Son of Man

Cain: Adam’s First-Fruit

God originally created Adam in God’s own image, personality or reflection by breathing into Adam’s heart the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. Hebraically, Adam was the original Son of God. However, when Adam and Eve chose to reject the fatherhood of God and embrace the fatherhood of the Serpent, the devil or father of lies, they gasped out their hearts the eternal life’s breath of God. They were no longer the Sons of God. They simply became living dust, living natural lives that worked the cursed ground of their fallen personalities that eventually died. Because of his sin, Adam bore his own image and to a greater or lesser extent the image of the Serpent instead of the image of God. He bore the fruit of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life that came from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Scripture states that Adam bore a son in his own image; the image of himself instead of the image of God. Sons bear fruit after their father’s kind because the life of the father dwells within the heart of the son to bring forth his fruit. The first-fruit or first-born son of Adam was Cain, the Son of Man or Adam. Within ancient Hebrew culture, the first-fruit was important because within the first-fruit was seen the totality of the whole; if the first-fruit was good, the whole harvest would be too. We know from scripture that Cain was actually the first murderer upon planet Earth. Because of the Fall, apart from the grace of God, everyone that has ever been born except Jesus to a greater or lesser extent shares the nature or natural life of Cain that came from fallen Adam and Eve, and if provoked have the same capacity to bear evil fruit.

Cain Worked For Admiration

It says in Genesis 4:1-5 “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bore his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell“. Cain drew his own sense of identity, value, honour, self-worth and self-respect from the admiration and praise of both himself and others. By the sweat of his brow, Cain tilled or “worked” the ground of his earthly personality to make a great “name” for himself that was worthy of praise.

Cain Worked For Love

Just as Adam and Eve worked to sew leaves together to make coverings for their “self” that were acceptable in their own eyes, Cain brought an offering that was a self-admiring “work” what was acceptable to him because it was the best that he could do. Just like the Pharisees who cleaned the outside of their cups leaving the inside stained with sin, Cain “worked” to present a false image of acceptability to earn the admiration, acceptance, and respect of Almighty God. It was not a love-gift that was freely given to God out of a loving relationship. God is love, God loves because it is the character and nature of God to love. God’s love is unconditional, it absolutely does not depend upon people being loveable. However, Cain said within his heart “I am the greatest, no one is greater or better than me“. Cain’s pride had blinded him to everything except himself and he could not receive the unconditional love of God. Instead of being transfixed or captivated by the glory, love, and unmerited grace of God, he was held captive by the pride of self-admiration. If he could not earn love, he did not want it because something “earned” was valuable and real, steadfast, and sure, dependable and worth trusting which made his own “name” great. A gift of love did not have the same appeal to his self-admiring heart because God’s unconditional love was not something that Cain’s pride could understand.

Pride Chains God’s Unconditional Love

For Cain, the gift of God’s unconditional love seemed like foolishness because it honoured the behaviour, character, personality or great “name” of the giver instead of Cain’s best efforts. Even though God never failed to love Cain, quite supernaturally, God refused to accept the obligation to give admiration and respect to Cain and honour the offering brought by the sweat of his brow. In love, God wanted to freely give Cain the gift of His grace, to make his “name” great by freely blessing Cain and lifting him up. But as long as Cain “worked” for God’s blessing and worshipped both himself and the work of his own hands, the unconditional love and unmerited grace of God was effectively in chains. Cain could not receive what God wanted to freely give him. Cain was incensed that his best efforts to effectively force God to accept him had been spurned. He had personalised his offering. He was furious that the “marvellous” offering of his “marvellous me” had been rejected. He felt that God had dishonoured, disrespected or undervalued his now, not so great “name“.

Everyone’s Favorite Religion

Everyone’s favourite religion is the pride of self-worship. Pride says in its heart, “I am the answer, I can earn. I will make myself acceptable, I can achieve. I can prove myself, I will win“. Those who are proud of heart can never receive the unconditional love of God because they cannot accept that God’s love for them is not dependent upon them earning, winning, achieving, performing or being lovable or worthy. Proud-hearted people try to earn something that cannot be earned and by their own self-efforts attempt to win something that can never be won. Pride is like a deadly blood-sucking leech that puffs up its sense of identity and self-worth by feeding upon the appreciation or respect of its own “self” and the admiration or praise of others. In English, the word image comes from the Latin “imaginem” and means a copy, imitation or likeness, and the word idol comes from the Greek “eidolon” which meant the same thing. Those who are proud at heart worship the reflection of their own image. They consider themselves superior and must maintain that image of superiority at all costs, otherwise they cannot be accepted, respected, honoured, appreciated or loved. Feelings of murderous hatred and revenge are aroused against anyone or anything that threatens to wound in any way the image of their own acceptability; the image of the great “name” of their own superior and adorable “self” which is held so dear.

The Pride of Self-Worship

There is a direct relationship between the pride of self-worship, faith or confidence in self, hatred and murder just as there is a direct relationship between humility, faith or confidence in God and the ability to receive God’s unconditional love. That is why John said in 1 John 3:11-15 (KJV) “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loves not his brother abides in death. Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him“. Pride is all sweetness and light to those who pander to its cravings for praise but explodes into the furious rage of its own true murderous nature when its thin veneer of respectability is damaged in any way. This of course is often hidden behind a smile. In his “as god” heart Cain tried to save the pride of his life by justifying himself in his own eyes. He passed judgement upon his brother as being worthy of death for showing him up and undervaluing or belittling his great “name“. However, the problem was not Abel and his offering, or God and His refusal to pander to Cain’s self-effort. It was Cain and his pride that was the problem, and in the pride of his heart, the solution was murder rather than sacrificing his pride upon the altar of humility. He compensated for his wound by reasserting himself; in a fit of rage he murdered his brother.

Restless Wandering Forever

The murder of Abel did not solve the problem but made it infinitely worse. Cain left the presence of Yehovah to live in the land of restless wandering with his pride still intact. The fires of his incensed rage were never quenched, and the vengeful worms that ate away at his fallen heart never died. Cain’s restless wanderings never ceased because the fallen human heart does not have the victory within itself. The fallen heart cannot and will not change because within itself it is hopeless. It does not have the victory within itself, but the overcoming victory must somehow be won because behaviour in life will become inheritance in resurrection.

Humility Unlocks Paradise

Humility is the key that enables God to unlock the door within people’s hearts to the paradise of God’s fatherhood. For the humble hearted, everything is possible because they find that ever increasing faith rises within their hearts as they are filled with the amazing and unmerited grace, paradise, or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. That is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:14 “…and to God are thanks, who at all times is leading us in triumph in the Christ, and the fragrance of His knowledge He is manifesting through us in every place“. Pride is the blindness of heart that imagines that paradise is when everyone sings its praise. When people do not, hellish hatred soon follows in its wake. It says in Proverbs 14:12 (KJV) “There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” and in Jude 1:10-11 (KJV) “…as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain“. The way of Cain is the way of pride. It is a way that seems right to a man but ends in a death sooner than people think.

To find out more about pride and humility, and how to experience the paradise of God forever, click here.