Genesis 6:17-22: A covenant of a grace.

“17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark – you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.’ 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”NIV

In a world spiralling downhill; a world ripe for judgment; God chose to save a people. This is God’s way, and salvation always comes at His initiative. At times, His people may be just a tiny remnant. But their presence in a wicked world is testament to the saving grace of God.

It is true that: ‘’Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God’’ (9). It is also a fact that:’’Noah did everything just as God commanded him’’ (22). But this was not the basis of his salvation. He did not earn his escape out of judgment. The life he lived was an expression of his salvation. But he did not buy God off by right living. No-one can. Noah and his family were saved because God took the initiative to save them (18); to ‘’establish’’ His covenant with them.

‘’For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do’’ (Ephesians 2:8-10).