The Welcome Valley Reader
Noah and the Two Sides of Grace
My in-box recently displayed e-mails touching on one of Christianity's most important controversies. One e-mail asserted that grace frees us from a regulated lifestyle. The writer’s view of grace emphasizes that we cannot earn our way with God, that grace is God's goodness to the undeserving. The other electronic letter proclaimed that grace is God’s empowerment to become what He wants us to be. That writer seemed to suggest that God's grace helps us live so as to be deserving. The underlying theology is huge; and since we depend upon God's grace for salvation, we do well to come down on the right side of this dispute.
Interestingly, my adult Sunday school lesson that week covered the very first use of the word “grace” in the English Bible. That use is found in Genesis 6:8, which says: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”
Genesis 6:9 goes on to say: “. . . Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”
Noah found grace, and Noah was good. Elsewhere, the Bible emphatically teaches that grace earned is not grace. Here, Noah the righteous man is clearly the one God saves. So which is it? Did Noah survive the flood because God arbitrarily gave an evil man a blueprint, or did Noah’s upright life win him a place on the boat? That question expresses the struggle of those two e-mails in its most basic form, but the correct answer is more complicated than the question.
First Noah really did get a boat ride he didn’t deserve. The Bible says all people have sinned. It also indicates that sinners deserve death. Any escape must forever depend on the undeserved grace of God. Noah was a sinner who escaped punishment. “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”
At the same time, Noah was an unusually moral man. This is true in spite of Noah's natural direction. Noah was born with the same spiritual deadness as the rest of the world. He lived in the same incredibly evil environment as those who perished in the flood. Noah became a shining light in a dark world, but he didn’t do it on his own. As Scripture says: “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”
So do law and grace collide in Noah's life? No! Noah displays two aspects of grace. The first aspect is all about mercy to one who hasn’t earned and can't earn salvation. Such is grace that puts Noah on the boat and takes forgiven sinners to Heaven. Second comes grace empowering us to be like God. Such is grace that makes Noah a good man in a bad environment and changes sinners to saints while still on earth.
Both aspects of grace are operational whenever God gives grace. Neither replaces the other. The first aspect of grace is not dependent upon the second, but it can never reach its full potential without it. Both sides of grace are needful for salvation by grace to be a complete salvation.
Noah without the first side of grace must drown in the flood, a sinner getting what he deserves. Noah without the second aspect survives the flood to re-institute the evil he’s escaped. With both aspects of grace—undeserved salvation and God’s life-changing power—Noah becomes the God-made hero that he is. With both aspects of grace, you and I can be sure of a heavenly home and also live like we belong there while still on this earth.
This essay is in the public domain and may be copied and distributed freely.
How to Have a Relationship with God
Home * Contact Info * About This Site * Copyright Release * Bible Studies * Easy English Home * Links
A Father's Faith * A Man for an Impossible Situation * A Mother's Triumph * A Savior is Born * All they Did Was Show Up for Work * Angels in the Sky * Bigger Than Magic * Buried Alive * Challenging the Gods * Chariots of Iron * Dealing with the Evidence * Enforcing the Enforcer * God's Man and the Devil's City * God Was Big Enough After All * In Over Their Heads * Magic Vs. Miracle * Reclaiming a Failure * Taking Away the Stone * The Beginning * The Decision * The Devoted One * The End of the Boy King * The Fisherman and the Carpenter * The Flood * The Good Samaritan * The King and the King of Kings * The Making of a Traitor * The Man Who Sold His Rights * The Man Whose Eyes Were Opened * The Outcast * The Rich Man and Lazarus * The Secret Agent * The Stranger * The Testing * The View from the Cave * The Weak Commando * Two Men, Two Scandals, Two Results * When Actions Weren't Better than Words * Where Is the God of Elijah? * Willing to Pay the Price
Bridges to Burn * Dropping Out * Dying Faith * Everything I Didn't Have * Exciting People * Failed Horizons * Failing for the Lord * Fire Danger * Flea Medicine * Living Water * My Cat's Food Is Eating His Food * My Medals * Negligence * Noah and the Two Sides of Grace * Of Cat Food and Christians * On Growing Up Without Television * Quitting Isn't Always Bad * Ready * Sir * Spring or Rock Formation? * Swimming with Piranhas * Tax Day * The Abandoned Skyscraper * The Beacon * The Cat in the Trash Can * Those New Antique Locomotives * The Road Through the Swamp * Tracks in the Woods * Trusting the Unseen