Cain’s Legacy

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Romans 6:14

Master Over You – Think like a rabbi.  Jesus was a rabbi.  Paul was a rabbi.  They taught like rabbis.  Now it’s our job to think like one of them so that we can understand what they are communicating.  And one of the methods that rabbis use is the occurrence of similar words.  Of course, that’s not how most of us attempt biblical interpretation.  We try to find consistent concepts.  We look first at the idea, regardless of the vocabulary.  But that way is very much in line with Greek cognition, not with rabbinic recognition.  A rabbi pays attention to repeated words regardless of their context.  This is one of the reasons why we have so much difficulty understanding someone like Paul.  He just doesn’t think the way we do.

This verse is an opportunity for you to practice your rabbinic skills.  Paul used these words to recall similar terms in the Torah.  Do you know they are in the Torah?  You’re right.  They come from Genesis 4:7.  That’s good rabbinic detective work.  Now here’s the next step.  What do these words tell us in the story of Cain that has application in the letter to the Romans?  We have to start the investigation by asking how the Hebrew word moshel is used.  This word comes from the root mashal.  It’s used in Genesis 1:18 for the sun ruling the day and the moon ruling the night.  It’s used in Joshua 12:5 for a king ruling over a country and in Judges 8:23 for God ruling over His people.  It’s clearly about dominion.  The pictograph gives us another view.  It’s the image of controlling destructive chaos.  So, when God tells Cain that he must master sin’s desire, God is saying that sin wishes to bring chaos and destruction into Cain’s life and Cain must rule over that desire.

Did you notice that God expects Cain to do this?  Did you notice that this implies that Cain is able to do this?  Sin is not some unconquerable, mysterious force, sneaking up on me and catching me by surprise.  It is an enemy that needs to be conquered and controlled.  God’s advice to Cain is exactly the same advice He gives us today.  “You must master it.”

There’s something else here that we need to see.  Did you notice that God’s advice to Cain is not about pleasing God?  God says to Cain (literally), “Whenever you please, exaltation.”  Does this mean that God is demanding appropriate action?  Not at all!  God is not the object of the exaltation.  Cain is.  God is saying that whenever Cain does what is pleasing in the sight of God, Cain will feel exaltation.  In other words, Cain will master sin’s desire to bring chaos into his life by doing what is right.  Cain does not have to please God in order to pacify God.  God is not part of this equation.  Cain needs to do what is right because doing so gives Cain the ability to keep chaos out of his life.  The immediate consequence of right action is the power to master the destructive force of sin.  The only question Cain needs to answer is this:  What is the right thing to do?  Once he has the answer, he must do it.  And fortunately, God gives us the answer.

Rabbi Paul provides us a commentary on the Genesis passage.  Notice that the drama is the same.  Sin desires to rule over us.  But it will not be allowed to do so.  Why?  Because we do not use the law as if it were an attempt to appease an angry God.  We know that we are under God’s grace, just as Cain was before he refused God’s advice.  The law has not been abandoned.  It’s just that the decree of punishment established by the law no longer applies because we have been forgiven.  We are under grace, counted as not-guilty* in God’s court.  Therefore, we can rule over sin.  Why?  Because God’s law tells us what is the right thing to do and God’s imputed righteousness makes us capable of doing it.  The law works in conjunction with grace, enabling us to master the chaos that would otherwise control us.

Cain left us a legacy.  It’s not the legacy of disobedience, sin and destruction (although his life certainly shows us what occurs when we do not master sin).  The legacy he left is the commentary of Paul.  If we do what God says is right, sin will not be a problem.  Just doing what God says is the right thing to do, and that allows us to rule over our enemy.

Topical Index:  Sin

*Just a little explanation.  We are not innocent when God redeems us.  That would be mean never committed the offense.  Instead, God’s grace changes our status to not-guilty.  We did commit sins but someone else paid the penalty, so under God’s law, we are no longer considered guilty.  The only innocent man to ever live is the one who paid the price for us because only an innocent man could.