Noah's Ark, the Flood, & the Gospel

During my quiet time this morning, God graciously opened my eyes to see something I have never seen before. I'm reading through Genesis again, and today's reading took me to Genesis 6 and story of the Noah's ark. I can't tell you how many times I have heard this story. It would have been so easy for me to gloss over this story since I had heard so many times in the past. But for some reason, I decided not to. Here's what I saw.

"The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor [grace] in the eyes of the Lord." (Genesis 6:5-8)

Here, in these 4 verses, is the gospel on display. I'll try to sum it up in 4 points.

1. All men are sinful, not only today, but also in Noah's day. "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen 6:5).
   
2. As a result of this sinfulness, all men deserve death. Therefore, God had decided to "blot out man whom he has created from the face of the land" (Gen 6:7). Even today, God could blot us out from the face of the earth and be completely just because of our grievous sins. "For the wages of this sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
   
3. Yet, our God is a gracious God. "But Noah found favor [grace] in the eyes of the Lord" (Gen 6:8). Although we deserve immediate death, God has grace.
4. What is this grace? For Noah, it was an ark. For us, it is Christ.

I am convinced that the story of Noah's ark is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. Though all men in Noah's age deserved to die, God provided Noah a savior in the form of an ark. And though all men for all time deserve to die, God provides us with a Savior in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ, who would bear the wrath our sin deserves that we might see God. Amazing!

This is just the sixth chapter of the first book of the Bible. How many more places can Christ be found in all of the bible other than the obvious? Lord, give us eyes to see Jesus Christ saturated throughout all of Scripture.