ACCEPTANCE—ABEL

In Abel we learn how a sinner can obtain favour with God. In Romans 5: 1, 2 we read, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace [favour] wherein we stand”. So that the believer is not only justified, delivered from all fear of judgment, but is accepted in all the favour of God. It is a great thing to be in the favour of God, to know that He has delight in us. If that be so what will He not do for us? He will bring us to glory. Everything depends upon that by which we come. Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. He “brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof”, Gen 4: 4. There was the recognition of the presence of sin, and what was due to God, and there was in figure the presentation of Christ in all the excellence of that work in which He glorified God in the putting away of sin. Christ offered Himself without spot to God, and in doing so He expressed His perfect obedience and devotion to the will and glory of God. It was all a sweet savour to God. Christ has now gone up to God in all the sweet savour of His sacrifice, and in all the perfection of His manhood. In Him we see man in divine favour, man accepted of God. The believer coming to God by Him is accepted in all the sweet savour of His sacrifice, and in all the excellence of His Person. In coming to God thus I do not think of myself, nor do I suppose any goodness in myself; in accepting His death as the ground on which I come, I admit that I am a sinner. I come by Jesus, I am accepted according to all the excellence which God sees in His sacrifice, in which He perfectly glorified God. This is what was typified in Abel’s offering, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. He did not testify that Abel was a better man than Cain. Everything depended on the gifts. There was nothing in Cain’s offering that God could accept, there was no recognition of sin, nor of what was due to God on account of sin, nothing which typified Christ. There is no doubt that God had given the same testimony to both. Abel obeyed the gospel, while Cain ignored it, and acted according to his own mind and will. God said to Cain, “if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door”, v 7. He might have been accepted. There are only two religions today, that of reason and that of faith. If we would come to God, we must come in His appointed way, that is, by Christ Jesus. There are not two ways, there is no room for the exercise of our reason. “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”, 1 Tim 2: 5. The one who comes by Him stands in the same favour in which Christ is. He is the measure of our acceptance. “He hath made us accepted in the beloved”, Eph 1: 6. I hope that all my young friends who read this paper will come to enjoy the blessing of knowing that they stand in divine favour, through faith, the favour in which Christ is.

From Goodly Words vol 1 (1923)