“And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.” – Genesis 7:1
The Word says that the Old Testament is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. As such, the scripture concerning Noah certainly is worthy of our study. Here we find a solid Biblical example of prevenient grace or prepared grace. Noah tapped into this grace through righteousness and saved his house. Likewise, Christ became our righteousness so that we might be saved.
By the time Noah was at the ripe age of six hundred years old. God had seen the generations of man and declared that their thoughts were only evil continually. Were it not for Noah, one could assume the whole of humanity would have been wiped out during the flood. However, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord looked down and saw the righteousness of Noah; seeking to preserve this righteousness he gave grace towards him before Noah drove the first nail in the ark. God saw a man who was just and perfect in his generation. I imagine that Noah didn’t cheat where others did, Noah didn’t curse where others would, Noah wouldn’t hurt even though he could. He walked with God. He loved what God loved and hated what God hated. This man’s righteousness was enough to purchase passage through the judgment to come, and more importantly for this lesson it was even enough to purchase passage for his wife, sons, and daughter in laws. The Bible says that few, eight souls were saved. In context of the whole world, it was just a few, but I am sure to those other seven souls it felt like a miracle. Here we see a type of Jesus Christ. We all come into this world with a death sentence. We have no righteousness of our own and no way to get it on our own. If left to us we will lie, cheat, steal, and commit a host of other wicked sins. The twofold problem is this, the sin we commit and the sinful nature that drives us to commit it. We need a Savior, someone to save us from the judgment and wrath to come. The judgment of God stands on each of us, because of our unrighteousness without and within us. We need a Savior and Jesus became that Savior for us. He lived a perfect man, as the Son of God, he had no sin and did no sin. Noah found grace; Jesus bought grace. He bought it through sacrifice, sacrifice of His precious blood on the cross. It is because of His righteousness that we can have righteousness. How do we obtain it? By faith. It took faith for Noah’s family to follow him into that ark, leaving all they had built behind and trusting in Noah. It will take the same faith for you and me to follow Jesus. To obtain salvation one must follow Jesus all the way to the cross, then get on the cross, go into the grave; to be raised up into new life witnessed by the Holy Ghost. By this I mean, repent of all wicked ways, give up your life, your will, your wants, and wishes. Finally, invite the Holy Spirit in to sanctify you. This happens through prayer and by faith. So many want to go to the cross, but never through it to full salvation through sanctification. Noah’s family could have said they believed Noah, but until they boarded the ark, they never showed by faith that they believed. If they never boarded the ark, they would have been professing Noah’s righteousness all the way to damnation. In turning we trust in Him over ourselves, and when we give up ourselves, we believe in Him over ourselves, finally, we receive Him the Holy Ghost which will keep us from going back to ourselves. The blessed Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the ark of safety that will carry us through this awful world. It will not take us out of the world but keep us from the evil of the world. We have access to it because Jesus brought it to us. It was His righteousness that bought it and brought it to us.
As Noah’s righteousness provided an escape from the sinful world and judgment to come, so Christ’s righteousness can do the same for you. You can be free from sin, today and you can live free from sin forever. Christ purchased for you the precious gift of salvation; He did what no one else could. That is why as Jeremiah says he will always be THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
