After Adam and Eve, people multiplied over the face of the earth. In four centuries, a few billion people could have populated the Earth. From Adam to Noah, there were over sixteen centuries. In this time, giants lived on the earth (Gen 6:4; cf. Job 40–41).

Grieving God’s Heart

About forty-five hundred years ago in the days of Noah, God saw the wickedness of man across the earth filled with violence and corruption (Gen 6:11–12). However, God also saw the world in a way in which people cannot. God saw that every intent of the thoughts of the heart were evil continually (Gen 6:5). Only God can judge the hidden counsels of the heart (1 Cor 4:5). Therefore, God judged the world and brought a just destruction upon the world by a flood. Like the Flood, God has reserved the world now for fire until the judgment day (2 Pet 3:5–7). However, many do not understand the consequences of their sin.

The sin of the world, our sin, grieves the heart of the Almighty God. Genesis 6:6 reveals,”And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart” (cf. Eph 4:30). This is why God decided to destroy the world with a flood. God said, “I am sorry that I have made them.”

Noah Found God’s Grace

However in the world before the Flood, a man and his family found God’s grace. Here is the first mention of grace in the Bible: “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen 6:8). Why? Because “Noah walked with God” (6:9). There is the extent of God’s grace –walking with God.

This is same as God’s grace is now in Christ. “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). God’s grace does not permit anyone to walk in darkness and continue in sin (1 John 1:6).

Obedient Faith and God’s Grace

Having God’s grace, Noah’s faith was an obedient faith that saved Noah’s family. God’s grace is seen in the specific details of God’s commands for building a life-saving ark (Gen 6:14–17). Noah was not permitted by God’s grace to overlook these instructions. By keeping the specifics of God’s instructions, Noah was no legalist. Noah did all that God told him to do (6:22; 7:5). By faith, Noah prepared the Ark to save his family (Heb 11:7).

Salvation through Water and God’s Grace

God established His covenant of grace with Noah’s family by their entering the Ark (Gen 6:18). The fountains of the great deep broke open, rain fell for forty days, and the waters rose above the mountains (7:10–12, 17–20). After one hundred and fifty days, the waters started to recede, and after six months, the Ark rested on Mount Ararat. While Noah was a preacher, only eight souls were saved through the water (1 Pet 3:20; cf. 2 Pet 2:5). However, Noah saved his family.

Like the eight souls were saved through the water, Christ saves His followers through the water and through His resurrection. Referring to Noah’s family being saved through the water, Peter revealed, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 3:21 ESV). God’s grace teaches us to observe His commands (cf. Titus 2:11–14). Jesus declared, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16).

Thank God for His Grace

Thank God for His grace. After a year of living on the Ark, the first thing that Noah did when he left the Ark was to worship God (Gen 8:20–21). God blessed Noah’s family to be fruitful and multiply on the earth (9:1). God set His sign of the covenant in the clouds. That sign is the rainbow (9:11–13).

Learn from God’s Grace

What can humanity learn from God’s grace? Have Christian fathers prepared their family for salvation through the water? Are believers walking with God? Will a Christian build what God instructs the believer to build? Will the true believer follow all God’s instructions? Can every Christian see God’s grace in His commands? for by God’s grace, He instructed Noah to build the Ark.