The Ark of Salvation  

“Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.’”—Genesis 7:1 (NKJV)

By Danny Saavedra

Everybody knows the story of Noah, because it’s a story that captures our imagination. It’s a story that’s so fantastic and big and miraculous that even the magic of Hollywood has failed to capture it properly. It’s an amazing story that involves a lot of amazing moments. 

And it all starts in Genesis 6, which tells us that God regretted making mankind. Only 1,600 years after creation, our wickedness had grown to irredeemable levels. The Lord looked at us and saw only selfish, sinful, wicked people completely devoid of His image. But, Genesis 6:8 (NIV) says, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”

So, what was so special about Noah? Well, Genesis 6:9 (NLT) explains, “Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.” You see, Noah was a righteous man living in a wicked generation. 

He was a man of character; a man who lived a blameless, God-honoring life while everyone around him was sinful and lost. For Noah, this had to be one of the most difficult things in the world to do—to not be dragged down by the world around him . . . by culture, peer pressure, or a need for acceptance and belonging. We can all admit that it is easier to fall into sin when everyone else is doing it. 

But Noah never gave in. He stayed strong in the face of that pressure. He found favor in God’s eyes as a righteous man, a man of faith! Hebrews 11:7 (NLT) says, “It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.”

When God spoke, Noah listened. He didn’t waver. He didn’t question God or doubt. He believed God and obeyed. Noah built the ark . . . and he did so before it started to rain.

I have to imagine Noah must have put up with a lot of ridicule! But he never wavered or doubted. He simply obeyed God, because He knew that His great God had a great plan. This ancestor of our Lord was one of the earliest examples of what it means to be righteous, to live by faith and follow the Lord in faith.

But guess what? Noah isn’t the most important aspect or figure in this story. Can you guess who the most important figure of the story is, besides God? It’s the ark, our beautiful picture of Jesus Christ! 

How was the ark a picture of Jesus? Well, first, the ark contained only one door, one way to salvation. In John 14:6 (NIV), Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Like the ark which only had one door to enter into to be saved from the flood, Jesus is the only door (John 10:9) to salvation, the only path to peace, and the only road to heaven.

Noah and his family were saved by faith in God, because they believed in God and obeyed Him, not by anything they did, but because they believed in and trusted God. Noah’s righteousness came from his belief in and love for God. And because he and his family believed God, they were able to enter the ark of safety. 

Today, we have the same opportunity as Noah, to be saved from the wrath of God through His instrument of salvation, Jesus Christ. That’s what Christmas is all about! Let’s make it our mission this holiday season to try to bring one person into the ark of salvation along with us.