Why God Saved Us
A Devotional Series from Genesis
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
6/1 Reading Portions: Deuteronomy 5; Psalm 88; Isaiah 33; Revelation 3
Genesis 6:9
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
PROPHETS
In one sense, since you and I have been saved by God’s grace, we are prophets like Noah. We deserve holy judgment and eternal punishment for the sins we have committed against a holy God; nevertheless, by saving us, God exalts His Son by making us types of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are prophetic after-shadows of what Noah was as a prophetic foreshadow. The second sentence of our verse today says this in Hebrew:
נח אישׁ צדיק תמים היה בדרתיו
(NŌ-ach eeysh TZA-deeyk TA-meeym ha-YAH b’dō-rō-tayv)
Literally, “Noah, a man, righteous, unblemished was in his era.”
The Hebrew word אִישׁ (eeysh) means “man.” The Hebrew root צַדִּיק (tza-DEEYK) means “just” or “righteous.” The root word תָּמִים (ta-MEEYM), translated “blameless” (ESV) or “perfect” (KJV), literally means “unblemished,” and is a term used for animals offered in sacrifice to God (Ex 12:5; Lev 1:3; etc., et al). The only perfect, blameless, just, and righteous man who ever lived on the planet was the Lord Jesus Messiah (1 Pet 1:19; 2:22).
Yet this is how YHVH God looks at His redeemed—through the precious, perfect life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus lived the righteous life that you and I cannot possibly live, and because of His unblemished Sacrifice upon Calvary’s tree, His righteousness is imputed to us, placed upon our account as if we’ve never sinned. And not only that, we too, become types of Christ. This is why YHVH God saved us: to exalt His only Son, Jesus of Nazareth, by our redeemed lives.
But because of the corruptions that still remain in our mortal flesh, we at times become antitypes: like Noah, planting a vineyard and getting drunk (Gen 9); like Abraham lying about Sarah (Gen 12; 20); like Moses, murdering an Egyptian and striking the rock twice (Ex 2; Num 20); like Aaron, crafting a golden calf (Ex 32); like David, violating Bathsheba and murdering her husband (2 Sam 11), and toward the end of his reign, numbering Israel (1 Chr 21:1). It is in these times, when we need God’s grace in Christ the most; and when Christ’s imputed righteousness is most treasured in our godly grief and repentance. Hallelujah! What a Savior!