Hebrews 11:4

"By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead."

Moving along to the second exhibit in the Hall of Faith, we come to Abel.

Do you remember Cain and Abel from your Bible history? Cain, the first son of Adam and Eve, was a farmer. He worked the ground while his brother Abel tended flocks. Both Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God, but only Abel’s sacrifice pleased God.

So jealous was Cain that he murdered his brother, but the murder of Abel is not on display in this exhibit. The writer of Hebrews recalls only the sacrifice that Abel made. What was the difference between Abel’s sacrifice and Cain’s? It wasn’t that God likes flocks more than crops. Fruits of the field would have made a suitable sacrifice too. The difference between the sacrifices of these two brothers wasn’t in what was sacrificed but in how those sacrifices were made. Abel offered his sacrifice “by faith” as the writer tells us.

Without faith it is impossible to please God (as we will be reminded in a later exhibit). Abel had faith while Cain did not. No matter how many fresh fruits and vegetables Cain may have brought to the LORD, that sacrifice would never be acceptable to God because the heart of the giver wasn’t in the right place. Cain was an unbeliever. But Abel was a child of God. He was a righteous man, which means he looked forward by faith to the Savior whom God had promised his parents on that dreadful day when they sinned in the Garden of Eden. Abel was righteous because of the righteous Savior, God’s own Son who would one day live a righteous life for him and for us all. By faith Abel looked forward to the Savior and thereby had the righteousness of Christ as his own. Because Abel was covered in the righteousness of Christ, Abel’s works were pleasing to God. Only the works of God’s people are pleasing to him, and so God was pleased to accept Abel’s offerings and even praise him for his offerings.

But what about that curious statement at the end of the Bible verse—“And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead”? What is that all about?

Genesis 4:10 tells us that Abel’s blood cried out to the LORD. God in his justice could not ignore Cain’s heinous crime against his brother. But Abel didn’t just cry out for justice. To this day Abel’s faith cries out to us as an example to follow. It shows us how a faithful child of God gives his first and finest offerings to the LORD. Even though Abel became the world’s first murder victim, he lives forever in the Bible as a righteous man who put his faith and love for God into action. And so Abel still speaks to us believers today.

How will people remember us after God has called us to heaven? Will our faith continue to speak even after we have left this life? Our children and grandchildren and all our loved ones will remember us for something. Will it be that Grandpa was an avid fisherman or that Grandma was a wonderful cook? Will people remember us for all those years we put in at the job and for how much we loved football? Or will they remember how much we loved God’s word and spending time in his house and living his word in our lives? Wouldn’t it be great if people remembered us with comments like, “She was in church every Sunday,” “He taught his family God’s word” or “They really loved the Lord”?

If people are going to speak that way about us, they need to hear our faith speak to them now. People will remember us for the fruits of our faith just as we still remember Abel for his. That will only happen because the Holy Spirit feeds our faith with word and sacrament and draws our hearts to the cross of Christ where we find the forgiveness of sins.

So, what will people say about your faith one day? How will you speak to the world after you are gone?