We’ve been talking about the faith of Noah, a faith motivated by a fear of God, a faith that caused him to take seriously God’s warning (which is like a negative promise) and to obey God’s mission to build an ark.
Noah preached righteousness and judgment, he faithfully built the ark, he lived a life of righteousness in the midst of a dark world, like Paul says to the Philippians, “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation” (Philippians 2:14-15). Jesus had told his disciples “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).
Noah had lived and preached and worked in such a way as to provide a positive witness to his neighbors. But none of them responded in faith. They jeered and ridiculed him.
And we ended last week with this question: Do you think Noah felt like a failure? No! He saved his family—the most important thing any husband and father could do! Our text says that Noah, “built an ark to save his family.” Without his faithfulness he knew that his own children could perish too. We don’t read much about his boys until after the flood, and then there is little to be impressed with. We don’t read about them taking up the preaching ministry with their father, though it was likely that they helped build the ark. But the fact that they joined Noah on the ark shows that they had responded in faith and trust to Noah’s preaching.
It may be that we are losing our children today because we are not living out a radical faith and obedience in front of them. Maybe our children are declaring themselves as “nones” in greater and greater numbers because all they saw at home was a father and mother who only showed up on Sundays, who maybe ascribed to some of the things the preacher said, but whose lives were not changed and who did not impress upon their children the truth of the Scriptures and the necessity of fearing and believing and obeying this God who saved them.
Many children today watch their parents at church and then see them the rest of the week and see no relationship between what they say they believe and how they actually live out their lives. It is no wonder that many of them say we are hypocrites.
Many children see their parents pursuing the world, giving in to temptations, worry and fretting instead of trusting, living only for themselves, and they want nothing to do with their powerless faith.
Radically obedient followers of Christ show their faith by obeying God’s Word, especially when the world around them is moving the opposite direction and ridiculing them for their obedience. 2 Peter 2:5 calls Noah a “preacher of righteousness.”
Do you realize, parents, that you are preaching a sermon every day by the way that you live your life? To live lives of radical obedience will bring us under the criticism of others. Will you fear the Lord or fear men? Will you see the reward of obedience and remain faithful, or will you believe the promises of the world and turn your back on God?
How did Noah save his family? By simply doing what the Lord told him to do, believing and obeying God’s revelation, respecting God enough to believe and obey him rather than giving in to the world.
These children, along with Noah and his wife, “entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood” (Gen. 7:7) and God “shut them in” (7:16). They were safe as long as they remained inside the ark; destruction came upon those outside the ark.
In this way the ark is a type of Jesus Christ. When we trust in Jesus God shuts us into Jesus Christ and He is our salvation. Only by being “in Christ” are we rescued from destruction. You must enter into the ark, Jesus Christ, by faith. You must forsake all other arks, all other supposed means of deliverance. You must not stop at the threshold and just look into the ark. You must enter in. Just “looking into Christianity” as a curiosity does not save you. In those days, it was not enough just to hear about the ark, it was not enough to know about the ark’s engineering, it was not enough to admire the ark for its size and sturdiness, it was not enough even to defend the ark as a seaworthy vessel, you MUST ENTER IN!
Noah’s obedience and preaching led to salvation for the eight people who entered into the ark, but condemnation for those who heard the message, saw the ark being built, but never trusted in God’s Word that a flood was coming.
What about you, today, do you realize that one day Jesus will return and that any of those who have not trusted in Jesus Christ he will treat as enemies? Judgement is coming. Are in “in Christ” by believing in the Gospel, or outside of Christ? Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10
This will happen [the deliverance of God’s people] when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
Today is the day of salvation. Now is the time to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Don’t postpone it to an uncertain tomorrow.
The difference between the unbeliever and the believer is this: the one is a man of the world, and lives here; the other is a man of God, and lives in heaven. His whole life is a protest and a condemnation of the world. Abel, Enoch, Noah–all three were equally rejected and despised by the world, because they condemned its works. God grant that the life of his believing children may be so clear and bright, that the world may feel itself condemned by them! (Andrew Murray, The Holiest of All, 435)
Fifth, we also read here in Hebrews 11:7 that Noah’s obedience receives justification. Noah’s faith results in the best possible inheritance, “and [Noah] became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” As an heir, it means that he was now an “owner” or “partaker.” But this didn’t come through dear old Dad, but rather through faith in God Himself.
Now, with the Romans, anyone could become an heir. A Roman citizen could choose a slave to be his heir. But with the Jews, an inheritance was generally reserved for one’s own natural children.
Our text says that Noah “became an heir.” This word ginomai, in Greek, in some contexts means to be born and in a sense Noah and his family, who were born dead in their trespasses and sins, came into existence into a new life, characterized by God’s imputation of his perfect righteousness, just like Abram “believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” All Abram did was trust God’s promise and God credited righteousness to his account.
So Abram is not the first to have righteousness credited to his account. Noah is the first person to be declared righteous. This is the “righteousness that comes by faith” which is quite similar to Paul’s distinction in Philippians 3:9, “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”
This is the author of Hebrews’ one and only use of “righteousness” in the objective, Pauline sense of righteousness that comes from God through faith, that is imputed or credited to our account. I like to call it an alien righteousness because “alien” stresses the fact that it does not come from within man, but is an objective gift from outside, from God. The great Pauline texts often repeat the phrase “righteousness of God.” For example:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16, 17)
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. (Romans 3:21, 22)
The sublime result of receiving this “alien” righteousness is that we become the righteousness of God, as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:21—“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
That’s double imputation—our sins were credited to Christ and his righteousness was credited to us who believe.
The point we must see here is that this righteousness from God is necessary for salvation. Self-generated righteousness is never enough. We can never earn salvation.
This objective righteousness was credited to Noah the moment he believed God’s word of warning. And then subjective righteousness, righteousness on display in our speech and behavior, begins to shine. This kind of righteousness is right conduct.
When we have true faith and receive the objective gift of righteousness and salvation from God, it enacts in us a growing subjective righteousness (a righteousness that grows from within). And this is precisely what happened to Noah, as Genesis 6:9 beautifully testifies: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” He was “righteous” within. He was “blameless.” He “walked with God” toward the same place on the same path at the same pace, just like Enoch. He lived a beautiful life that pleased God.
Noah was saved by faith—his faith led to his salvation. There came the day when the rain began—it continued for forty days without stopping—and the pre-diluvians began to think perhaps Noah was not so crazy. Noah got into the ark, and the jokes stopped for good as the water rose to the pre-diluvians’ knees and over their still lips.
Just as God came to the pre-diluvians through Noah, he comes today to us post-diluvians through the words of his Son who says:
For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:37–39)
The event of Noah was not only a historic event, but it was also a foreshadowing of what is to come, when Christ returns, judgment is coming for the whole Earth.
There is coming another day of judgment. It will be more severe and carry greater consequences than the previous day of judgment. But Jesus indicates some characteristics of that coming generation of people, saying that they act just like people in the days of Noah—carrying on with life as normal without a care in the world, “eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,”—just normal, everyday life.
Jesus doesn’t talk about the coming generation’s wickedness, as Genesis 6:5 does of Noah’s generation. The point is not that they this generation is extremely wicked, it is that they are entirely unaware. Although the people of Noah’s day had seen Noah building the ark and heard him preaching messages warning them of the coming judgment, “they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.”
And today, people will be just as distracted and just as oblivious as the people in Noah’s day, maybe even more so.
Jesus’ point is, “Wake up!” Realize that judgment is coming. It is right around the corner. And if you’re not careful, you will not be ready for his coming. If you are ready, like Noah and his family, you will be saved. If you are not, like Noah’s neighbors, you will perish too.
Greg Morse writes
Life as usual, many will come to realize, was never life as usual.
When Christ returns, many will discover too late that they lived within a dream. Years came and years went. Spring turned to autumn, autumn to winter. They grew and grew old but never awoke. “Normal life” lied to them. So, Jesus foretells,
As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:37–39)
The world-ending return of Jesus will be as the world-ending days of Noah. Of what did Noah’s days consist? Busy people unaware — eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, going about life “as usual.” The very morning of the flood, people simply concerned themselves with whatever laid before them. The immediate seemed most urgent, most real. Planning meals, changing diapers, preparing weddings, working, buying, and selling — these seemed to them the greatest verities of life. Until the rain began to fall.
So wake up! Now is the time to get right with God. Today is the day of salvation. The coming of the next judgment may be as imperceptible as a rain drop. We wonder, “What is that?” But we don’t know its meaning.
Jesus calls the world to prepare for him: “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44). By faith we can come safely through this judgment as well.
In fact, Peter says that our baptism is like Noah’s experience being carried safely through the waters in the ark. “In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” (1 Pet. 3:20-21).
He doesn’t mean that baptism is necessary for salvation, but it illustrates a truth about our salvation. And John Piper says, “Noah came to Peter’s mind because only a few were saved in the ark under God’s judgment. And now salvation through faith, through baptism, is like that. Through water, God saves his people, whether few or many, at any given time and place. And we should rejoice that Christ died to bring us to God through his judgment. The whole world may laugh, as in the days of Noah, but by faith we come safely through the judgment.”
Mitch Chase adds: “Baptism corresponds to the ark story because the arc of that story was death and life. Baptism is the Christian’s public declaration that God has brought us through the waters of judgment. Through union with Christ, we have been brought safely into everlasting life. The Lord Jesus, the true and greater ark, is our refuge. And in Christ, we are delivered and not condemned.”
The apostle Peter wrote to a dispersed group of Christians in the first century who had been waiting for the return of Christ. Like Jesus, Peter warned that the biggest obstacle to being ready is the sense of everydayness. Scoffers will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” (2 Pet. 3:4).
This mundane stability can lead one to forget the suddenness of the flood that once submerged the land. The rainbow sign in the skies points to a covenant in which God pledged to never again destroy the earth by flood. To those who believed themselves to be abandoned by God—since the end had not yet come, the earth had not been purged with fire, and the new heavens and new earth were not yet here—Peter wrote that what they were seeing was not God’s inattention but his patience, “not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
Just as the ark was the only means of salvation from God’s judgment for Noah and his family, so the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way that God has provided for salvation from His coming judgment on the whole world. Everyone on board the ark was saved. Everyone not on the ark was lost. Everyone who has trusted in Christ’s shed blood will be saved. Everyone who has trusted in anything else will be lost. In Noah’s day, it wasn’t a matter of being an excellent swimmer! As Bill Cosby used to tell the story, God asks Noah, “How long can you tread water?” You can’t be good enough to merit salvation. The crucial question is, “By faith have you obediently responded to God’s warning by ‘getting on board’ Jesus Christ?”
God has issued a clear warning: A “Category 5” storm of judgment is heading toward everyone who dwells on earth! The door of His ark is still open today. Tomorrow is guaranteed to no one. Flee to Christ now and you will be saved. Scoff at the warning and you will be lost forever. Imitate Noah’s faith and obedience. Join him as an heir of the righteousness according to faith.
Grace Still Amazes 