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The Gospel According to Creation, Abel, and Enoch
The Gospel According to Creation, Abel, and Enoch
The Hebrew writer begins his Hall of Faith list with three examples, followed by a summation:
11:3 – By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
11:4 – By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he was approved as being righteous—God approving his gifts—and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.
11:5 – By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for prior to being taken up, he was approved as being pleasing to God.
Within these three examples we find the gospel foreshadowed:
11:3 – Creation by God from things unseen foreshadowed Jesus’s birth by a virgin. Hebrews 10:5 actually uses the same word to describe creation and Jesus’s body – prepared (katartizō). We have faith in God’s creative power from nothing that we too can be new creation.
11:4 – A sacrifice of faith ending in murder foreshadowed Jesus’s crucifixion wherein the body prepared is now the sacrifice. Like Abel, Jesus still speaks although Jesus is not dead anymore. Like Jesus, we have faith like Abel that leads to suffering and teaching. This leads to the third point.
11:5 – What happened to Enoch? He ascended, escaping death. Jesus escaped death by resurrection when His body ascended into heaven. Like Jesus, we have faith we too will ascend as did Enoch.
The summation of this first grouping reads:
11:6 – And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who draws near to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
The gospel is about drawing near to God. The gospel of Creation, Abel, and Enoch all point to Jesus.
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