“Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” In what did its excellency consist?
Abel’s offering was entirely different in principle, and suited to the character and relationship, in which man then stood before God. The offering of the firstlings of his flock, and the fat thereof, owned the need of blood-shedding, as a propitiation for his sin. He had faith in that which could atone for sin, and by which he a sinner could meet God in truth, and be accepted for the sake of his offering. Thus he secured glory to God, and free blessing to himself, a sinner; for surely Abel was such, as was his brother Cain. His pastoral occupation, as “a keeper of sheep,” did not make his moral state better than that of Cain, as a tiller of the ground. In the sight of God there was no difference; they both were sinners. Abel owned it in the offering which he brought to the LORD, Cain in effect denied his sin, and the holy demands of a sin-hating God, but withal a God Who would accept a sin offering, as He did at the hand of Abel.
Abel brought no fruit which his own hands had produced; no weary labour, no toil of his, had resulted in the offering which he brought to the LORD. It was a victim, whose life must be taken for his sin. “For without the shedding of blood there is no remission.” It is shown from the beginning.
Bible Treasury, Vol. 18