And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
In process of time the two brothers came to the appointed place of worship, and Cain presented the fruit of his own cultivated ground without joining to it the required firstborn lamb and its blood. God had directed that every offering include a slain lamb without blemish to confess sin and show faith in the promised Redeemer, whose innocent death alone could make remission possible. Because Cain left out that blood he offered a Christless, partial obedience from his own judgment that expressed no repentance, no sense of need, and no dependence on a Saviour outside himself, so God gave no sign of respect for him while He consumed Abel's offering by fire from heaven. He treated his own labor as merit to earn approval, resenting humiliation and the reminder of sin, and under Satan's leading he envied and hated his brother until he slew him. Cain and Abel thus develop the only two orders in humanity ever since, the loyal who come through Christ's blood in implicit obedience and the disloyal who follow their own ideas and works without grace, warning that all Christless teaching, preaching, and service is as valueless as his offering.
Setting of the Offering
In process of time Cain brought his offering within a sacrificial system God Himself had given and that both sons had been taught to observe. The offerings were a test of whether Cain and Abel would believe and obey the word of God, just as Adam had been tested, and from Adam onward God blessed the loyal and obedient. Both brothers knew the provision God had made for salvation and the system He had ordained, that the offerings typified the Saviour, expressed faith in Him and acknowledged total dependence on Him for pardon, and proved obedience by conforming to the divine plan of redemption. They were meant to show humble obedience and faith in and dependence on the promised Saviour, reminding them that sin brings death and that only through the Redeemer could they come into God's presence. Without shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin, and faith in the blood of Christ as the promised atonement was to be shown by offering the firstlings of the flock in sacrifice.
That system had first been established with Adam after his fall and taught by him to his descendants, its true purpose being faith in the Redeemer to come. Offerings to God for religious purposes therefore existed long before Moses, as gifts meant to express appreciation for His mercies and blessings. Before the Flood those who separated from the faithful corrupted the system by sacrificing to gods of their own making instead of the God of heaven, not from faith but to please their gods on polluted idol altars. They held the superstition that the more valuable the sacrifice the greater the pleasure given to their gods and the greater the prosperity and riches of the nation, a course that led even to human sacrifice under cruel laws made without grace.
Cain's offering of the fruit of the ground was brought to the cherubim-guarded gate of Paradise, the appointed place of worship where God's glory was revealed. There the first worshipers came, reared altars, and presented their offerings, Abel bringing his sacrifice to the same place. God condescended to meet and communicate with Cain and Abel there while Eden still stood in sight with watching angels barring its entrance. Cain as a tiller of the ground was carrying on the industry of tilling the soil given to Adam and Eve immediately after the fall. Healthful employment of the physical powers in manual work was God's provision, begun in Eden in dressing and keeping the garden and continued after the curse when the ground brought forth thistles and increased the labor, thus fulfilling one of God's purposes in creating the earth in the wise employment of its occupants.
The fruit of the ground in the verse was the firstfruits of the earth to be presented before the Lord as a thank-offering besides, and in addition to and not in place of, the required blood offering.
What Cain Brought
Cain brought produce from ground he had cultivated by his own toil, and that fruit in itself was good, very good indeed, very acceptable and right. What made it unacceptable was not its nature as fruit, for a thank-offering of firstfruits was right in itself, but that it left out what made any offering required at all. It contained no Saviour and lacked its virtue, the blood of Christ represented by the blood of the slain lamb.
His offering was abundant and outwardly very nice and beautiful with no outward fault, faultless except in one point. That one point was refusal to follow the express direction that every sacrificial offering be accompanied by a slain lamb, so he brought only fruit and would not join to it the blood of beasts. It was therefore empty, with no divine Saviour represented in it, not salted and seasoned with divine fire, which is the communication between God and man opened through Jesus Christ alone and His mediation. Without that mediation and saving significance it could not be acceptable, like a Christless sermon that presents subjects argumentatively, scarcely mentions the saving power of the Redeemer, is destitute of nourishment and the living bread from heaven, and moves no hearer to ask what he must do to be saved.
What God required was the firstborn lamb presented with its blood as a burnt offering, solemnly offered to keep sin and the coming great sacrifice continually in mind, because without shedding of blood there is no remission for sin. That blood typified the promised Redeemer and the great sacrifice to come, and the lamb was required as acknowledgment and confession of sin and as representation of Christ saving the fallen race by becoming Himself the great Sacrifice. Cain refused to show repentance, obedience, and faith in a Redeemer to come, refused to acknowledge need of a Redeemer outside himself, and slighted the blood of the atonement by following his own plan as nobler and less humiliating. He would not procure a lamb even from his brother's flock to offer with the fruit, despising Abel's counsel not to come without blood.
Nor did he bring the best of his produce, not the very choicest gift and not the Lord's specified claim, as Abel brought the firstling of the flock. Even where his offering is described as abundant or as the best he had of the fruit, it lacked the very thing that would have made it of value, and without the lamb all he brought was worthless and valueless. Had he followed the directions and presented the offering typifying the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world, his offering would likewise have been acknowledged and consumed by fire from heaven as Abel's was.
Why God Rejected It
God had expressly directed that every sacrificial offering include a slain lamb without blemish to show faith in the promised Redeemer and belief that without shedding of blood there is no remission for sin. After sin came He gave the promise of One who would die to obtain pardon for the race, and man was to confess that promise by offering the lamb as a burnt offering with shed blood to prefigure the Lamb of God whose blood would be shed to save a lost world. Cain knew this requirement and was told it again by Abel, yet as a tiller of the ground he did not wish to add a lamb from his brother's flock to his firstfruits, thinking his abundant fruit enough, and he would not receive counsel to slay it because he could not understandingly accept it and chose his own will and understanding. His refusal was deliberate, a deception into disregarding a specific command, and it taught the danger of the first step in disobedience, leaning to one's own understanding against a plain requirement until light is eclipsed and place is given for Satan to master the mind and control the judgment.
The blood of the victim typified a future atonement, for the innocent lamb slain pointed forward to Christ the sinless, spotless offering for the sin of the human race. The solemn shedding of blood was appointed to signify repentance for sin and a Redeemer to come, and sacrifices had value and efficacy only as they pointed to Him as the true Sacrifice and Mediator and foreshadowed His death to redeem the world as an expression of faith in Him. When the Jews afterward sealed their rejection of Christ by putting Him to death, their continued offerings became meaningless like Cain's, because sacredness had departed and the system was forever ended by the great final sacrifice.
By bringing fruit alone Cain left out the sacrificial blood of the atonement, slighted that blood, and offered a Christless offering that had no value and could not be acceptable. Though the produce in itself was right and good, it contained no Saviour represented in it, while Abel's offering presented the merit of Christ's blood before the Father. The ordinance was meant to express repentance, obedience, and faith in a coming Redeemer, with the blood of beasts showing dependence on another and acknowledging human weakness and sin, but Cain followed his own plan as nobler and less humiliating and left out the very thing that made any offering required at all. Without that blood the offering was offensive to God, destitute of value before Him, and the same lack marks religious teaching or service without Christ's atoning sacrifice.
His obedience in building an altar and bringing an offering was therefore only partial, following his own plans, ideas, and judgment instead of implicitly obeying God's Word and directions, exalting his own judgment above God's. He refused to follow the exact plan marked out, feeling it an acknowledgment of weakness to trust salvation wholly to the atonement of the promised Saviour, and he acted in a selfish, disobedient, unthankful manner while Abel steadfastly kept the special commands and would not be converted to Cain's way or concede without disobedience, so no harmony was possible. To offer what was never commanded while ignoring a plain command given is disobedience, and those who do so condemn themselves by the righteous works of the obedient, as when men set aside God's law and especially the fourth commandment enjoining the Sabbath as the memorial of creation to institute a spurious first-day sabbath without any word of God requiring it, even while sweeping away the Ten Commandments as nailed to the cross.
His gift expressed no penitence for sin but self-dependence, coming in his own merits and offering his fruits as a favor to God by which he expected to secure divine approval. It showed no repentance, no confession of sin, no acknowledgment of weakness, poverty, and need of mercy and of a Redeemer outside himself, and no humble faith and dependence on the promised Saviour for pardon and access to God. The offerings were meant to show humble obedience and dependence on the promised Saviour and to remind that sin brings death and that only through the Redeemer can man come into God's presence, with blood to represent the Saviour's death, but Cain chose pride and independence rather than submission, resented the reminder of sin, and believed his own plan should be accepted.
God gave no sign that He recognized Cain's offering and showed no respect to Cain and his offering, while He accepted Abel and his offering and consumed it by fire from heaven. Cain could still have corrected his course by presenting the prescribed offering in faith and obedience, and God did not give up His way and will to conciliate him but reasoned with him. The history will be repeated in those who disregard directions and refuse both God's word and the reasoning of the faithful.
Cain's Motives and Fall
Cain brought the fruit of ground he had tilled by his own toil and treated it as a favor to God by which he expected to secure divine approval. His gift expressed self-dependence and self-sufficiency, coming in his own merits and trusting his own efforts for salvation instead of trusting wholly in the atonement of the promised Saviour. It was a Christless way in which finite man makes his own way a model of perfection, self-important and self-sufficient, harsh and severe, without tender mercy, attempting to come to God without coming to Christ and acknowledging that He does it all. Such self-dependent offerings are tainted and polluted sacrifices, for without the blood of Jesus alone to cleanse sins no offering has merit, and even the best and most abundant fruit was worthless and valueless without the lamb. This same principle that man can depend on his own works for salvation by development and self-elevation rather than redemption is followed by by far the greater portion of the world in nearly every false religion, proving humanity has no power to regenerate itself, for apart from Christ man tends not upward toward the divine but downward toward the satanic.
To confess entire dependence upon a Power outside himself was torture to his high, proud spirit, and to keep sin ever before the mind by offering the blood of the slain lamb felt like humiliation and an acknowledgment of weakness. He would not show repentance for sin and faith in a coming Saviour, for dependence humbled his pride, and he resented the reminder of sin and the necessity of ceremonial offerings. He thought his father Adam had been treated harshly in being expelled from Eden and murmured against God because of the curse pronounced on Adam and on the ground.
He cherished rebellion, murmuring, unbelief and infidelity in his heart toward the promised Sacrifice, doubting and murmuring at the necessity of the offerings God had expressly required. Though he knew God desired a lamb without blemish to be added, as a tiller of the ground he did not wish to procure a lamb from his brother's flock to offer with the fruit, would not receive counsel to slay it, and despised the counsel of Abel his younger brother not to come without the blood of a sacrifice. He chose to follow his own will and understanding against God's plain requirement, and the first step of leaning to his own judgment eclipsed heavenly light and gave place to the devil until Satan mastered the mind. His offering was outwardly very nice and beautiful with no outward fault, and abundant, yet he did not even bring the best of his fruits, and it left out the only thing that would have made it of any value, thereby perpetuating Adam's transgression which made necessary the offering of God's only begotten Son.
Satan watched the offerings with intense interest and uneasiness, learned their meaning in the solemn shedding of blood to typify a future atonement and signify repentance, and because it opposed his purposes worked upon Cain's heart to reject them. Led by Satan into rebellion against the required ordinance, Cain placed himself under Satan's control and was made selfish, choosing to serve Satan while Abel chose to serve God, so that Adam's divided family extended the evil begun in Paradise down through the ages. By refusing repentance, faith, and acknowledgment of need of a Redeemer, he became the representative of the great class of unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion, in opposition to Abel as representative of faith and obedience.
Being the eldest he thought his own methods, plans, and example should have supremacy, that Abel should follow him, that his own plans were best, and that the Lord would come to his terms instead of his worshiping according to direction given. In contempt of God's injunction he brought fruit without shedding of blood, rejecting the required sacrifice representing Christ as a Lamb without blemish, with the same enmity against God's rule as those who denounce the law as a dead yoke of bondage. Abel was determined to worship as God directed, steadfastly kept the special commands, protested Cain's principles as disloyal, would not concede without disobedience nor be converted to Cain's way, so there could be no harmony and contention must come.
When no sign was given that his offering was recognized while holy fire from heaven consumed Abel's sacrifice, Cain's anger was exceedingly great, growing very angry, jealous, envious and hateful that his younger brother was accepted and favored while he was rejected. The righteous life of Abel cast by contrast a reproach upon Cain, whose own works were evil, and that envy, which is the offspring of pride, stirred hatred and revenge, displaying Satan's character in fury against one who had done no harm. He argued about his offering and refused to see that disobedience caused its rejection, and though the Lord condescended to explain matters and reason with him rather than give up His way to conciliate him, he would not be reconciled to God. Furious because he could not compel Abel to disobey God, filled with wrath and inspired by Satan, he hated Abel because God showed him favor and rose up and slew him for maintaining that God is just, causing the first death in the world.
Christ and Salvation Taught
Genesis 4:3 shows an offering brought without faith in Jesus and without acknowledgment of the blood of Jesus and the merit of Christ, and without that acknowledgment no offering of man can be acceptable before heaven. Such an offering is devoid of merit because it is not mingled with the virtue of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour, and it has no more merit than human good works without faith or what the world calls morality, which does not reach the divine standard. Self-dependent offerings made without knowing that the blood of Jesus alone can cleanse sins and make an offering acceptable are tainted offerings and polluted sacrifices, amounting to trying to come to God without coming to Christ and acknowledging that He does it all, as if one must first take a few steps and come so far and then God will meet him. If the merit of Christ had been acknowledged the offering would have been beautiful before God and valuable in His sight, and God would have accepted the sacrifice. Refusing to do what God requires in the way that God requires leaves even religious offerings as meritless as Cain's, as with those who refuse the message of mercy and refuse compassion and love yet still make offerings.
Pardon of transgressions comes only through the merits of Jesus and His cleansing blood, which alone can bring man into favor with God, for the fruit offering without blood lacked the virtue of divine mediation and depended on human merits instead of the appointed sacrifice for sin. Refusing to offer the blood of the Son of God is refusing to acknowledge oneself as a lost and undone sinner in need of a Saviour and refusing to believe in the only-begotten Son of God. Such refusal leaves sin remaining upon the sinner instead of having transgressions transferred to Christ and receiving the righteousness of Christ so as to be declared sinless before God. Those who do not accept the cleansing blood are under condemnation, with no other provision made to release them from the thralldom of sin.
The verse exposes the principle that man can depend on his own works for salvation and needs only development and self-elevation rather than redemption, a principle on which nearly every false religion rests and which by far the greater portion of the world follows in Cain's example of trusting his own efforts instead of the atonement. This expectation of exalting humanity to the divine standard independent of the atonement proves that humanity has no power to regenerate itself. The history of Cain shows the result of life apart from Christ: man does not tend upward toward the divine but downward toward the satanic, and Christ is the only hope, salvation, and righteousness.
Sinners must come to Jesus Christ at every step, laying hold upon the meritorious blood of a crucified and risen Saviour as their only hope, righteousness, Substitute and Surety, and with its cleansing power offer petitions and prayer to God, bringing to Him only an offering of praise. Right quality in service comes only by living faith in a personal, all-sufficient Saviour, viewing Christ as the sinner's only hope, taking hold of Him and trusting that He loves, died, and is accepted as the sacrifice, so that God is glorified, for Christless service picturing religious experience without thorough and complete trust in Jesus lacks the right quality and is nothing. Effort and labor are still required on the part of the receiver of God's grace, for fruit makes manifest the character of the tree, and works covered with the merit of Christ testify to the worthiness of the doer to inherit eternal life, since in the judgment the sentence is pronounced in accordance with what has been done or left undone.
All sacrificial offerings have efficacy only as foreshadowing Christ's death to redeem the world and as expression of faith in Him, and Cain's offering had no value because it did not express faith in the Saviour. When the Jews sealed their rejection of Christ by putting Him to death, their continued sacrificial offerings became meaningless like the offering of Cain, because sacredness had departed from the temple and the system of sacrificial offerings was forever at an end after the great final sacrifice. The system first established with Adam after his fall to teach faith in the Redeemer to come had already been corrupted before the flood by those who separated from the faithful, sacrificing to gods of their own making instead of the God of Heaven, not from faith but to please their gods by offering many beasts upon polluted idol altars. Their superstition held that the more valuable the sacrifice the greater the pleasure given to their gods and the greater the prosperity and riches of the nation, leading even to human sacrifice under cruel laws made without grace.
Bringing fruit instead of a blood offering was refusing to accept God's plan in the school of obedience to be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ typified by the sacrificial offerings pointing to Christ. The shedding of blood symbolized the blood of Christ to be shed for the world, a ceremony prepared by God with Christ as the foundation of the whole system and the whole Jewish economy. That refusal led to the death of Abel, and this beginning marks the start of its work as schoolmaster to bring sinful human agents to consider Christ.
Two Classes Foreshadowed
Cain and Abel represent the only two orders in humanity and develop the two principles of right and wrong, Abel faithful and loyal and therefore preferred, Cain disloyal in wishing his own ideas, methods and plans to prevail and, as the elder, to have supremacy. Both were tempted, but Cain accepted temptation and acted toward God in a selfish, disobedient, unthankful manner, following his own way instead of implicitly obeying God's Word, while Abel protested Cain's principles as disloyal and would not concede or be converted to Cain's way without disobedience, so harmony was impossible and contention must come. Furious because he could not compel Abel to disobey, Cain's anger burned hot until, inspired by Satan and filled with wrath, he used force and killed his brother.
Cain stands as head of those who refuse to obey God, set against Abel and those who steadfastly adhere to the commandments of God and conscientiously keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. His course is to support falsehood in opposition to truth and to range on the side of the prince of darkness, while Abel's course is to stand in defense of the law of Jehovah, including the Sabbath of creation. From Abel's persecution and death at his brother's hands there have been two classes upon the earth manifesting the same characteristics, and the same division continues now between those rooted in truth standing shoulder to shoulder in defense of God's law and those yielded to Satan who strive to oppress God's servants as Cain oppressed Abel, with commandment-keepers not in favor with the world or with professed Christians who make void the law.
That history will be repeated till the close of time. Cain's Christless fruit offering without blood, depending on his own merits instead of the appointed sacrifice for sin, stands for a class that feels no need of the blood of Christ and thinks by works without divine grace to secure approval, under condemnation with no other provision to release them from sin, since pardon comes only through the merits of Jesus and His cleansing blood and the offering lacked the virtue of divine mediation. It is the pattern for many forms of religion made up of penances and mortifications or of splendid sights and pageantries, debased by finite human wisdom that drops the spirituality and truth of the Gospel out of reckoning and lacks Christ-like simplicity, becoming mere forms and ceremonies opposed to Christ's kingdom of truth and righteousness, peace and joy. Cain's worshippers instead represent those who turned from Jehovah and followed their own ideas and choice, setting aside God's holy command and what He appointed, though people could have obeyed God's expressed will, and God did not give up His way to conciliate Cain but reasoned with him while giving no sign of recognizing the offering that left out the slain lamb prefiguring the costly offering of the only begotten Son as hope and salvation.
Choosing a spurious rest day in place of the seventh-day Sabbath is choosing the religion of Cain. It sets aside God's law and especially the fourth commandment enjoining the Sabbath as the memorial of creation, and institutes a first-day sabbath in honor of the resurrection without any word of God requiring it, even while sweeping away the Ten Commandments as nailed to the cross, honoring a day of human inventing as Cain honored his own self-chosen offering of firstfruits according to his own ideas, exalting his own judgment above God's and arguing it made no difference. God is dishonored when what is false and impure is made to take the place of the pure and true and will never accept the spurious for the true, so to offer what He never commanded while ignoring a plain command is disobedience, and to obey is better than sacrifice. That disobedient worship bears the marks of oppression even to taking human life, producing anger against God's commandment-keeping people who will not respect Sunday and leading to hateful treatment, compulsion to work on the seventh day and rest on the first, and, as when Abel's righteous works condemned Cain's evil works and God consumed Abel's offering by fire from heaven, to envy, jealousy, bitterness, malice and murder when triumph over the obedient proves impossible.
The same deception that told Cain exact obedience was not required also told Adam he would not die for transgression and now tells men the Ten Commandments were done away at Christ's death. Cain brought his offering in disregard of definite directions and requirements, refused God's word and Abel's reasoning laying those directions before him in the field, and in anger over rejection rose up and slew his brother, proving God accepts created beings only through implicit obedience to His law. Each person must know whether he heeds the voice of the true and living God or the voice of the great apostate. Profession of sanctification by those who dishonor God by transgressing His law has the same value and acceptance as Cain's offering, which is none, for obedience to the commandments is the only true sign of sanctification and disobedience is disloyalty and apostasy.
Envy, the offspring of pride, stirred Cain's heart because Abel's works were righteous and God honored him while Cain's own works were evil and the Lord could not bless him, so Abel's righteous life cast a reproach upon Cain by contrast. That envy leads to hatred and eventually to revenge and murder, displaying Satan's character in stirring fury against one who had done no harm. Indulgence of one known sin deadens the conscience and hardens the heart, so envy, jealousy and hatred move step by step until they ripen into conspiracy to slay and a harvest of crime, as Joseph's brothers showed the same deadly spirit of hatred toward a brother when his coat aroused envy, they counted him a spy for informing against them, and conspired to slay him. The Cain-spirit of hatred next of kin to murder must not enter the heart when ideas and methods called truth are not accepted, but those in whom Christ abides by faith will reveal His Spirit in good and pleasant words and actions, sweetness of temper, and freedom from angry passion, obstinacy, evil-surmising and hatred, for God gave His only begotten Son so whoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life.
Warning for Worship Today
Cain's fruit was right in itself, yet without the sacrificial blood of atonement it had no value and could not be accepted, and in the same way religious teaching and service without Christ's atoning sacrifice cannot bring souls to God. A godless discourse without the spirit and power of truth, preaching of doctrinal argument without true conversion and without harmony with God, and sermonizing that presents subjects in an argumentative way while scarcely mentioning the saving power of the Redeemer are that same unacceptable offering. Such preaching is destitute of nourishment because the preacher has not partaken of the living bread from heaven, destitute of the saving blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses from all sin, so hearers are not pricked in the heart and do not ask what they must do to be saved.
Any discourse, sermon, or article that leaves out faith in Christ as the sinner's only hope and fails to keep His righteousness connected with the law constantly before the sinner is Christless like Cain's offering, self-tainted and worthless, and heavenly intelligences look upon it with amazement and sorrow. To leave out Christ and dwell too lightly on His love, His humiliation to die a shameful death on the cross, His righteousness given to man, and the wonders of redemption fully and continuously presented, is to offer dry theory that is cold, unimpressive, destitute of nourishment and heavenly moisture, and that starves precious souls for the bread of life. Many long sermons are profitless for this reason, for length is no proof of ministerial ability, and such Christless discourses tire the people and fail to give proper spiritual food because ministry requires more than sermonizing and requires personal experience of Christ. Preaching and writing must instead keep Christ central in everything said and written, with the eye single to the glory of God, stirring hearts with the meekness and lowliness learned from Him and answering His prayer that believers be one as He is one with the Father.
Going through a round of formal ceremonies without true obedience is Cain's work, the work of one who rejects Christ, like the formal ceremonies of those who reject Christ yet try to obey the law, for no one who rejects Christ can possibly keep the law. Presenting the law of God largely while leaving out Christ is an offering destitute of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His relation to the law, and it measures what congregations receive when the law is preached without Christ.
The best that can be brought of the fruit of the ground is worthless unless it shows faith in Christ, for strenuous efforts to carry out one's own designs are to eternal disadvantage unless self is crucified, the soul is sanctified by Jesus who gave His life for a fallen world, the character is transformed, and faith in Christ is shown, without which no one can rest on God any more than Cain could. Offerings must not be only of the fruits of the ground and not the very choicest gift and the Lord's specified claim, but must be the giving of our own individual lives as the purchased possession of the beloved Son of God, in acknowledgment of dependence on God for life and harvest. An empty and Christless offering is cold, unimpressive, and without heavenly moisture, like pulpit declamations filled with testimonies of the fathers and human opinions and traditions instead of the Word of God, rather than having the glowing fire of Christ's love burning upon the altar of the heart.
An offering made by those who indulge unhealthy appetites and thereby blunt their understanding is no more acceptable than Cain's, for God requires care for body and mind and, after doing what can be done to preserve them, an offering brought in righteousness, while acceptance and salvation still depend on God's mercy. Critical, accusing worship that condemns others is likewise unacceptable to God, as Cain's rejected offering shows. Service that does not serve or glorify the Lord bears Cain's character, the opposite of the divine likeness, marked by an unsanctified heart devoid of mercy, justice, and the love of God, dealing with human souls in a way God does not approve and placing a wrong mold upon those under its charge by acting in spirit and temper as directors and judges and lawyers rather than as fathers. Religious acts without the Holy Spirit's transforming power, lacking the good that comes from dependence on Christ, are only a profession of faith without works.
The Cain-spirit of hatred, which is next of kin to murder, must not be allowed to enter the heart when ideas and methods called truth are not accepted and appreciated by others. Those in whom Christ abides by faith will reveal the Spirit of Christ in good and pleasant words and actions, sweetness of temper, and freedom from angry passion, obstinacy, evil-surmising, and hatred, and the remedy for that spirit is provided in God giving His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Cain hated Abel because Cain refused to heed God's instruction while Abel sought God and followed His will, and that hatred grew until Cain killed him, and the same hatred appears in cherishing bitterness against God's delegated ministers who bring precious light and feed the people of God, for rejecting the message borne by such men is rejecting Christ the Giver of the message, encouraging the attributes of Satan, despising God's ministers, and seeking to justify self.
In process of time the two brothers came to the appointed place of worship, and Cain presented the fruit of his own cultivated ground without joining to it the required firstborn lamb and its blood. God had directed that every offering include a slain lamb without blemish to confess sin and show faith in the promised Redeemer, whose innocent death alone could make remission possible. Because Cain left out that blood he offered a Christless, partial obedience from his own judgment that expressed no repentance, no sense of need, and no dependence on a Saviour outside himself, so God gave no sign of respect for him while He consumed Abel's offering by fire from heaven. He treated his own labor as merit to earn approval, resenting humiliation and the reminder of sin, and under Satan's leading he envied and hated his brother until he slew him. Cain and Abel thus develop the only two orders in humanity ever since, the loyal who come through Christ's blood in implicit obedience and the disloyal who follow their own ideas and works without grace, warning that all Christless teaching, preaching, and service is as valueless as his offering.
Setting of the Offering
In process of time Cain brought his offering within a sacrificial system God Himself had given and that both sons had been taught to observe. The offerings were a test of whether Cain and Abel would believe and obey the word of God, just as Adam had been tested, and from Adam onward God blessed the loyal and obedient. Both brothers knew the provision God had made for salvation and the system He had ordained, that the offerings typified the Saviour, expressed faith in Him and acknowledged total dependence on Him for pardon, and proved obedience by conforming to the divine plan of redemption. They were meant to show humble obedience and faith in and dependence on the promised Saviour, reminding them that sin brings death and that only through the Redeemer could they come into God's presence. Without shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin, and faith in the blood of Christ as the promised atonement was to be shown by offering the firstlings of the flock in sacrifice.
That system had first been established with Adam after his fall and taught by him to his descendants, its true purpose being faith in the Redeemer to come. Offerings to God for religious purposes therefore existed long before Moses, as gifts meant to express appreciation for His mercies and blessings. Before the Flood those who separated from the faithful corrupted the system by sacrificing to gods of their own making instead of the God of heaven, not from faith but to please their gods on polluted idol altars. They held the superstition that the more valuable the sacrifice the greater the pleasure given to their gods and the greater the prosperity and riches of the nation, a course that led even to human sacrifice under cruel laws made without grace.
Cain's offering of the fruit of the ground was brought to the cherubim-guarded gate of Paradise, the appointed place of worship where God's glory was revealed. There the first worshipers came, reared altars, and presented their offerings, Abel bringing his sacrifice to the same place. God condescended to meet and communicate with Cain and Abel there while Eden still stood in sight with watching angels barring its entrance. Cain as a tiller of the ground was carrying on the industry of tilling the soil given to Adam and Eve immediately after the fall. Healthful employment of the physical powers in manual work was God's provision, begun in Eden in dressing and keeping the garden and continued after the curse when the ground brought forth thistles and increased the labor, thus fulfilling one of God's purposes in creating the earth in the wise employment of its occupants.
The fruit of the ground in the verse was the firstfruits of the earth to be presented before the Lord as a thank-offering besides, and in addition to and not in place of, the required blood offering.
What Cain Brought
Cain brought produce from ground he had cultivated by his own toil, and that fruit in itself was good, very good indeed, very acceptable and right. What made it unacceptable was not its nature as fruit, for a thank-offering of firstfruits was right in itself, but that it left out what made any offering required at all. It contained no Saviour and lacked its virtue, the blood of Christ represented by the blood of the slain lamb.
His offering was abundant and outwardly very nice and beautiful with no outward fault, faultless except in one point. That one point was refusal to follow the express direction that every sacrificial offering be accompanied by a slain lamb, so he brought only fruit and would not join to it the blood of beasts. It was therefore empty, with no divine Saviour represented in it, not salted and seasoned with divine fire, which is the communication between God and man opened through Jesus Christ alone and His mediation. Without that mediation and saving significance it could not be acceptable, like a Christless sermon that presents subjects argumentatively, scarcely mentions the saving power of the Redeemer, is destitute of nourishment and the living bread from heaven, and moves no hearer to ask what he must do to be saved.
What God required was the firstborn lamb presented with its blood as a burnt offering, solemnly offered to keep sin and the coming great sacrifice continually in mind, because without shedding of blood there is no remission for sin. That blood typified the promised Redeemer and the great sacrifice to come, and the lamb was required as acknowledgment and confession of sin and as representation of Christ saving the fallen race by becoming Himself the great Sacrifice. Cain refused to show repentance, obedience, and faith in a Redeemer to come, refused to acknowledge need of a Redeemer outside himself, and slighted the blood of the atonement by following his own plan as nobler and less humiliating. He would not procure a lamb even from his brother's flock to offer with the fruit, despising Abel's counsel not to come without blood.
Nor did he bring the best of his produce, not the very choicest gift and not the Lord's specified claim, as Abel brought the firstling of the flock. Even where his offering is described as abundant or as the best he had of the fruit, it lacked the very thing that would have made it of value, and without the lamb all he brought was worthless and valueless. Had he followed the directions and presented the offering typifying the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world, his offering would likewise have been acknowledged and consumed by fire from heaven as Abel's was.
Why God Rejected It
God had expressly directed that every sacrificial offering include a slain lamb without blemish to show faith in the promised Redeemer and belief that without shedding of blood there is no remission for sin. After sin came He gave the promise of One who would die to obtain pardon for the race, and man was to confess that promise by offering the lamb as a burnt offering with shed blood to prefigure the Lamb of God whose blood would be shed to save a lost world. Cain knew this requirement and was told it again by Abel, yet as a tiller of the ground he did not wish to add a lamb from his brother's flock to his firstfruits, thinking his abundant fruit enough, and he would not receive counsel to slay it because he could not understandingly accept it and chose his own will and understanding. His refusal was deliberate, a deception into disregarding a specific command, and it taught the danger of the first step in disobedience, leaning to one's own understanding against a plain requirement until light is eclipsed and place is given for Satan to master the mind and control the judgment.
The blood of the victim typified a future atonement, for the innocent lamb slain pointed forward to Christ the sinless, spotless offering for the sin of the human race. The solemn shedding of blood was appointed to signify repentance for sin and a Redeemer to come, and sacrifices had value and efficacy only as they pointed to Him as the true Sacrifice and Mediator and foreshadowed His death to redeem the world as an expression of faith in Him. When the Jews afterward sealed their rejection of Christ by putting Him to death, their continued offerings became meaningless like Cain's, because sacredness had departed and the system was forever ended by the great final sacrifice.
By bringing fruit alone Cain left out the sacrificial blood of the atonement, slighted that blood, and offered a Christless offering that had no value and could not be acceptable. Though the produce in itself was right and good, it contained no Saviour represented in it, while Abel's offering presented the merit of Christ's blood before the Father. The ordinance was meant to express repentance, obedience, and faith in a coming Redeemer, with the blood of beasts showing dependence on another and acknowledging human weakness and sin, but Cain followed his own plan as nobler and less humiliating and left out the very thing that made any offering required at all. Without that blood the offering was offensive to God, destitute of value before Him, and the same lack marks religious teaching or service without Christ's atoning sacrifice.
His obedience in building an altar and bringing an offering was therefore only partial, following his own plans, ideas, and judgment instead of implicitly obeying God's Word and directions, exalting his own judgment above God's. He refused to follow the exact plan marked out, feeling it an acknowledgment of weakness to trust salvation wholly to the atonement of the promised Saviour, and he acted in a selfish, disobedient, unthankful manner while Abel steadfastly kept the special commands and would not be converted to Cain's way or concede without disobedience, so no harmony was possible. To offer what was never commanded while ignoring a plain command given is disobedience, and those who do so condemn themselves by the righteous works of the obedient, as when men set aside God's law and especially the fourth commandment enjoining the Sabbath as the memorial of creation to institute a spurious first-day sabbath without any word of God requiring it, even while sweeping away the Ten Commandments as nailed to the cross.
His gift expressed no penitence for sin but self-dependence, coming in his own merits and offering his fruits as a favor to God by which he expected to secure divine approval. It showed no repentance, no confession of sin, no acknowledgment of weakness, poverty, and need of mercy and of a Redeemer outside himself, and no humble faith and dependence on the promised Saviour for pardon and access to God. The offerings were meant to show humble obedience and dependence on the promised Saviour and to remind that sin brings death and that only through the Redeemer can man come into God's presence, with blood to represent the Saviour's death, but Cain chose pride and independence rather than submission, resented the reminder of sin, and believed his own plan should be accepted.
God gave no sign that He recognized Cain's offering and showed no respect to Cain and his offering, while He accepted Abel and his offering and consumed it by fire from heaven. Cain could still have corrected his course by presenting the prescribed offering in faith and obedience, and God did not give up His way and will to conciliate him but reasoned with him. The history will be repeated in those who disregard directions and refuse both God's word and the reasoning of the faithful.
Cain's Motives and Fall
Cain brought the fruit of ground he had tilled by his own toil and treated it as a favor to God by which he expected to secure divine approval. His gift expressed self-dependence and self-sufficiency, coming in his own merits and trusting his own efforts for salvation instead of trusting wholly in the atonement of the promised Saviour. It was a Christless way in which finite man makes his own way a model of perfection, self-important and self-sufficient, harsh and severe, without tender mercy, attempting to come to God without coming to Christ and acknowledging that He does it all. Such self-dependent offerings are tainted and polluted sacrifices, for without the blood of Jesus alone to cleanse sins no offering has merit, and even the best and most abundant fruit was worthless and valueless without the lamb. This same principle that man can depend on his own works for salvation by development and self-elevation rather than redemption is followed by by far the greater portion of the world in nearly every false religion, proving humanity has no power to regenerate itself, for apart from Christ man tends not upward toward the divine but downward toward the satanic.
To confess entire dependence upon a Power outside himself was torture to his high, proud spirit, and to keep sin ever before the mind by offering the blood of the slain lamb felt like humiliation and an acknowledgment of weakness. He would not show repentance for sin and faith in a coming Saviour, for dependence humbled his pride, and he resented the reminder of sin and the necessity of ceremonial offerings. He thought his father Adam had been treated harshly in being expelled from Eden and murmured against God because of the curse pronounced on Adam and on the ground.
He cherished rebellion, murmuring, unbelief and infidelity in his heart toward the promised Sacrifice, doubting and murmuring at the necessity of the offerings God had expressly required. Though he knew God desired a lamb without blemish to be added, as a tiller of the ground he did not wish to procure a lamb from his brother's flock to offer with the fruit, would not receive counsel to slay it, and despised the counsel of Abel his younger brother not to come without the blood of a sacrifice. He chose to follow his own will and understanding against God's plain requirement, and the first step of leaning to his own judgment eclipsed heavenly light and gave place to the devil until Satan mastered the mind. His offering was outwardly very nice and beautiful with no outward fault, and abundant, yet he did not even bring the best of his fruits, and it left out the only thing that would have made it of any value, thereby perpetuating Adam's transgression which made necessary the offering of God's only begotten Son.
Satan watched the offerings with intense interest and uneasiness, learned their meaning in the solemn shedding of blood to typify a future atonement and signify repentance, and because it opposed his purposes worked upon Cain's heart to reject them. Led by Satan into rebellion against the required ordinance, Cain placed himself under Satan's control and was made selfish, choosing to serve Satan while Abel chose to serve God, so that Adam's divided family extended the evil begun in Paradise down through the ages. By refusing repentance, faith, and acknowledgment of need of a Redeemer, he became the representative of the great class of unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion, in opposition to Abel as representative of faith and obedience.
Being the eldest he thought his own methods, plans, and example should have supremacy, that Abel should follow him, that his own plans were best, and that the Lord would come to his terms instead of his worshiping according to direction given. In contempt of God's injunction he brought fruit without shedding of blood, rejecting the required sacrifice representing Christ as a Lamb without blemish, with the same enmity against God's rule as those who denounce the law as a dead yoke of bondage. Abel was determined to worship as God directed, steadfastly kept the special commands, protested Cain's principles as disloyal, would not concede without disobedience nor be converted to Cain's way, so there could be no harmony and contention must come.
When no sign was given that his offering was recognized while holy fire from heaven consumed Abel's sacrifice, Cain's anger was exceedingly great, growing very angry, jealous, envious and hateful that his younger brother was accepted and favored while he was rejected. The righteous life of Abel cast by contrast a reproach upon Cain, whose own works were evil, and that envy, which is the offspring of pride, stirred hatred and revenge, displaying Satan's character in fury against one who had done no harm. He argued about his offering and refused to see that disobedience caused its rejection, and though the Lord condescended to explain matters and reason with him rather than give up His way to conciliate him, he would not be reconciled to God. Furious because he could not compel Abel to disobey God, filled with wrath and inspired by Satan, he hated Abel because God showed him favor and rose up and slew him for maintaining that God is just, causing the first death in the world.
Christ and Salvation Taught
Genesis 4:3 shows an offering brought without faith in Jesus and without acknowledgment of the blood of Jesus and the merit of Christ, and without that acknowledgment no offering of man can be acceptable before heaven. Such an offering is devoid of merit because it is not mingled with the virtue of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour, and it has no more merit than human good works without faith or what the world calls morality, which does not reach the divine standard. Self-dependent offerings made without knowing that the blood of Jesus alone can cleanse sins and make an offering acceptable are tainted offerings and polluted sacrifices, amounting to trying to come to God without coming to Christ and acknowledging that He does it all, as if one must first take a few steps and come so far and then God will meet him. If the merit of Christ had been acknowledged the offering would have been beautiful before God and valuable in His sight, and God would have accepted the sacrifice. Refusing to do what God requires in the way that God requires leaves even religious offerings as meritless as Cain's, as with those who refuse the message of mercy and refuse compassion and love yet still make offerings.
Pardon of transgressions comes only through the merits of Jesus and His cleansing blood, which alone can bring man into favor with God, for the fruit offering without blood lacked the virtue of divine mediation and depended on human merits instead of the appointed sacrifice for sin. Refusing to offer the blood of the Son of God is refusing to acknowledge oneself as a lost and undone sinner in need of a Saviour and refusing to believe in the only-begotten Son of God. Such refusal leaves sin remaining upon the sinner instead of having transgressions transferred to Christ and receiving the righteousness of Christ so as to be declared sinless before God. Those who do not accept the cleansing blood are under condemnation, with no other provision made to release them from the thralldom of sin.
The verse exposes the principle that man can depend on his own works for salvation and needs only development and self-elevation rather than redemption, a principle on which nearly every false religion rests and which by far the greater portion of the world follows in Cain's example of trusting his own efforts instead of the atonement. This expectation of exalting humanity to the divine standard independent of the atonement proves that humanity has no power to regenerate itself. The history of Cain shows the result of life apart from Christ: man does not tend upward toward the divine but downward toward the satanic, and Christ is the only hope, salvation, and righteousness.
Sinners must come to Jesus Christ at every step, laying hold upon the meritorious blood of a crucified and risen Saviour as their only hope, righteousness, Substitute and Surety, and with its cleansing power offer petitions and prayer to God, bringing to Him only an offering of praise. Right quality in service comes only by living faith in a personal, all-sufficient Saviour, viewing Christ as the sinner's only hope, taking hold of Him and trusting that He loves, died, and is accepted as the sacrifice, so that God is glorified, for Christless service picturing religious experience without thorough and complete trust in Jesus lacks the right quality and is nothing. Effort and labor are still required on the part of the receiver of God's grace, for fruit makes manifest the character of the tree, and works covered with the merit of Christ testify to the worthiness of the doer to inherit eternal life, since in the judgment the sentence is pronounced in accordance with what has been done or left undone.
All sacrificial offerings have efficacy only as foreshadowing Christ's death to redeem the world and as expression of faith in Him, and Cain's offering had no value because it did not express faith in the Saviour. When the Jews sealed their rejection of Christ by putting Him to death, their continued sacrificial offerings became meaningless like the offering of Cain, because sacredness had departed from the temple and the system of sacrificial offerings was forever at an end after the great final sacrifice. The system first established with Adam after his fall to teach faith in the Redeemer to come had already been corrupted before the flood by those who separated from the faithful, sacrificing to gods of their own making instead of the God of Heaven, not from faith but to please their gods by offering many beasts upon polluted idol altars. Their superstition held that the more valuable the sacrifice the greater the pleasure given to their gods and the greater the prosperity and riches of the nation, leading even to human sacrifice under cruel laws made without grace.
Bringing fruit instead of a blood offering was refusing to accept God's plan in the school of obedience to be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ typified by the sacrificial offerings pointing to Christ. The shedding of blood symbolized the blood of Christ to be shed for the world, a ceremony prepared by God with Christ as the foundation of the whole system and the whole Jewish economy. That refusal led to the death of Abel, and this beginning marks the start of its work as schoolmaster to bring sinful human agents to consider Christ.
Two Classes Foreshadowed
Cain and Abel represent the only two orders in humanity and develop the two principles of right and wrong, Abel faithful and loyal and therefore preferred, Cain disloyal in wishing his own ideas, methods and plans to prevail and, as the elder, to have supremacy. Both were tempted, but Cain accepted temptation and acted toward God in a selfish, disobedient, unthankful manner, following his own way instead of implicitly obeying God's Word, while Abel protested Cain's principles as disloyal and would not concede or be converted to Cain's way without disobedience, so harmony was impossible and contention must come. Furious because he could not compel Abel to disobey, Cain's anger burned hot until, inspired by Satan and filled with wrath, he used force and killed his brother.
Cain stands as head of those who refuse to obey God, set against Abel and those who steadfastly adhere to the commandments of God and conscientiously keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. His course is to support falsehood in opposition to truth and to range on the side of the prince of darkness, while Abel's course is to stand in defense of the law of Jehovah, including the Sabbath of creation. From Abel's persecution and death at his brother's hands there have been two classes upon the earth manifesting the same characteristics, and the same division continues now between those rooted in truth standing shoulder to shoulder in defense of God's law and those yielded to Satan who strive to oppress God's servants as Cain oppressed Abel, with commandment-keepers not in favor with the world or with professed Christians who make void the law.
That history will be repeated till the close of time. Cain's Christless fruit offering without blood, depending on his own merits instead of the appointed sacrifice for sin, stands for a class that feels no need of the blood of Christ and thinks by works without divine grace to secure approval, under condemnation with no other provision to release them from sin, since pardon comes only through the merits of Jesus and His cleansing blood and the offering lacked the virtue of divine mediation. It is the pattern for many forms of religion made up of penances and mortifications or of splendid sights and pageantries, debased by finite human wisdom that drops the spirituality and truth of the Gospel out of reckoning and lacks Christ-like simplicity, becoming mere forms and ceremonies opposed to Christ's kingdom of truth and righteousness, peace and joy. Cain's worshippers instead represent those who turned from Jehovah and followed their own ideas and choice, setting aside God's holy command and what He appointed, though people could have obeyed God's expressed will, and God did not give up His way to conciliate Cain but reasoned with him while giving no sign of recognizing the offering that left out the slain lamb prefiguring the costly offering of the only begotten Son as hope and salvation.
Choosing a spurious rest day in place of the seventh-day Sabbath is choosing the religion of Cain. It sets aside God's law and especially the fourth commandment enjoining the Sabbath as the memorial of creation, and institutes a first-day sabbath in honor of the resurrection without any word of God requiring it, even while sweeping away the Ten Commandments as nailed to the cross, honoring a day of human inventing as Cain honored his own self-chosen offering of firstfruits according to his own ideas, exalting his own judgment above God's and arguing it made no difference. God is dishonored when what is false and impure is made to take the place of the pure and true and will never accept the spurious for the true, so to offer what He never commanded while ignoring a plain command is disobedience, and to obey is better than sacrifice. That disobedient worship bears the marks of oppression even to taking human life, producing anger against God's commandment-keeping people who will not respect Sunday and leading to hateful treatment, compulsion to work on the seventh day and rest on the first, and, as when Abel's righteous works condemned Cain's evil works and God consumed Abel's offering by fire from heaven, to envy, jealousy, bitterness, malice and murder when triumph over the obedient proves impossible.
The same deception that told Cain exact obedience was not required also told Adam he would not die for transgression and now tells men the Ten Commandments were done away at Christ's death. Cain brought his offering in disregard of definite directions and requirements, refused God's word and Abel's reasoning laying those directions before him in the field, and in anger over rejection rose up and slew his brother, proving God accepts created beings only through implicit obedience to His law. Each person must know whether he heeds the voice of the true and living God or the voice of the great apostate. Profession of sanctification by those who dishonor God by transgressing His law has the same value and acceptance as Cain's offering, which is none, for obedience to the commandments is the only true sign of sanctification and disobedience is disloyalty and apostasy.
Envy, the offspring of pride, stirred Cain's heart because Abel's works were righteous and God honored him while Cain's own works were evil and the Lord could not bless him, so Abel's righteous life cast a reproach upon Cain by contrast. That envy leads to hatred and eventually to revenge and murder, displaying Satan's character in stirring fury against one who had done no harm. Indulgence of one known sin deadens the conscience and hardens the heart, so envy, jealousy and hatred move step by step until they ripen into conspiracy to slay and a harvest of crime, as Joseph's brothers showed the same deadly spirit of hatred toward a brother when his coat aroused envy, they counted him a spy for informing against them, and conspired to slay him. The Cain-spirit of hatred next of kin to murder must not enter the heart when ideas and methods called truth are not accepted, but those in whom Christ abides by faith will reveal His Spirit in good and pleasant words and actions, sweetness of temper, and freedom from angry passion, obstinacy, evil-surmising and hatred, for God gave His only begotten Son so whoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life.
Warning for Worship Today
Cain's fruit was right in itself, yet without the sacrificial blood of atonement it had no value and could not be accepted, and in the same way religious teaching and service without Christ's atoning sacrifice cannot bring souls to God. A godless discourse without the spirit and power of truth, preaching of doctrinal argument without true conversion and without harmony with God, and sermonizing that presents subjects in an argumentative way while scarcely mentioning the saving power of the Redeemer are that same unacceptable offering. Such preaching is destitute of nourishment because the preacher has not partaken of the living bread from heaven, destitute of the saving blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses from all sin, so hearers are not pricked in the heart and do not ask what they must do to be saved.
Any discourse, sermon, or article that leaves out faith in Christ as the sinner's only hope and fails to keep His righteousness connected with the law constantly before the sinner is Christless like Cain's offering, self-tainted and worthless, and heavenly intelligences look upon it with amazement and sorrow. To leave out Christ and dwell too lightly on His love, His humiliation to die a shameful death on the cross, His righteousness given to man, and the wonders of redemption fully and continuously presented, is to offer dry theory that is cold, unimpressive, destitute of nourishment and heavenly moisture, and that starves precious souls for the bread of life. Many long sermons are profitless for this reason, for length is no proof of ministerial ability, and such Christless discourses tire the people and fail to give proper spiritual food because ministry requires more than sermonizing and requires personal experience of Christ. Preaching and writing must instead keep Christ central in everything said and written, with the eye single to the glory of God, stirring hearts with the meekness and lowliness learned from Him and answering His prayer that believers be one as He is one with the Father.
Going through a round of formal ceremonies without true obedience is Cain's work, the work of one who rejects Christ, like the formal ceremonies of those who reject Christ yet try to obey the law, for no one who rejects Christ can possibly keep the law. Presenting the law of God largely while leaving out Christ is an offering destitute of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His relation to the law, and it measures what congregations receive when the law is preached without Christ.
The best that can be brought of the fruit of the ground is worthless unless it shows faith in Christ, for strenuous efforts to carry out one's own designs are to eternal disadvantage unless self is crucified, the soul is sanctified by Jesus who gave His life for a fallen world, the character is transformed, and faith in Christ is shown, without which no one can rest on God any more than Cain could. Offerings must not be only of the fruits of the ground and not the very choicest gift and the Lord's specified claim, but must be the giving of our own individual lives as the purchased possession of the beloved Son of God, in acknowledgment of dependence on God for life and harvest. An empty and Christless offering is cold, unimpressive, and without heavenly moisture, like pulpit declamations filled with testimonies of the fathers and human opinions and traditions instead of the Word of God, rather than having the glowing fire of Christ's love burning upon the altar of the heart.
An offering made by those who indulge unhealthy appetites and thereby blunt their understanding is no more acceptable than Cain's, for God requires care for body and mind and, after doing what can be done to preserve them, an offering brought in righteousness, while acceptance and salvation still depend on God's mercy. Critical, accusing worship that condemns others is likewise unacceptable to God, as Cain's rejected offering shows. Service that does not serve or glorify the Lord bears Cain's character, the opposite of the divine likeness, marked by an unsanctified heart devoid of mercy, justice, and the love of God, dealing with human souls in a way God does not approve and placing a wrong mold upon those under its charge by acting in spirit and temper as directors and judges and lawyers rather than as fathers. Religious acts without the Holy Spirit's transforming power, lacking the good that comes from dependence on Christ, are only a profession of faith without works.
The Cain-spirit of hatred, which is next of kin to murder, must not be allowed to enter the heart when ideas and methods called truth are not accepted and appreciated by others. Those in whom Christ abides by faith will reveal the Spirit of Christ in good and pleasant words and actions, sweetness of temper, and freedom from angry passion, obstinacy, evil-surmising, and hatred, and the remedy for that spirit is provided in God giving His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Cain hated Abel because Cain refused to heed God's instruction while Abel sought God and followed His will, and that hatred grew until Cain killed him, and the same hatred appears in cherishing bitterness against God's delegated ministers who bring precious light and feed the people of God, for rejecting the message borne by such men is rejecting Christ the Giver of the message, encouraging the attributes of Satan, despising God's ministers, and seeking to justify self.