To illustrate our lack of understanding about grace I ask my students is: why did God choose Noah? Typically answers include:
- "I don't know, I want some lunch"
- "Huh? Who's Noah?"
- One of the smarter kids said, "interesting question, I want some lunch"
What's your answer? Why did God choose Noah? Most likely your answer is "Noah was a righteous man." When people answer like this my next question is, "how are we saved?" Being more knowledgeable of the OT than the NT they say "by grace through faith in Jesus." So then I ask, "did something change? did God change?" Being good conservative evangelical students they know that God doesn't change, so they say "no, but I don't understand." This is normal. Nobody really gets it. They typically think that something changed, in the OT people earned God's favor and in the NT God realized something (As if that EVER happened to God) and said "oh they need me to just give them this b/c they can't do it on their own."
NOTHING CHANGED
Salvation, God's choosing from wrath and disaster has never been by works. Sure, Genesis 6.9 (ESV, it's just a better version) says "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God". You think "well, Jason, that seems pretty cut and dry." To which I say "look at verses 5-8" in case your Bible isn't right next to you here it is:
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 in the eyes of the Lord.
Here's the deal, "every intention of the thoughts" that excludes Noah, right? WRONG! Noah was evil too. But there is a difference between Noah and the rest of the people. Noah found favor, not for what he had done or what he had accomplished, remember he was evil. He found favor. Anybody out there know another word for favor? GRACE!!!!!! The LXX (aka the
Septuagint, Greek translation of the OT, aren't I a nerd?) uses the same word here as is found in Ephesians 2.8-10.
Grace saves us today and grace saved Noah then. God's work is all of grace, it hasn't changed. He has always shown favor to those who do not deserve it. Whether it is someone who's heart is only evil continually or someone who is a porn addict - they are both sinners and they are both in need of God's kindness to bring them to repentance. After Noah found favor, then he was a righteous man and walked with God. This is how it should be with us too if we have found favor with God (aka you've been saved, begun a relationship with Jesus, asked Jesus into your heart, etc). We have been shown grace and now we live in awe and thankfulness of that grace.
That grace is incredible, that grace is sufficient, like the old hymn writer once said, that grace is AMAZING.
