Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.

In part 1, we saw how God rejected Cain’s offering, but accepted Abel’s. This is a clear foreshadowing of how we relate to God, with Cain’s labors or “works” earning him nothing before God, but the lamb that Abel presented made him perfectly righteous, just as our “lamb of God” (Jesus) makes us righteous, while our works avail nothing.

Cain’s response is one of envy and bitterness. The “unfairness”, in his one perspective, overwhelms his discretion and his pent up hostility becomes evident to the Lord, prompting the question “why is your face downcast?”. One can picture, much like the story of the older brother in the Gospel story of the Prodigal Son, how the God’s graciousness and mercy can become repugnant to those who self-righteously seek to justify themselves in God’s eyes. The self-righteous despise the idea of God freely granting favor and mercy to those whom they deem less worthy than themselves. Consequently, God does not accept their offering. For by the works of the law will no flesh be justified.

The Lord tells Cain that sin is “crouching at the door… but you must rule over it”. Over the years, many moralistic sermons have been preached from many pulpits on the need to gain mastery over sin, citing this verse. Perhaps this verse might better serve that cause if Cain had indeed “mastered” the sin that desired to conquer him. But of course, in slaying his brother, he proved his impotence at mastering sin, even when God himself had gravely warned him of its presence.

Many people presume that under such circumstances, they would fare better. However, the example with Cain shows the true condition of the natural man. On our own, even with God clearly telling us what is right and wrong, and with all the admonitions from God’s Word, we still are overcome by sin. The natural man is wholly unable to master it. We are truly, on our own, just made of flesh- born from earthdust and prone to moral failure.

Paul bemoans this “body of death” in Romans 7:24. The flesh is always drawn down as if sin were an irresistible gravitational force that can only be temporarily fought, but ultimately, vanquishes our highest intentions. The answer, Paul concludes, is that Christ has broken the power and sting of sin, by reckoning us as “crucified” with him. Whereas the natural man cannot overcome sin, in Christ, our old nature is truly “dead” to sin. It can’t be tempted, or drawn away when it is dead!. The answer to overcoming sin isn’t fighting it. That would be a “work” …simply glorifying our own will power if we should perchance win a battle against temptation. Rather, it is seeing our old nature as dead and gone, and seeing our new life as completely in Christ.