Accepted by God. If?

[Cameron143]

Well, like you, I'm in the Learning Stage... not the Teaching Stage, lol.
But, for myself, I'm convinced that Scripture makes it clear that works have little or nothing to do with Salvation.

So, in regard to Cain's sacrifice, I lean towards the idea that Cain's heart wasn't right... in some form or fashion.

I'm hesitant to believe that God was accepting/not accepting Adam & Eve's covering of themselves... I don't think that He was being critical of them at all. (Hope that makes sense?)
But would consider the possibility that God was introducing the concept that only blood could atone for sin.

Just FYI...every stage is a learning stage.

 

[Cameron143]

Well, like you, I'm in the Learning Stage... not the Teaching Stage, lol.
But, for myself, I'm convinced that Scripture makes it clear that works have little or nothing to do with Salvation.

So, in regard to Cain's sacrifice, I lean towards the idea that Cain's heart wasn't right... in some form or fashion.

I'm hesitant to believe that God was accepting/not accepting Adam & Eve's covering of themselves... I don't think that He was being critical of them at all. (Hope that makes sense?)
But would consider the possibility that God was introducing the concept that only blood could atone for sin.

About the covering, 3 points:
1. God's covering required the shedding of blood just as Christ's righteous covering required. Adam and Eves did not.
2. God's covering represents the true covering. Adam and Eves covering represented man choosing how to be covered and not God choosing.
3. Adam and Eve hid. It was God who sought them out, not the other way around. Fallen man is disinclined towards God.
Incidentally, it may well have been reason #2 that led God to reject Cain's sacrifice. Perhaps he decided what to offer rather than what God prescribed. I can't say with assurity but true worshippers must worship God in spirit and in truth...John 4:23-24.

 

[Magenta]

Well, like you, I'm in the Learning Stage... not the Teaching Stage, lol.
But, for myself, I'm convinced that Scripture makes it clear that works have little or nothing to do with Salvation.

So, in regard to Cain's sacrifice, I lean towards the idea that Cain's heart wasn't right... in some form or fashion.

I'm hesitant to believe that God was accepting/not accepting Adam & Eve's covering of themselves... I don't think that He was being critical of them at all. (Hope that makes sense?)
But would consider the possibility that God was introducing the concept that only blood could atone for sin.

I agree that works have little or nothing to do with Salvation. Adam and Eve's attempt to cover themselves after they lost God's covering was not acceptable. Only God's covering is, even a temporary one such as the skins of an animal for A&E, and then through the institution of the meticulously detailed sacrificial system, which again did not take away the sins of the people even as they made atonement for their sins. The Old Testament in every way points forward to the sacrifice that was to come with the shedding of Jesus’ righteous blood on our behalf.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for
your souls upon the altar; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Lev 17:11

According to the law, in fact, nearly everything must be purified with blood,
and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Hebrews 9:22

 

[Magenta]

Just as in Genesis when God provided a covering for Adam and Eve, God in His mercy and grace provides a covering for all who come to Him in repentance and faith: “I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness.” The whole Bible is about the covering God would provide, established before the foundation of the world, that we may be reconciled to Him by grace through faith in the shed righteous blood of Jesus Christ, Who willingly gave His life that we may attain to life ever after, escaping the second death promised to those who lack this covering.

 

[The_Watchers_2017]

One thing we definitely understand from Adam and Eve is after they sinned, they became DEAD, and why Christ became necessary. But the fact they were DEAD in SIN, they still understood they were naked and hid from God.

Whoa, the unregenerate does actually understand after all!

 

[ServantoftheMostHigh]

(Hope that makes sense?)

Yes, it does, and I appreciate the feedback. God Bless!

 

[JohnDB]

2Chronicles 7:14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

 

[Magenta]

One thing we definitely understand from Adam and Eve is after they sinned, they became DEAD, and why Christ became necessary. But the fact they were DEAD in SIN, they still understood they were naked and hid from God.

Whoa, the unregenerate does actually understand after all!

Adam and Eve lost something they had, and were aware of the loss, yes.

One person was for a time going on and on at me about how Adam's nature did not change after he sinned. Yet we inherit his
nature and are by nature deserving of wrath. Do you think that Adam was by nature deserving of wrath before he sinned?

 

[ServantoftheMostHigh]

Whoa, the unregenerate does actually understand after all!

You are correct!
Romans 1
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

 

[Magenta]

Well, like you, I'm in the Learning Stage... not the Teaching Stage, lol.

I think you have a pretty good handle on Scripture Genesis is foundational, so in a way it is not really surprising that a number of people have come to CC trying to lay an axe to it (I am not referring to this thread). Others have said things like, 1.) A&E already ate from the Tree of Life; 2.) that A&E did not know good before their eyes were opened; 3.) that they ate an apple ); 4.) that good cannot exist without evil.

1.) If A&E had already eaten from the Tree of Life, they would not have died, as per God's promise. It was to prevent A&E from eating of the Tree of Life that God banished them from the garden, and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

2.) A&E knew God (only God is good) and God's creation (which God had proclaimed as being good) before they came to know evil.

3.) An apple. Really? LOL. No further comment at this time

4.) God is eternally Self-existent. There is no evil in Him.

 

[Mem]

The thought comes to me as I read through this thread that when we reject God's word, essentially, we've rejected His breath (which is the source of our life). And in spite of that Jesus offers us a blood transfusion so that we might live. If we accept it, we, essentially, accept His life and so, effectively, His breath also, His word....
I thought I should write this down for the keeping somewhere.

 

[Blik]

This is rather easy to understand. God wants to be FIRST and FOREMOST in our lives and does not want to be second best.

I don't think it is a law made by God that he is first and foremost, but it is certainly a law that it is only through the blood of the lamb that symbolized the blood of Christ that is an acceptable sacrifice to cleanse us of sin.

That is what the sacrificial system was all about, the animals they sacrifed symbolized what Christ did for us. Nothing we can do or create will work for our salvation, as Cain found out when he tried using another way.

 

[The_Watchers_2017]

I don't think it is a law made by God that he is first and foremost, but it is certainly a law that it is only through the blood of the lamb that symbolized the blood of Christ that is an acceptable sacrifice to cleanse us of sin.

That is what the sacrificial system was all about, the animals they sacrifed symbolized what Christ did for us. Nothing we can do or create will work for our salvation, as Cain found out when he tried using another way.

Anything before God in a person's life is an IDOL.

If we put that into the equation it's easy to see why God chose Abel's and denied Cain's.

Jesus doesn't change the outcome of IDOL before God scenario.

 

[Ted01]

I think you have a pretty good handle on Scripture Genesis is foundational, so in a way it is not really surprising that a number of people have come to CC trying to lay an axe to it (I am not referring to this thread). Others have said things like, 1.) A&E already ate from the Tree of Life; 2.) that A&E did not know good before their eyes were opened; 3.) that they ate an apple ); 4.) that good cannot exist without evil.

1.) If A&E had already eaten from the Tree of Life, they would not have died, as per God's promise. It was to prevent A&E from eating of the Tree of Life that God banished them from the garden, and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

2.) A&E knew God (only God is good) and God's creation (which God had proclaimed as being good) before they came to know evil.

3.) An apple. Really? LOL. No further comment at this time

4.) God is eternally Self-existent. There is no evil in Him.

Thank you, Magenta, for the kind and encouraging words.
I'm really learning to enjoy the way that God is/has been humbling me... becoming a child sitting at his Father's feet, eager to learn from a source that I trust implicitly.
It's taken a bit to find a few good resources/teachers that take me through the Word in baby-steps.
Coming to a site like this is a great source of examples of people assuming the role of Teachers that have never been Students, lol.
But that's life, eh?

I'm grateful for the folks, like yourself that walk soberly in the Spirit. Thanks for your insights into A&E too.

 

[Magenta]

Thank you, Magenta, for the kind and encouraging words.
I'm really learning to enjoy the way that God is/has been humbling me... becoming a child sitting at his Father's feet, eager to learn from a source that I trust implicitly.
It's taken a bit to find a few good resources/teachers that take me through the Word in baby-steps.
Coming to a site like this is a great source of examples of people assuming the role of Teachers that have never been Students, lol.
But that's life, eh?

I'm grateful for the folks, like yourself that walk soberly in the Spirit. Thanks for your insights into A&E too.

Thank you also for your very kind words Ted, and for your support throughout your time here. I'm still learning also, and it occurred to me recently that the evil that Adam and Eve's eyes were open to was not only in their awareness of their act of disobedience, but also and more specifically, in themselves.

 

[Ted01]

Thank you also for your very kind words Ted, and for your support throughout your time here. I'm still learning also, and it occurred to me recently that the evil that Adam and Eve's eyes were open to was not only in their awareness of their act of disobedience, but also and more specifically, in themselves.

I agree!! 100%

I also think, for me, that "awareness" (of my sinfulness) has been the first steps in my growth in the Lord.

 

[oyster67]

Humans sin, not animals. Human life is the cost, wage, for human sin.

Which is why Jesus was the last human sacrifice for the sins of man.

Yes. The animals were just placeholders. The simple death of sinful men would not have sufficed either. Eternal torment is the price sinners will pay for rejecting salvation. Animals need not worry about that.