“Two Lines”
[Genesis 4:17-26]
October 12, 2008 Second Reformed Church
Why do some people come to faith in Jesus Alone for their salvation and others reject Him? Is it a matter of how hard we try to convince them? Is it a matter of how they were brought up? Is there a way to guarantee someone will respond to our explanation of the Gospel?
For the past several weeks, we have been looking at the beginnings of human history and some of what God teaches us about Creation and the Fall. We are concluding our look at the opening chapters of Genesis this morning, and in this morning’s Scripture, we find for the first time, the teaching that there are two lines of humanity: those who will believe and those who will never believe. Paul refers to these two lines as the elect and the reprobate.
Over the past several weeks, we have looked at the doctrine of Original Sin. Original Sin is that teaching that after Adam and Eve sinned, every mere human being was born inclined towards sin, a slave to sin, spiritually dead and unable to come to faith. We saw that, left to ourselves, every human being from Adam and Eve on would be condemned to eternal Hell because of the inheritance of Original Sin and because of our actual sins. Without God’s Intervention, no one would be or could be saved and restored to a right relationship with God. God has to take the initiative and change a person, or he will be lost forever.
Last week, we saw Cain kill his brother, Abel. And we saw John warn the Church, “We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous” (I John 3:12, ESV). Cain was, by nature, by Original Sin, evil, and he followed after sin in killing his brother.
Remember, that does not mean that Cain was as evil as he could possibly be – Original Sin leaves us inclined towards evil, and every part of our being is effected by sin, but some people do relatively good things while others follow after the deepest evil they can find. Original Sin does not mean that we are as bad as we can be, but that sin has affected every part of us.
So Cain followed after evil, killed Abel, and then God punished him and sent him away. Cain is of the reprobate line – the Scripture implies that he never repented of his sin and continued in sin until his death, which would mean Cain is in Hell. All those of the reprobate line – all those who never repent and believe in Jesus Alone for their salvation – no matter what earthly good they do – will spend eternity suffering in Hell.
But notice, our Scripture shows us that even down the reprobate line, God gives blessing, in the sense that good does come from those who never believe. God causes good to spring up despite their desires. Certainly we know people who do not believe in Jesus Alone for their salvation, yet they may be and do things that we would say are good. (Though we do not necessarily know what line a person is really from – but we’ll come back to this issue.)
Despite whatever the mark was on Cain and his being cast out by God, God allowed him to enjoy the blessings of marriage and children. God allowed him to build a city – probably a military city to protect himself from those who might desire to kill him. God allowed him to have a succession of generations after him, some of whom made great contributions to human society and life.
We see that Lamech, Cain’s great-great-great grandson fathered Jabal, who was the father of the nomadic herders – there are nomadic herders in the Middle East to this day – some of whom are descendants of Cain. Lamech fathered Jubal, who was the father of musicians. What a different world we would have without music. And Lamech also fathered Tubal-cain, who was the father of metal workers. Again, what a gift to the world.
But we also see flagrant sin: Lamech blasphemed marriage by marrying two wives: Zillah and Adah. Surely, Cain had been taught God’s Law, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24, ESV). Polygamy was always a sin, and here we have the first record of it.
We also see that Lamech understood Cain’s punishment, and he perverts it – he mocks it and God. Lamech comes home one day and brags to his wives, using Hebrew parallelism – stating the same thing twice – to emphasize his point, “I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.” Something had happened. Lamech had suffered a minor injury, but rather than accept something in kind as the Law proscribes, Lamech killed the young man, and then went home to his wives and bragged to them about it:
“If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-seven fold.” “God promised to avenge Cain to the seventh degree if anyone killed him. Lamech is a greater man, a greater killer of men, so, God will surely avenge me seventy-seven fold if anyone should try to kill me. I’m a bad man, and everyone had better take notice!”
Lamech was sick, perverse – he was following after sin whole-heartedly. And there are people today who love sin, who revel in doing what is wrong – in blaspheming God and His Law. That is a sign, though not proof, that one may be part of the reprobate. (The reason it is a sign and not proof is that the elect – Christians – also sin, often in the same way and to the same degree as those who never believe.)
Still, there is another line, as we read, “And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, ....” Seth was given to continue the godly line of Abel. Seth was raised in the Word of God and believed and had a son, Enosh, and Seth taught his son the Word of God, and he believed, and the line of Seth called upon the Name of the Lord. They praised and worshiped God. They followed after His Ways. And Luke tells us that he is the father of the line to our God and Savior, Jesus (Luke 3:38).
We need to remember that just as God allows good to come through the line of Cain and through the reprobate, those of the line of Seth – the elect – are not sinless. Abraham, David, and Solomon were all of the line of Seth, and they all sinned in memorable ways – just like you and me.
In Romans, Paul explains that the elect are Israel, but Israel is not the land of Israel nor the biological line of Israel. The Israel God reconciles to Himself and saves are all those He chooses to believe in Him. So, if you believe in Jesus Alone for your salvation, you are a member of the elect – you are a member of the Israel of God. The Pharisees didn’t understand this; they thought that just because they were biological descendants of Abraham, they would be saved and enter the Kingdom. John rebuked them and said, “And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:9, ESV). In other words, Salvation is God’s Choice and Work.
Listen to Paul’s explanation: “For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are the children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said, ‘About this time next year I will return and Sarah will have a son.’ And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad – in order that God’s purpose in election might continue, not because of works but because of his call – she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’
“What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in the earth.’ So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
“You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory – even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea, ‘Those who were not my people I will call “my people,” and her who was not beloved, I will call “beloved.” And in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” there they will be called “sons of the living God”’ (Romans 9:6b-26, ESV).
What can we conclude from these things?
First, all mere human beings are conceived with Original Sin. All mere human beings are born sinners. We have inherited a sin nature, so we are all born spiritually dead in sin, unable to save ourselves or even to desire salvation.
Second, because this is true, we are all deserving of eternal Hell. No one deserves to be saved and reconciled with God. Each of us is guilty and merits the ruling of the Law: “For the wages of sin is death, ...” (Romans 6:23a, ESV).
Third, therefore, God sovereignly and freely chooses those He will save and be reconciled with for reasons other than what we do or will do. God chooses whomever He will for reasons only known to Him, but not based on our merit. If you believe in Jesus Alone for salvation, it’s because God chose you and changed you and gave you the faith to believe. You and I did nothing to save ourselves and become right with God. It is completely God’s Choice and God’s Work.
Fourth, we have no idea whom God will chose to save. We understand from the Scripture that there are two lines, but while a person is alive, we have no idea whether or not he will ever come to faith. Therefore, we have a duty to evangelize – to share the Gospel with every person. We can never assume that someone is too far gone for God to save. Nor should we assume someone is too good or moral to recognize that he is a sinner in need of a Savior. Every human being needs to hear that there is Only Salvation in Jesus Alone, and we must go to every person. We cannot make assumptions about anyone, because the reprobate are not purely evil and the elect are not holy – we are all sinners in this life.
Our Savior and God said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18b-20, ESV).
Brothers and sisters, evangelism, missions, telling others about Salvation in Jesus Alone is part of the work of the Church. Rev. Dr. John Piper has said everyone in the Church is called to be a goer or a sender. We are all to be involved in spreading the Gospel, either by going out ourselves or by providing the means for others to go out.
There is a world around us that is dying to hear the Truth of Jesus. We must be in prayer for them and for those who take the Word of God to them. We must be looking for ways to let others know and to do what we can to support the efforts of those who go out. We don’t know who will come to faith, because that is God’s Choice, but God has commanded us to tell everyone. It should humble us and cause us to rejoice that God has chosen some out of the mass of humanity to save, and we should find ourselves mourning for those who will never believe.
Last week we prayed for the economy and our leaders – and we should be in prayer that our leaders would have wisdom and that money would be stewarded in a God-honoring way. I’m sure many of us spent a good amount of time considering these issues this past week. But compared with eternal salvation, the economy is meaningless. Did you pray for missions this week? Did you pray for the salvation of the lost? Did you pray for your friends and family who do not believe? Did you do anything that would let others know that you are a Christian and why that is of eternal importance?
God, in His Mercy, has chosen some out of all of humanity. God has chosen some out of all of us, born lost and dead due to Adam and Eve’s sin. God uses us to tell them about Him. There are two lines – those who will never believe and those who will one day believe – that’s what the Scripture tells us. So, we ought not get discouraged – we don’t know who is who. What we know is that God has told us to go and tell everyone. The spiritual descendants of Cain will reject Him to their everlasting sorrow; the spiritual descends of Seth will come to belief through the Mercy and Intervention of God.
Let us pray:
Sovereign and Merciful God, we thank You for choosing us to be Yours. Give us a heart for the lost. We thank You for the understanding that we do not save anyone – not ourselves, not anyone else. That’s Your Work. We thank You for the privilege of serving You by supporting missions and by calling us to tell others about Your Son and His Salvation. Remove our fear. Help us to think of new and unique ways to let others know who You are. Be pleased to bless our efforts and save Your people. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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