't have bothered about him. But He wanted to extended grace and mercy to him also. He pointed to his requirements for acceptance. This statement made by God in that scriptures 'Sin lies at your door' show how God wanted to accept Cain. The 'sin' there from the Hebrew translation means sin offering. Also in the garden of Eden, God brought the Lamb. God has always been the one providing the sacrifice. When you also see Abraham response to his son Isaac, when his son ask for the lamb that will be used for the sacrifice, Abraham said "God will provide. Abraham wasn't lying to him or deceiving him, but he was conveying what he had experienced in God before to his son (Genesis 22:8).

You will also see at the wilderness during the time when the children of Israel were journeying to the promise land, where they were bitten by snake. God was the one that made the provision, for their healing and cleansing (Number 21:4-9). Check through the scriptures, it has been God all the way providing the covering that man needed. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son." (John 3:16)

Cain proudly and knowingly ignored God’s revealed requirement and brought an offering of his own devising. Cain is not an atheist, but he was the father of all false religion. False religions reject the cross. It offends them because it confronts their self-righteousness. If Cain was an atheist, he would not have offered sacrifice to God. He believes there is God, but he doesn't want to follow and accept His way. This is also true about every religion. Only the Christian faith believes in the need of a saviour for their acceptance. All other religions believe in what they can do to be accepted by God.

Hebrew 11:4

The Bible says, through this offering, he obtained a witness that he was righteous. We will be making a greatly mistaken if we assume that God accepted Abel’s sacrifice because he was inherently a better man than his brother. They are both sinners who needed a covering from God. So also, you will be mistaken if you think you are in any way better than someone else. This another way to determine  if you have been operating in Faith or not. You need to know that whatever you have in God or have enjoyed in God is as a result of His grace.

Remove God's grace from your life and you will be empty. If there is something to celebrate, it is not your frail personality, but God's grace. Abel wasn't thinking of how Good he was, but rely on God's goodness to his parent and himself. And we can see that through the sacrifice he offered.

Hebrew 11:4

God as witness to faith is the ultimate affirmation of one’s belief. God did not leave Abel in the dark about the acceptableness of His sacrifice. Rather, God witness to him that he is accepted. The moment you put faith in the sacrifice of CHRIST, God declares you righteous. When we engage our everyday living in the light of our redemption, it frees us from every burden and guilt, because we'll always have a witness in our Spirit that we are righteous and accepted.

God is a Father and He want you to know how He feels about you.  He always communicate His feelings to us through His spirit. Cain didn't have the blessedness of this witness. The Bible says he was angry. My question is; how did he know his sacrifice was disregarded? Though the Bible didn't tell us, but I believe he knew because Abel received a witness from God that he is accepted, but he didn't receive a witness.

In conclusion, there is blessedness in knowing that you have been accepted by God through the sacrifice of Jesus. And you need to response to this revelation by faith in your everyday affairs. It takes the pressure off you. That's why a true christian believer lives in peace because there is no pressure to perform, rather he walks in the performance of Jesus.

Grace Abounds