Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
When we read about Noah and the Flood, there is one detail that might get lost in the story of that terrible judgment that God brought upon the human race. It's true that the Bible says that God Himself brought the Flood--it was His initiative. And it appears on the surface that raw fear should be our motive in living--get in the ark or you will perish. But, take note of this often-forgotten little detail: Noah was "a preacher of righteousness by faith," not merely of a scare-mongering diatribe (see 2 Peter 2:5 and Heb. 11:7).
While he was "prepar[ing] an ark for the saving of his household" he was busy at the same time proclaiming the much more abounding grace of God, for only that is the message of "righteousness by faith" (Rom. 5:15-20). Hebrews 11 (vs. 7, King James Version) says that he "became heir of the righteousness which is by faith," indicating that he had not always understood that grace. During the 120 years of his shipbuilding and preaching, his understanding of God's character grew. He could have begun with a message of raw fear, but the closer he came to the Flood itself, the more he "became" aware of the love of God for a lost race. If he was preaching "righteousness by faith," he was preaching "the everlasting gospel"!
Further, Hebrews says he "became heir" to this understanding, an inheritance better than any of the lordly palaces that the antediluvians had built for themselves--all of which were destined to destruction. If we can become "heirs" to the full truth of righteousness by faith we shall have something that will nourish us with happiness throughout whatever trials are yet to come on the earth.
Just as Noah grew in his understanding of this "inheritance," so a church in our time may have started out with a message that to them was largely legalistic, but as time has gone on, they can "grow" in their comprehension of that much more abounding grace of Christ.
What sealed the doom of the antediluvians was not merely their acts of sin, bad as they were; they heard and rejected the glorious truths of "righteousness by faith." To reject that message of the grace of Christ is to bring judgment on ourselves. Let's listen and believe!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 26, 2002.
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