This morning’s devotional gives a reminder of how that works. It is found in the story of Noah. This man’s life is summed up in the NT:
By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (Hebrews 11:7)
MacArthur goes on to explain that the ark is a picture of salvation by grace through faith. In the text describing its construction, an unusual word is used:
Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. (Genesis 6:14)
The Hebrew word for pitch is from the same root as the word for atonement or a covering, which is what Jesus does to our sin. However, this word is also translated as a protected village, which is what God does for His people. Pitch kept the waters of judgment from entering the ark, just as Christ’s atoning blood keeps judgment from the repentant sinner. Pitch, or the word for it, also surrounds and protects God’s family, speaking of our protection and hinting at our unity, just like the people in the ark were protected from judgment, together in that protected place, emphasis on together. Shared atonement gives a sense of oneness even among people of different cultures, backgrounds, education, and often varied views of many things. This “pitch” not only suggests the presence of oil in the middle east, but it speaks of the covering and uniting power of God’s grace!
Noah’s task was enormous. Some say this ark was bigger than a football field and more than four stories high. It had more than enough room for the animals and people in it. Engineers say its structure was incredibly stable . . . just like the structure of salvation. This is why it illustrates what God has done in Christ.
Even at that, only eight people entered it. There was room for more and God would have welcomed them because “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient . . . not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) He also says: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37) but “The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:14)
The story says that Noah “was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. He walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9) That does not mean he was sinless and some of that showed up after the flood, but like every true believer, he was justified by God’s grace, his faith being counted as righteousness. That has always been the basis of salvation.
And (Abram) believed the Lord, and (God) counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)
And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, (Romans 4:5)
And that faith produces a unity between people who are otherwise strangers, a blessed sense of being “in the same village” even with our many differences. Atonement, like the ark, is our covering and protection. Because of God’s grace we are saved and given the mind of Christ so when we get together we are aware of belonging together in His ‘walled city’ of unity and fellowship.
PRAY: Jesus, I see Your hand in all things, in our dinner last night with people we’d never met, in our mutual edification as brothers and sisters in You, in the saving grace and life of Noah and his family, in the power that still saves people though the atonement that is ours in You. What a lovely wonder You are, a gift from the Father that never stops giving.
PONDER: Romans 4:1–8 is the gospel but it also explains why the members of God’s family have a unity that goes beyond common interests and mutual agreement. According to this passage, what gives us the status of being covered and living together in a walled city?
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