"Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah. . . . but unto Cain and to his offering he [Jehovah] had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell" (Genesis 4:3,5).
In a wonderful novel entitled The Hammer of God by Bo Giertz, one of the main characters is a
young pastor named Fridfeldt. Fridfeldt
is extremely zealous to live a holy, Christian life. But when he tells an older, wiser minister
that he has “given his heart to Jesus,” we find this amazing exchange:
"The older man’s face became suddenly as solemn as the grave. 'Do you consider that something to give Him?'
By this time, Fridfeldt was in tears. 'But sir, if you do not give your heart to Jesus, you cannot be saved.'
'You are right, my boy. And it is just as true that, if you think you are saved because you give Jesus your heart, you will not be saved. You see, my boy,' he continued reassuringly, as he continued to look at the young pastor’s face, in which uncertainty and resentment were shown in a struggle for the upper hand, 'it is one thing to choose Jesus as one’s Lord and Savior, to give Him one’s heart and commit oneself to Him, and that he now accepts one into his little flock; it is a very different thing to believe on Him as a Redeemer of sinners, of whom one is chief. One does not choose a Redeemer for oneself, you understand, nor gives one’s heart to Him. The heart is a rusty old can on a junk heap. A fine birthday gift, indeed! But a wonderful Lord passes by, and has mercy on the wretched tin can, sticks his walking cane through it and rescues it from the junk pile and takes it home with Him. That is how it is.
'And now you must understand that these two ways of believing are like two different religions, they have nothing whatever to do with each other. And yet, one might say that there is a path that leads from the lesser to the greater. First one believes in repentance, and then in grace.'" (Translated from Swedish by Clifford Ansgar Nelson)
You see, there are really only two grounds upon which men
try to approach God. One way is a way of
grace based upon the cross of Christ alone. The other, much more popular way includes a
way of merit, which encompasses any and every way by which men attempt to
establish some kind of connection with God based upon their own personal value or worth - a value demonstrated either by what they’ve done, what they are, or what
they’ve experienced. Cain, who is typical of most religious people, falls into
this second group. He offered to God the
fruit of his labors, that is, he offered something that assumed his own
particular value. In a sense, he was offering himself. And yet the Scriptures
say concerning both Cain and his offering that Jehovah “had not respect.”
Likewise, people talk and sing about giving their hearts to
Jesus as if they are offering the Lord some noble, wonderful gift. But Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Proverb 28:26 says, “He that trusteth in his
own heart is a fool.” In light of such Scriptures, it appears that if we offer our hearts to God as some noble sacrifice, we are really presenting the offering of Cain.
In truth, the only offering/gift/sacrifice God will embrace
must be perfect and without blemish.
Accordingly, that gift has nothing to do with us – what we are, what
we’ve done, what we can do, what we’ve experienced. Rather, it is totally outside of us. In other words, we must give to God what he
has given to us - the spotless Lamb of God bleeding and dying upon a
cross. Let us offer that to Jehovah and
rest in the knowledge that it alone is sufficient.
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