Gen 6:14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make
rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. Gen 6:17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters
upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under
heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. Gen 6:18 But I will establish my covenant with you,
and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons'
wives with you. Gen 8:13 In the six hundred and first year, in the
first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the
earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the
face of the ground was dry. Gen
8:18 So Noah went out, and his sons and
his wife and his sons' wives with him.
I put
together a few verses from the account of Noah to emphasize a point I want to
make. We read that it was covered inside
and out with pitch which is significant in biblical theology. This word is the same word as mercy-seat
which “covered” the ark or box found in the temple; ark means box. The pitch made sure absolutely no water or
judgment could get into the souls being saved.
In both cases then, the ark was the place where God’s wrath was turned
away from the guilty. While seen vaguely
in Noah’s ark, it is elaborated on some in the Ark of the Covenant where we see
that the wrath of God is turned back through the blood sacrifice of a
substitute being sprinkled before God and thus reconciliation and peace is made.
Finally,
the NT word for Propitiation is the same word for covering in the OT to which
we have referred. These words carry with
them the idea of putting off or appeasing or satisfying something. The blood of Christ did not just divert God’s
wrath away for a time, but as he became sin for us, he actually bore the wrath
of a holy God and satisfied fully the justice of God so no wrath remains on
those that are united with him; they weren’t in the ark bailing out water
because it was seeping through and getting them wet. All judgment was borne by Christ and we will
never face sin’s judgment! Christ paid
the price that all sin deserved so that by coming to him we can be
justified. We have been put in a
position in which God has nothing against us.
But things get better than that.
Remember
that Noah found grace in God’s sight.
Not only are our sins removed in Jesus Christ but his righteousness is
imputed unto us. Had only our guilt been
removed God would at best been neutral toward us. But by looking at us as he does his Son we
now are in his favor. He isn’t being
held back so that he can’t exercise his wrath, he has no wrath toward us. In fact, he loves as he does his Son and
gives us the same inheritance. He brings
us to glory and lavishes his grace upon us.
This
points to a key doctrinal difference between clear biblical teaching and that
of the Roman Catholics and other Arminian groups. They see Christ as turning back some of God’s
judgment but that it keeps seeping through when we sin. So we have to keep bailing out the water and
if we miss some before we die we have to face God’s judgment.
The last
verses above were quoted to show how the account fits the type so well. On the other side of the ark’s salvation they
stepped over onto dry ground. Before
they were allowed to leave the ark all the water had to recede; all the wrath
of God had to be satisfied before Noah and his family could leave the ark. Christ has saved us perfectly and there is no
sin that can ever be held against us and someday we will stand on a new earth
where all sin has been destroyed.
This is
what it means to be safe in union with Christ.
As such, the ark is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as everyone
who was in the ark was saved and everyone not on the ark was lost, so everyone
who, in the obedience of faith, has put himself under the covering of the blood
of Jesus Christ will be saved from God’s future judgment; everyone who is
outside of Christ will be lost. It doesn’t depend on one person being better or
worse than another person. There were probably some nice people who didn’t get
on board the ark. There are some wonderful people who have never trusted in
Christ for salvation; but being wonderful towards other men is not being
righteous before a holy God. It all depends on whether you are “on board” or
not, covered from God’s judgment by the means He has ordained.
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