Noah and Grace Through Faith

Al Felder
16 hours ago
5 min read

When Genesis 6 opens, the world is almost unrecognizable compared to the “very good” creation of Genesis.

1. Humanity has multiplied, but so has wickedness.

“And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth…But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”—Genesis 6:7–8

In a world overflowing with violence, corruption, and rebellion, one man stands out—not because he was sinless, but because he found grace. Through Noah’s story, God gives us a powerful picture of what it means to be saved by grace through faith.

1. The Days of Noah: A World Ready for Judgment

Nearly 1,700 years after creation, Scripture says that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). People were busy with life—eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage—while completely ignoring God (Matt. 24:37–39).

Their problem wasn’t a lack of activity. It was that they lacked submission. Material pursuits and fleshly desires swallowed any concern for holiness.

God, who is perfectly just, had every right to bring judgment. In fact, He would have been justified to wipe out all of humanity—Noah included.

2. “Noah Found Grace in the Eyes of the Lord”

We can read that line quickly and miss its weight.

To “find grace” is to receive undeserved favor. Noah was not sinless. Scripture is clear that “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23), and Noah was no exception. One sin is enough to make a man a lawbreaker (James 2:10). All the sacrifices under the Law of Moses could not fully remove even a single sin—they only rolled it forward (Heb. 10:1–4).

If Noah stood righteous before God, it was not because he earned it, but because God chose to extend mercy.

Grace does not ignore sin. It answers sin.

3. Grace Always Comes with a Plan

God’s grace toward Noah wasn’t an abstract feeling. It came with specific instructions:

“Make thee an ark of gopher wood…The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits…A window shalt thou make… and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof.”—Genesis 6:14–16

God designed the ark down to the details—wood type, dimensions, layout, window, and door. Noah didn’t get to improvise. Grace provided the plan; obedience built the ark.

For roughly a century, Noah:

Worked on the ark
Warned a wicked generation
Walked with God in a world that mocked him

Peter later calls him “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5). Yet despite the long warning, no one joined him. When the rain fell, only eight souls entered the ark.

4. Noah’s Faith Responded to Grace

Hebrews sums up Noah’s response in one powerful sentence:

“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house…”—Hebrews 11:7

Notice the sequence:

Grace – God warned Noah and provided a way of escape.
Faith – Noah believed what God said, even though he had never seen a flood.
Obedience – That faith “moved” him to prepare the ark exactly as God commanded.

If Noah had shrugged off God’s warning, altered the blueprint, or stopped building halfway, he would have perished with the rest of the world. Grace offered salvation; faith accepted it through obedience.

5. Saved by Grace Through Faith—Then and Now

Peter connects Noah’s salvation directly to ours:

“…eight souls were saved by water.The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us…”—1 Peter 3:20–21

Noah’s salvation was a type, or foreshadowing, of the salvation available in Christ. God did not accidentally choose water, an ark, and a global judgment—He was painting a picture for future generations.

Paul explains that we too are saved “by grace… through faith” (Eph. 2:8–10). We cannot earn salvation; we cannot put God in our debt. But that same passage also says we are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” that God prepared beforehand.

Grace does not eliminate obedience. Grace enables obedient faith.

6. Parallels Between Noah’s Ark and Our Salvation in Christ

Connections between Noah’s day and ours:

One Source of Light
- The ark had one window.
- Today we have one spiritual light: the Word of God. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Ps. 119:105).
One Door of Salvation
- The ark had one door.
- Today there is one entrance into salvation: Jesus. “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9).
One Family Inside
- Everyone in the ark belonged to the same family.
- Everyone in Christ belongs to one spiritual family—no Jew or Greek, bond or free, male or female, but “all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28–29).
One Divinely Designed Vessel
- There was only one ark, built to God’s pattern.
- Today there is one body, the church, designed by God (Eph. 1:22–23; 4:4).

Just as Noah had no right to alter God’s blueprint for the ark, we have no right to alter God’s pattern for salvation or the church.

7. Baptism: The Antitype of the Flood

Peter says baptism is the “like figure” of the flood—not because water itself has mystical power, but because of what God does when obedient faith meets His promise.

“…baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”—1 Peter 3:21

Baptism is:

A burial and resurrection with Christ (Rom. 6:3–4).
A form or pattern of the gospel we obey from the heart (Rom. 6:17).
The moment when God, by His operation, washes away sins through the blood of Christ.

Just as water separated those inside the ark from those outside, baptism marks the separation between the old life of sin and the new life in Christ.

8. The God Who Closes the Door

One final detail in the flood narrative is easy to overlook:

“And the Lord shut him in.”—Genesis 7:16

Noah didn’t close the door. God did.

The same God who shut the ark’s door now adds the saved to the church (Acts 2:47). Salvation is His work from start to finish. Christ is “the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Heb. 5:9).

Grace is extended. Faith responds. Obedience walks through the door. God secures the salvation.