Saturday, May 14, 2005
Pointing to the Lamb
Going back to Genesis, The First Gospel has already been proposed by God. So much has happened already in the first few verses. Men and women are created by God with His spoken word, out of nothing, in His own amazing image. Haven’t you ever wondered how people do such amazing creative things? It is such a gift to be in God’s image, representing Him on earth. Of course, that representation is tarnished by our poor choices. We rejected the perfect, personal relationship with God by making choices selfishly, rejecting God’s Word. It seems so innocent, how Eve and then Adam simply ate the fruit cause “someone” told them it would be okay. Still today, nothing has changed…many people seem innocent enough, good enough. Some deny God’s existence and some figure God as someone He’s not. They might see God as wonderful, loving, all-accepting, bar none. So they think it is okay to approach Him as they are. They would argue for Eve’s innocence…she was a victim of circumstance. But remember how Adam and Eve were put out of the garden—the perfect existence with God dwelling with them. Adam and Eve were disgraced by sin now. God cannot dwell with sin. “Your Eyes are too pure to look on evil.” Habakkuk 1:13 “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” Isaiah 59:2 God is Holy and set apart. “There is none else beside Him.” Deuteronomy 4:35
When man’s first born sons, Cain and Abel, approached God, the fall into darkness irreversibly set, Abel somehow understood and accepted the magnitude of approaching God in such a fallen, sinful state. Abel had the vision, no doubt taught by his parents, to see the lamb as significant. God had already begun here at the beginning of human history, pointing to the Lamb. Abel took a little lamb—perfect—killed it and gave it to God. Ugly, huh? Cain offered fruits from the harvest. Still life at its best! God asks for first grain offerings later on which can make the rejection of Cain’s handiwork a bit of a mystery. But Edith Schaeffer offers an explanation. Cain prepared the basket with his own hands, and saw no need to come to God in “any special way”. He came as he was. Abel believed that “he himself could not make up for what had been done, that it was impossible to figure out a way of paying for sin oneself, that it was necessary for the price to be paid in another way, and that God had really spoken truth when He said to come with the lamb, as a sacrifice.” (p 39, Christianity is Jewish) The first murder hasn’t even been committed yet and in this relativistic world, this seems way too much fuss over nothing. Gotta know, it wasn’t about the fruit. Trusting Elohim at His Word and obedience was all God wanted. So difficult (it would seem we can’t get it!), yet so simple (the choice…oh, that’s why Billy Graham calls his periodical Decision!)
When man’s first born sons, Cain and Abel, approached God, the fall into darkness irreversibly set, Abel somehow understood and accepted the magnitude of approaching God in such a fallen, sinful state. Abel had the vision, no doubt taught by his parents, to see the lamb as significant. God had already begun here at the beginning of human history, pointing to the Lamb. Abel took a little lamb—perfect—killed it and gave it to God. Ugly, huh? Cain offered fruits from the harvest. Still life at its best! God asks for first grain offerings later on which can make the rejection of Cain’s handiwork a bit of a mystery. But Edith Schaeffer offers an explanation. Cain prepared the basket with his own hands, and saw no need to come to God in “any special way”. He came as he was. Abel believed that “he himself could not make up for what had been done, that it was impossible to figure out a way of paying for sin oneself, that it was necessary for the price to be paid in another way, and that God had really spoken truth when He said to come with the lamb, as a sacrifice.” (p 39, Christianity is Jewish) The first murder hasn’t even been committed yet and in this relativistic world, this seems way too much fuss over nothing. Gotta know, it wasn’t about the fruit. Trusting Elohim at His Word and obedience was all God wanted. So difficult (it would seem we can’t get it!), yet so simple (the choice…oh, that’s why Billy Graham calls his periodical Decision!)
