06.07. The Two Ways of Access
The Two Ways of Access
"By faith Abel offered unto God a move excellent sacrifice than Cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God Himself bearing witness to his gifts: and by it [i.e., by means of his faith which led to his martyrdom] he, having died, yet speaketh." As "faith [cometh] by hearing" (Rom 10:17), Abel and Cain must both have heard what sacrifice they were to bring. As hearing [cometh] by, and consists of, what we hear through the Word of God, Abel and Cain must both have heard from God.
Otherwise it would have been by fancy, and not by faith; and there would not have been room, either for obedience on the one hand, or for disobedience on the other.
We find further particulars on this matter in the history, as recorded in Gen 4:1-26. But first we have to notice the place where the history is written. In Gen 1:1-31 we have the creation of man. In Gen 2:1-25 we have man in communion with God. In Gen 3:1-24 we have the Fall of man; and, at the end (Gen 3:24), we see man driven out from the presence of the LORD God. In Gen 4:1-26 we have the way back to God made known. This is the first thing that is revealed after the Fall. It stands on the forefront of revelation. It is no mere fragment of Hebrew folk-lore to be dismissed as an "old-wives’-fable." But it takes its place here, in God’s revelation, as being the first and earliest event, not only in Chronological or Historical order, but as being the first in Experimental order also. It is the first great lesson that is written down in the Scriptures of truth—"for our learning."
God must have spoken (as we have said) to Cain and Abel, concerning the manner in which He would be approached. He must have spoken of the way in which those who had been driven out might return back, and have access to Himself. The lesson which is taught us by this first example of faith is that, Abel believed that which he had heard from God on this all important subject, and Cain did not believe God.
It is worthy of remark that in the Historical order in Gen 4:3-4, Cain is mentioned first, and in the Experimental order in Heb 9:4, Abel is mentioned first.
Cain is mentioned first, in the history, for he was the elder. He brought his "offering unto the Lord." He was not godless, as is often represented. On the contrary he was most "religious," and the offering which he brought cost him much more than Abel’s did. He sought access to the same Lord and looked for the same blessing as Abel did. But the point is, that the way back which he took, was his own way: while the way which Abel took was God’s way, which He had revealed and laid down.
Cain had heard the "report" as well as Abel, but he did not believe God. He invented what he must have supposed to be a better, or more excellent way.
"Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, an offering unto Jehovah" (Gen 4:3). But, that ground the LORD God had just before put under the curse for man’s sin, and had said to Adam "cursed is the ground for thy sake" (Gen 3:17).
Cain, therefore, brought, as his offering to the Lord that which He had pronounced to be "cursed."
Abel, on the contrary, brought of the firstlings[11] of his flock, and the fat thereof.
What was it that made Abel’s a more excellent[12] sacrifice than Cain’s?
Commentators have speculated much, and differed widely as to this. A variety of causes has been assigned. But there is no room for more than one interpretation the moment we remember what the words "by faith" mean.
They mean that God had spoken; that Cain and Abel had heard; that Abel obeyed God and Cain did not! The whole matter is perfectly simple. And the lesson it brings home to our hearts today is just as simple and clear.
It was a question, as we have seen, of believing what had been spoken as to THE WAY BACK TO GOD.
God’s way back (which Abel took) was by sacrifice, by the death of a substitute, by the blood of Atonement.
Man’s way back (which Cain invented) was "without blood"; and a way which he had devised out of his own heart. But, "without the shedding of blood is no remission of sin" (Heb 9:22).
Cain might have brought his sin-offering just as easily as Abel. It lay at his door (Gen 4:7, see R.V. margin); it was ready to his hand. If he "did well" he needed no sin-offering; and he would have been "accepted." If he did not well, and sinned, then God would have had respect to his offering as He had to Abel’s.
No! it was the "New Theology" of his day: and it consisted in not believing what God had spoken; and in inventing a "New" way of his own. In this lay his sin. This is why God "had not respect" to his offering, however much Cain may have worked to produce it. The "sweat of his brow" could be no substitute for the "blood of the lamb." In all this we are shown the great fact that there never have been but these "two ways" in the world’s history.
However many and however various may be the religions of the world, all may be reduced to these two. Whatever may be the excrescences and eccentricities of man’s imagination, there is always this "reversion to type" (as Evolutionists say).
Here we have the typical embryo of all the subsequent "History of Religions."
Man may hold his "Parliament of Religions,"[13] but when all his talking is done, there is a reversion to type, and we come back to these two primal facts, and to these two ways.
One is God’s way, the other is man’s,
One is by faith, the other is by fancy,
One is of grace, the other is of merit,
One is of faith, the other is of works,
One is Christianity, the other is Religion. The one rests on what God has said, the other rests on what man thinks. The one rests on what Christ has done, the other rests on what man can do.
These two words sum up and embody the two ways—"DONE" and "DO." As to what man is to "do" there is no end to the variety. In no sphere is evolution seen to such a remarkable extent.
Evolution is a solemn fact, but it is seen only in human affairs, because man has departed from God.[14]
Nowhere else is evolution seen. Outside human affairs the evidences of evolution are non-existent: but it is, undeniably, the order of this present evil world where evil is found; for evil, like evolution, is not found outside man’s world. There is no escape for man but God’s appointment for him, and that is death. This is why it is Christ’s work to "deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God, our Father" (Gal 1:4).
Evolution consists in unbelief and in departure from God. Hence it is that we see its germ first exhibiting itself specially in the religious sphere of human affairs. In the Divine sphere, whether in the animal or vegetable kingdoms, we look in vain for any trace of its action.
We see it working in the medical, legal, military, naval, artistic, and in every department of the scientific spheres, but it is in the religious sphere that it was first seen; and it is in Gen 4:1-26, in the history of Cain and Abel that God shows us its beginning. Jabal and Jubal, and Tubal-Cain and a generation of artificers soon followed in "the way of Cain" (Gen 4:20-22).
"The way of Cain" was the first step in the evolution of Religion. Its developments and ramifications are today innumerable. But in the way of Abel there has never been any evolution. Substitution and the shedding of blood remain the only way for "the remission of sins" to this present moment; and will remain the same to the end.
These are the Two Ways which are set before us here in Cain and Abel. In the one no change has ever taken place; it is the only way back to God. Christ suffered "the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God" (1Pe 3:19). This is its end, and it is headed up in Christ. In the other, there has been nothing but change. Evolution has run its constant and persistent course, and will continue so to do until it reaches its end in the deification of man, and is headed up in Antichrist.
All who are in "the way of Cain" are labouring on behalf of man, and for man’s improvement. They are ready with their own ideas as to what man must DO to be saved.
Whatever may be the varieties evolved from man’s imagination they are all one in asserting that man MUST do something. Whatever their differences or their controversies, they all agree in that. Man must DO SOMETHING.
Man must be something, feel something, experience something, give something, pay something, and produce something. He must be called and "registered" something [15]. He must DO something.
They all insist on the last however they may differ about the others. Where they do differ is only in what the "something" is to be. It is this which accounts for the vast number of different systems of religion which have been evolved in the world’s history. All these are rightly called "Religions." Even "the Christian Religion" is only one of them; and has as many Sects and Divisions as any of the others.
However many may be these differing forms, they are all one in Doing, while in true Christianity they are "all one in Christ" only.
Christianity is of God; and consists in a Person—Christ; Religion is of man, and is carried on for man, and in his interests. It consists of men’s Forms, and Rites, and Ceremonies, Articles, Creeds, Confessions, Doctrines, and Traditions, Churches and Chapels, and Synagogues, Halls, and Rooms.
If your something does not agree with that of others, then be careful, or you may be killed, as Abel was, by one of these Cains. For, there is nothing in the world so cruel as Religion.
It was Religion that murdered Abel. It was Religion that killed the Prophets, Crucified Christ,[16] and produced the noble army of Martyrs.
It was Religion and the strife of religious sects that delivered Jerusalem to the sword and power of Rome.
It was Religion that afterward wrested Jerusalem from Rome, and terrified Europe by the threatened advance of the Saracen’s sword.
It was Religion that deluged the Holy Land with the blood of the Crusades.
It was the Religion of Pagan Rome that cried "the Christians to the Lions."
It was the Religion of Papal Rome that gave Christians to the Stake; that invented all the tortures of the Inquisition; that sent forth Armadas with its instruments of torture, and has ever since been engaged in foul Conspiracies, Plots, and "Knavish Tricks" in order to obtain and secure its ascendancy.
It is Religion today that lies at the root of, and pervades the world’s political strife: and it is in the struggle for Religious supremacy in "Rome Rule" and "Education" that the greatest bitterness, "envy, hatred and malice, and all uncharitableness," are manifested and exhibited in the political controversies in the present day. The question of 1Jn 3:11-12, brings out the contrast between Christian love and Religious hate.
"This is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain [who was] of that Evil one, and slew his own brother. And on what account slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous."
Cain’s works were evil, because they were his own, and of the Evil one, who (in the previous chapter) had ruined his parents by the same unbelief in God’s words. Abel’s works were righteous, because they were "by faith," and according to what God required. Hence Cain’s hatred, and hence Cain’s murder.
It will be found that Religion has shed more blood, and produced more sorrow and crying than all the wars and desolations caused by the politics and dynasties of the world put together. There have been, and still are, the wars of Creeds, as well as of Races.
There is more in the Margin of Gen 4:10, than appears on the surface. The words of the LORD to Cain are full of significance: "What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s bloods crieth unto me from the ground." We must need explain this plural, "bloods." In the ancient Jewish Commentary,[17] we read: "He says not blood, but thy brother’s bloods, i.e., his blood, and the blood of his posterities, his seeds."
It seems, almost, as though the Lord Jesus meant the same when He said: "That upon you might come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias."
Whether these interpretations be correct or not, the fact remains most solemnly true that all these various Religions are one, in origin, in character, and outcome, and also in cruelty. In the vital matter of Salvation they unite, and are ONE, in saying with one voice:—
SOMETHING in my hand I bring.
Whereas, in true Christianity, which is Christ, the convicted sinner proclaims the existence of the great dividing gulf, and says:—
"NOTHING in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy Cross I cling." This puts nothing between the sinner and the Saviour; whereas it is the essence of all Religions to put something, whether it be a Priest, or Sacraments, or Creeds, or Ceremonies of some kind or other. Something has to be said, or done, or believed, or felt, without which, they, as one Creed puts it, "Cannot be saved." This is the first great lesson which we learn from Abel’s faith:—"The Two Ways of Access." In one of those two ways, each one who reads these lines, stands, today.
Either he is trusting to something instead of Christ, or to something in addition to Christ; or, he is trusting wholly in the merits of that Substitute whom God has provided, even the precious blood of that Lamb which "speaketh better things than that of Abel" (Heb 12:24).