Building a Picture of Salvation

Grace To You.org ^ | 1993 | John MacArthur, Grace Community Church

[metmom]

"By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household" (Heb. 11:7).

The ark is a beautiful picture of salvation by grace through faith.

God called Noah to a gargantuan task. Conservative figures estimate that the ark was about 438 feet long, 73 feet wide, and 44 feet high. That makes it almost one-and-a-half times the length of a football field and more than four stories high. Its three decks totaled almost 96,000 square feet with a total volume of about 1.3 million cubic feet. Naval engineers concur that its shape and dimensions constitute an incredibly stable ship design.

But beyond the enormity of its size and precision of its measurements, the ark is a wonderful illustration of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. For example, Noah was instructed to cover the ark inside and out with pitch (Gen. 3:14). The Hebrew word for pitch has the same root as the word for atonement. The pitch kept the waters of judgment from entering the ark just as Christ's atoning blood keeps judgment from the repentant sinner.

The ark was large enough to hold two of each species of animals plus every person who turned to God for safety. Only eight persons chose to be saved on God's terms, but had more come, surely He would have accommodated them. It is His desire that none perish, but that all come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). Those who perished in the Flood did so because they rejected God's means of salvation.

Similarly, Jesus's blood is sufficient to atone for every sinner and every sin since man's fall in the Garden of Eden. No one who comes to Him will be cast out (John 6:37), yet so few avail themselves of His gracious provision (Matt. 7:14).

Noah was a man who "walked with God" (Gen. 6:9), yet he wasn't without sin. That's obvious from his drunken and immodest behavior after the Flood (9:20-21). But Noah, like every true believer, was justified by God's grace, his faith being counted as righteousness. That has always been the basis of salvation (Gen. 15:6;Rom. 4:5).

Suggestions for Prayer

Thank God for His amazing grace, by which He saved you and continues to cleanse you from every sin.

For Further Study

Read Romans 4:1-8.

[metmom]

Studying God’s Word ping

[imardmd1]

It is interesting to note that a free ride was available only the animals and their food the seed, bearing both life and death. Without the literal labors of the humans that built the ark (no free ride to them), no zoological life would have been preserved. Certainly any other humans believing in Noah's gospel would also have helped build--even if only supporting and sustaining the artisans--wouldn't they?

So what does the Ark built by their work represent, figuratively?

(When Moses wrote the Pentateuch, the same word for this Ark was also used by him to describe the vessel made of bulrushes that save him from the Pharaoh's dictum on Hebrew male children. Nowhere else in the Torah or the rest of the Hebrew scriptures was this word used.)

[ealgeone]

Our Roman Catholic friends have taken great liberty with the word Ark in their theology.