The Holiest of All By Andrew Murray

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XCIX.
ABEL THE SACRIFICE OF FAITH.
XI. 4. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous,
God bearing witness In respect of his gifts
: and through it he being dead yet
speaketh.
ONE of the chief words of the Epistle is offering, sacrifice.
Christ
offered Himself unto God."
sacrifice of Himself."
He put away sin by the
one offering He hath perfected for
ever them that are sanctified." The inner spirit and power of
that life
by which Christ pleased His Father, and put away sin,
and gained His seat on the throne of the Majesty on high, was
the offering of His body. As the Leader of our salvation He
guides His people in
self-sacrifice.
the same, the new and living way, that of
It is a most remarkable and deeply suggestive fact that
among those who have preceded us in the way of faith, we
should find that with the very first one, Abel, the first fruit of
faith was to sacrifice. The disposition, of which sacrifice is the
expression, lies at the very root of the life of faith. If I would
in this chapter learn what faith is, and how I can grow strong in
faith, I must mark well what the very first step is By faith
:
Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice.
We know what the double meaning was of Abel s sacrifice.
It was, on the one hand, his offering to God of a life to be given
up to death, and so in his stead to bear the death which is
in its