Do We?

DEVOTION

HEBREWS

DO WE?

Heb 11:4

4 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.

NIV

It is unclear why a fat portion of one of Abel’s flock was an acceptable sacrifice when a grain offering from Cain was not. Yet that is the case and perhaps from the very beginning of man’s existence God was declaring that the only acceptable sacrifice was that brought by blood. Abel had to kill one from his flock to offer this fat portion while it actually cost nothing for Cain to bring something that could be replenished the next harvest. Was it because Abel demonstrated more faith in giving up one from his flock and that he was not guaranteed it would be replaced, while Cain had no doubt he could just plant and harvest more? Of course Abel brought fat portions from some of his firstborn of the flock. This is the truth here, the firstborn. God was already telling mankind about the firstborn being the acceptable sacrifice. Abel’s faith was in God, he knew God was going to bless him, and bring more to his flock, but he never saw that blessing for Cain murdered him. That would have to speak to us today in some sense that we need nothing but the firstborn as an acceptable offering to God. Now he gave his firstborn for us, Jesus. The only firstborn we have to give is ourselves. We can offer ourselves as living sacrifices holy and acceptable onto the Lord which is our reasonable act of worship. We are the firstborn of us, no other will do. Anything else we could offer to God would be as Cain’s offering, able to be replenished by our own hands. No matter what is it, anything material can be replaced by our own hard work, our self-reliance, but we cannot replace our own being. Giving God our all, our whole being is the only pleasing act of worship. Do we want to be commended as a righteous person by God? Yes, we must accept His firstborn as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. It is true; by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we are saved and will go to heaven, if we persevere, not giving up or giving in to the old ways, shrinking back as we have seen earlier in the letter. But once saved is that all we need to do? Is just being saved enough? Can we just go about living to serve our own desires, our own pleasures, our own dreams and ambitions and not bring any offering to God? The only thing we truly have, truly possess that cannot be replaced is ourselves. Do we have that kind of faith? Do we?