#salavation

But Noah found favor (grace) in the eyes of the Lord. ... Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

  Genesis 7:1

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.

 I have been thinking about the basis of our salvation, and what it is that allows us to rest secure in the fact that a true believer is saved once and for all of eternity. What is confusing to many people is that the once and for all justification that God makes on behalf of every believer is not declaration of his approval of our tangible character. It does not mean that God is actually pleased with our personal thought life, our words, and our actions. For justification does not change us morally or spiritually, it changes our relationship to God and heaven legally. Therefore, Paul says this:

  Romans 5:1–2

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

 When any person truly believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior, God, the Father, declares that they are just as pure, holy, and righteous as Christ is himself before God and heaven. From then on, God deals with them on the basis of being 100% righteous in his thinking and dealings. So complete and far reaching is this legal status before God that Paul was able also able to say this about even the weakest believer:

  2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

  Romans 8:1

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

  I remember one time going to assist a pastor who had a church in a wooded area of his town. We witnessed to the teens who hung out in these woods and some of them received Christ as their personal savior. They were truly responsive to the gospel. The only problem we had was with the pastor of the church. He could not see enough of a change in their lives to warrant our interest in them or to welcome them to his church meetings or fellowship. He weaponized this verse from 2 Corinthians 5 and made it measuring stick to exclude these new believers. Instead of using it as source of hope for their potential. To be in Christ is first a legal or a positional change in the believer’s life. This group of teens became believers, were righteous before God, but had lots of problems that needed to be dealt with by God. But from the moment of their conversion that verse was true about their status before God and their access to God’s great grace for their lives. So we started a new ministry for these teens apart from this church and its pastor. Noah too was such a person. “Noah was a righteous man,” “the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.” The Hebrew word for “righteous” here means this: “persons whose conduct will be checked and found irreproachable, innocent, in the right.” Of course, Noah’s conduct and character were not any better than those around him. Before the absolute justice required by God’s holiness, he was absolutely guilty. He was just as lost as those who drowned were apart from the grace of God and the work of God on his behalf. Without divine intervention Noah would have died in the flood waters of judgment along with everyone else. But he found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Moses says other things about Noah. Beyond being righteous before God, he was also “blameless in his generation.” This refers to work of God in his heart beyond justification. The Psalmist had this to say about this work:

  Psalm 18:31–32

For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? — the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless.

 The psalmist details the work of God in his life:

  Psalm 18:20–23

The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did not put away from me. I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from my guilt.

 Noah kept short accounts with God and others. He dealt with the details in his life under the direction of the spirit and word of God in his life. Faults were handled properly. Sin was confessed and others could sense that he was fair and honest in his dealings with them. Before men, he was blameless. Noah’s personal life was consistent with his justification before God. This did not save him. But it is a definite result of his true salvation.

 Finally, Moses said that “Noah walked with God.” This refers to level of intimacy Noah had with his God. God and Noah were always together. Enjoying and responding to each other’s thoughts and emotions. Perhaps we could say these things about Noah:

  Malachi 2:6

True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.

 Maybe it is just my personal hope that as the flood waters were rising that many remembered things Noah had shared and turned to God in their final moments of life. I would like to think so.