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“Cain”

Read Genesis 4:1-16

Cain was no atheist. He believed in God. The trouble with Cain was that he had his own ideas and attitude about God and how He should be approached.  One could say Cain had his own religion. In fact, Cain invented “religion.”

 God had made things clear to Adam and Eve. He was to be approached on His terms or not at all. When Adam and Eve appeared before Him in the fig leaves formed of their own righteousness—their own efforts to cover their nakedness and guilt—God made it clear that all such efforts were in vain. Sin was so radical an offense against God that it could only be atoned for by blood.

 So God took a living creature, shed its blood, took the skin of the innocent animal—Adam and Eve’s substitute in the place of death—and with that skin, He clothed them. This was a finger-pointing to Calvary. This was the way God was to be approached: the one and only way. (Genesis 3)

 I believe Cain knew the right way to approach God, for Cain was a religious man. But he had no use for a plan of salvation that proclaimed his religion to be false, contrary to God’s Word, and sinful to the core.

 Let's consider some things that Cain substituted. 

 He Substituted Reason for Revelation

Human reasoning powers are very remarkable indeed. Man’s ability to think, to solve problems, and to achieve intellectual heights is evidence that man was made in the image and likeness of God. Since the Fall, man’s reasoning powers are often flawed. This is especially true in the matter of religion. We see it demonstrated every day in our society and in our own lives. We come to wrong conclusions, and we make wrong decisions. Human reasoning, great as it is, can lead people of equal intelligence to opposite conclusions.

 Let me illustrate this. Two doctors examine a puzzling case. They study the same symptoms, read the same case histories, and resort to the same medical texts, but they come up with opposite remedies. One doctor says, “Clearly a case of appendicitis.” Another doctor says, “No! It is ulcerative colitis.” So, the poor patient simply has to be patient while the learned doctors practice on him.

 Human reasoning, while capable of remarkable brilliance, is equally capable of remarkable blunders. And, when it comes to man’s knowledge of God, human reasoning simply has to give way to divine revelation.

 God had made it clear to Adam and Eve just how and on what grounds He, in all His awesome holiness, could be approached. They must come His way or not at all. Cain substituted reason for revelation. He had his own ideas about how God might be approached. His self-invented religion is called by God “the way of Cain.” It embodies the essence of all human religion.