Volume 40: An Unacceptable Offering?

AN UNACCEPTABLE OFFERING?

Genesis 4 opens with Cain and Abel both bringing an offering to God, but only one is accepted. That immediately teaches us something important: the fact that we bring something to God does not automatically mean God is pleased with what we bring.

Hebrews explains the difference: “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain” (Hebrews 11:4).

That makes Genesis 4 a natural continuation of everything we’ve been learning. Cain and Abel now demonstrate what happens when the next generation approaches God.

The question isn’t simply, “Did I give God something?” The question is, “Did I give God what He asked for, the way He asked for it?”

Because sincere worship is not defined by what we are willing to give God. It is defined by whether we are willing to obey Him.

And this is where Genesis 4 becomes painfully relevant to modern Christianity. We are living in a time when it is increasingly popular to present God with a version of Christianity that requires little to no personal sacrifice.

We want Jesus as Savior without surrendering to Him as Lord. We want His promises without His commands, His blessings without His boundaries, and His grace without allowing that grace to transform the way we live.

Even worse, we want to understand the Bible without reading it.

But Paul writes, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).

Notice that word: acceptable. Cain brought an offering, but God did not accept it. Paul tells believers that our lives themselves are now to become an offering that should be “holy, acceptable unto God.”

And God calls this our “reasonable service.” In other words, surrender is not some extreme version of Christianity reserved for unusually devoted believers. Considering what Christ has done for us, giving ourselves completely to Him is the reasonable response.

Yet modern Christianity can sometimes teach us to ask, “How much can I keep and still follow Jesus?” How much of my lifestyle can I keep? How much of my thinking can I keep? How much of the culture can I embrace? How much disobedience can grace tolerate? But a sacrifice does not negotiate which parts of itself will be placed upon the altar.

Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

Christianity was never supposed to be Jesus added to the life we already wanted. Following Christ means placing the life we wanted into His hands and allowing Him to determine what our new lives should look like.

Cain’s unacceptable offering should therefore make every believer examine what we are presenting to God. We should give God ourselves.

So before asking God to accept what is in our hands, perhaps we should first ask whether we have given Him what He really wants—our whole lives.

Because God is still worthy of more than whatever we decide to give Him. He is worthy of an acceptable offering.