The Bible I am using has 1,146 pages of print.  The record of the first murder appears on page 4.  It didn't take long for a killing to take place.  Adam and Eve had Cain, then Abel.

All we know about Abel is that:  1. He was a shepherd.  2.  He brought a sheep as a sacrifice to God.  3.  God declared him righteous.  4.  Cain killed him.    What a mess.  It could have been so different.

Adam and Eve had another son (Seth) who is much more prominent in Biblical history.  But the writer of Hebrews chose to recognize Abel as the first man of faith.   In Matt. 23: 35, Jesus himself speaks of Abel.  "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel…"  In Hebrews 12:24 Abel is mentioned again. "…to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that (blood) of Abel."

That's all we know.

Except that in the greatest chapter on the subject in the entire Bible, Abel is the first person on the list of faithful men.  He didn't know Jesus.  He didn't have anything written that he could refer to.  He didn't have a church.  He didn't know much.  But he knew God.  Adam and Eve did one thing right--they told Abel about God.  And Abel believed.  He had faith in God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

We are saved the same way.  By our faith in the sacrifice that God has provided for us.  Jesus.  All salvation--Old Testament and New--is the very same.  By faith.  Faith in the promises of  God.  John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life."  God will declare us righteous because of the sacrificial blood of Jesus.