We are told that "by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain" (Heb. 11:4); and in Genesis 4:4 it is stated that Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock for he was a keeper of sheep. The Scriptures make clear that the Lamb is typical of our Lord Jesus. As John the Baptist was speaking one day and Jesus was approaching him, he said "Behold the Lamb of God that beareth away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). And Peter specifically says that Christ Jesus shed His "precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (I Pet. 1:19). So we have ample authority to speak of Abel's lamb as a type of Christ, our Saviour.

Cain and Abel set forth two kinds of worshippers. Both were sinners. By faith Abel knew it and knew he needed a sacrifice of blood. That he needed a substitute he had no doubt. Cain seems to have been destitute of a real sense of sin and its awfulness and his need of atonement. That God had given some precious revelation or promise pointing the way that a guilty sinner might approach Him is seen in the words "By faith Abel offered" his more excellent sacrifice. How else would they have known to have come to God with a sacrifice at all?

Cain rejected God's plan and was content with a bloodless offering. "He brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord" (Gen. 4:3). And he was angered when God refused to accept such an offering as his, just as men are today when they expect to present their own self-righteousness to God, and He tells them in the Word "that all of your righteousnesses are as filthy rags." Abel's attitude was "God be merciful to me a sinner," while Cain's attitude was "I thank Thee that I am not as other men are."

Abel's lamb portrays the "Lamb of God" in these respects:

Abel's offering was a lamb. "He "brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof" (Gen. 4:4). He was happy to bring a lamb, a life for a life. Cain was content in his own self-reliance. God's offering was the "Lamb of God," the Lord Jesus Christ as John the Baptist tells us in John 1:29.

Abel's lamb was of the firstlings of the flock as is recorded in Genesis 4:4. The best is none too good as he offers to God his substitute. God's offering, the Lord Jesus, who is the Lamb, was the first born of all creation as Colossians 1:15 states it. God's offering is the perfect One.

Abel's lamb was innocent and harmless. A Lamb fitly symbolizes the unresisting innocency and harmlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ. "By faith Abel offered" and of course his offering was the lamb. Faith sees where sight cannot reason through. God's Lamb was the Lord Jesus, slain, "foreordained before the foundation of the world" (I Pet. 1:20). He was the innocent, harmless One of whom His own enemies must confess "I find no fault in Him." He was offered "The Just for the unjust that He might bring us to God" (I Pet. 3:18). Praise God for the Lamb who is "able also to save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them." He it is who is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

Abel's lamb, being offered, fulfilled God's principle of blood shedding as stated in Hebrews 9:22. "And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering" (Gen. 4:4b). In the third chapter of Genesis Adam and Eve were clothed with coats of skin. Here is the principle of "without the shedding of blood there is no remission" in operation, and the coats of skin were symbolic of His righteousness. We often sing, "dressed in His righteousness alone. Faultless to stand before the throne," which is sound Bible doctrine. In Genesis 3:21 the "coats of skin" typify "Christ made unto us righteousness" — A divinely provided garment that the first sinners might be made fit for God's presence. We see in action in the life of Abel the great principle of atonement, who by faith "offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. . . and by it being dead yet speaketh."

Christ Jesus, God's Lamb, being offered, fulfills God's principle of blood-shedding for the redemption of mankind, so that every believer "Can come boldly unto the throne of grace, by a new, and living way, through the blood of Jesus." He it was who said, "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." He came "not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many." We do praise God for the Son of His love, and for cleansing blood (I John 1:7).

Again Abel's lamb cleared completely the prospect for death and

judgment for him. He stands complete in His Substitute. "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous" (Heb. 11:4). The righteousness of God is neither an attribute of God, nor the changed character of the believer, but Christ Himself, who is "made unto righteousness" (I Cor. 1:30). In Him we are complete. "Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say, rejoice." Every believer has a right rejoice.

Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God clears completely the prospect for death and judgment for every believer, and gives life, righteousness and peace, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Chris (Rom. 5:1), and "There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). We may we sing:

"There is a Fountain filled with blood
     Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath the that flood,
     Lose all their guilty stains;
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
     Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed Church God
     Be saved to sin no more.
E'er since by faith I saw the stream
     Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme
     And shall be till I die."

"Salvation by grace through faith was Abel's only hope, and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the anti-type, is the only hope for any one; "for if ye believe now that I am He, ye shall die in your sins" (John 8:24b). "Neither is the salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby ye must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

Believe this precious message, and pass it on.

"Lord, I beseech that I may teach
     With love like thine to me,
And so, with wise and loving speech.
     Bring many a heart to me"

                                 Rev. Thos. Davis