{"id":225780,"date":"2025-10-21T01:22:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T08:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vayhub.us\/rdpt22\/?p=225780"},"modified":"2025-10-20T20:05:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T03:05:59","slug":"gea07-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vayhub.us\/rdpt22\/gea07-2","title":{"rendered":"GeA07-2: The Religion of Faith and the Religion of Merit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"\">Genesis 4:2b\u20137 (NIV84)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><sup>2b<\/sup>Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. <sup>3<\/sup>In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. <sup>4<\/sup>But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, <sup>5<\/sup>but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. <sup>6<\/sup>Then the Lord said to Cain, \u201cWhy are you angry? Why is your face downcast? <sup>7<\/sup>If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Hebrews 11:4 (NIV84)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><sup>4<\/sup>By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Why did God reject Cain? The question has echoed through the ages. Was his offering subpar? Was the form of his worship incorrect? The New Testament gives us the key: <em>\u201cBy faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.\u201d<\/em> The difference was not in the contents of their hands but in the conviction of their hearts. Abel\u2019s sacrifice was offered <em>&#8220;by faith.&#8221;<\/em> But faith in what? At this point in the Bible, the only plausible answer was faith in the promise whispered in the garden (Gen. 3:15), the promise that God Himself would provide the rescue, that a Savior would come through grace. Abel\u2019s offering was his way of saying, &#8220;I am a sinner, and I have no standing here on my own. I come to you trusting only in Your promise to save.&#8221; It was an act of profound humility and dependence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Cain\u2019s offering, therefore, must have been the opposite. It was a sacrifice without this faith. It was the presentation of his own hard work, the fruit of his own sweat, as if to say, \u201cHere, God. Look at what I have accomplished. This should be sufficient.\u201d It is the first instance of religion as self-salvation. It is the great and tragic lie of the serpent retooled for a religious context: that we can, by our own efforts, make ourselves right with God. The great paradox of the gospel is this: those who come to God admitting their utter unworthiness and relying solely on His grace find favor. Those who come to God attempting to earn his favor through their accomplishments never feel sure of it and grow resentful when it is not granted. Cain\u2019s anger is not mere disappointment; it is the burning indignation of a man who believes he has been treated unjustly. He believes God owes him, and his &#8220;downcast face&#8221; is the external sign of a heart that has made itself judge over God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Reflect, Share &amp; Prayer:<\/strong> In what areas of your life are you tempted to rely on your own goodness, effort, or accomplishments for your sense of worth before God or others? Pray for the humility to rest entirely in God&#8217;s grace, as Abel did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Genesis 4:2b\u20137 (NIV84) 2bNow Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genesis-a"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>GeA07-2: The Religion of Faith and the Religion of Merit - Redemption Point<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GeA07-2: The Religion of Faith and the Religion of Merit - Redemption Point\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Genesis 4:2b\u20137 (NIV84) 2bNow Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. 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