Noah: A Preacher of Righteousness

Mention the name, “Noah” to just about anyone, and you have one response, one perspective. Noah was the builder of the ark in Genesis 6–9. There is a telling phrase the apostle Peter employed, when he wrote to the churches in northern Asia minor (Turkiye). Peter called Noah, “a preacher of righteousness.” It is my intention for us to consider the meaning of Peter’s phrase in the context of Noah’s life and ministry.

First, the context of Peter’s Noahic allusion is the pending judgment for false prophets and false teachers (2 Pet 2:1–3). Peter wrote, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly… (2 Pet 2:4–5).” Peter also gave the example of Lot escaping Sodom. His point: “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment (2 Pet 2:9).

Do we live in days like Noah did? Are men inclined to build arks (see Holland and Kentucky!)? Would God be justified in pouring out more wrath upon us than He already does (Rom 1:18)? While God was storing up wrath during Noah’s hundred years building project, were the people curious about Noah’s amusement park exhibit? Noah’s message may have sounded like, “Be not amused, God is not mocked, for you have sown sin of every kind and you will reap judgment.”

Noah was a preacher. Who knew? Preachers emerge from the throng of humanity throughout history. God has spoken through the prophets, and in these later days through His Son (Heb 1:1–2). Noah’s actions may have spoken louder than his words, but what a fantastic conversation piece! “Noah, what are you building there?” Noah might have replied, “Ah, neighbors, I call it, ‘the ark of my salvation.’ You see the God of heaven and earth spoke to me about His coming judgment upon the whole earth, and he gave me instructions to build this ark. I detect your unbelief, but I need to be obedient to what God has commanded me to do.”

Noah’s title, ascribed to him by Peter, is similar to the one he gave to “righteous Lot.” It is the righteous man who is made to be a preacher of righteousness. Righteousness is best understood as, “having right standing before God.”

We learn from the apostle Paul, writing to the church at Rome, about how one has right standing before Almighty God, the Judge of heaven and earth. Paul uses Abraham as the example of how one is right before God, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Rom 4:3).” So how then was Noah justified before God?

God’s plan of salvation has never changed. Just as God chose Noah and his household for salvation, so He has chosen vessels of mercy (Rom 9:23), that is, people from every nation, tribe, and tongue (Rev 5:9). When did God plan for Noah to build the ark of salvation? It was at the same time he chose His elect from every nation, which was before the foundation of the world. In other words, in the predetermined plan of God, He ordained the righteous to live in the midst of wicked people, and even preach to them, regarding sin and judgment.

When a preacher preaches righteousness to unrighteous people, there are a number of implications. Let us consider a few.

First, if God loved everyone, just as they are, and considered everyone a child of God, there would be no need for a preacher of righteousness. There would be union and communion with God, but this was lost in the Garden of Eden when Adam sinned against God.

Second, the preacher of righteousness is telling people they are not right with God. Sin has separated man from God, and this is why salvation is absolutely essential. When people die in their sin, they must stand before the judgment seat of Christ. They have a standing before God, but it is not a right standing before God. Therefore, they are judged and justly punished for eternity in hell and the lake of fire.

Third, the preacher of righteousness, like Noah, tells the people they need an ark of salvation. They need shelter from the coming storm of God’s wrath, poured out in righteousness against sinful humanity. Should we build an ark? It is good news when one finds out God has already provided an ark of salvation for His chosen people.

Noah was a type of Christ. This means his life and actions show forth a message to be understood as fulfilled in Christ Jesus. Just as Noah’s family entered the ark by faith, so the children of God enter into Christ by faith. Jesus Christ is graciously bringing many sons to glory (Heb 2:10), through His body (Heb 10:5). What does this mean?

The body of Jesus Christ, like the ark, was a vessel prepared for the judgment of God’s wrath. God’s wrath is directed against every sinner (Rom 1:18), but Jesus Christ is the substitute sacrifice (Lev 14), who makes atonement for sin (Lev 16). Those who come to the Cross are sprinkled with the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet 1:19). They are saved from the righteous wrath of God. Jesus is the propitiation for sin (Heb 2:17). God is holy, and His wrath is justly poured out on sinners. Jesus took the place of punishment for His people, who are irresistibly drawn to Him for salvation.

The preacher, like Noah, calls all men everywhere to repent of their sins and enter their arks (Acts 17:30). The Christian knows there is only one ark, Jesus Christ, the only name under heaven, given among men, where one must be saved (Acts 4:12). Jesus said, “Come to me, you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Mt 11:28).” Jesus also said, “No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent Me drags him (Jn 6:44).” How sure and how secure is this salvation arrangement? Jesus answers our inquiry, “All that the Father gives to Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me, I will certainly not cast out (Jn 6:37).” Here is the good news proclaimed by the preacher of righteousness.

The preacher of righteousness has a simple message to preach, “There is only one place of right standing before a holy God, and that place is, ‘in Christ.’” There was only one ark in Noah’s day, when the rains came to flood the whole earth. There is only one ark, today, before the fire of His judgment comes to the whole earth. Peter wrote of this, too, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up (2 Pet 3:10).” Why does Jesus Christ have right standing, and no one else does?

Jesus Christ avoided the sin of Adam (original sin) by being conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. It was the seed of God, not the seed man. Jesus continued in his impeccable human state right up to the Cross. He was the unblemished Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29). God took the sins of His people and placed them on Jesus, and then He poured out His just wrath upon Jesus at the Cross. He was pierced through for our transgressions, and He was crushed for our iniquities (Is 53:5). This is substitutionary atonement. Here is the judgment day for the Christian. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). What about the rest of sinful humanity?

God has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:31). The righteous Judge, Jesus Christ, will be the One to whom, “All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats (Mt 25:32).”

Do you have right standing before God? Are you in Christ Jesus, today? Has Christ called you to enter the ark of salvation? Paul wrote to the Romans with an answer, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation (Rom 10:9–10).”

Salvation, as with Noah’s ark, has been provided for the family of God. Our Father draws us to Christ the door, and we enter in by a common faith given to God’s people (Phil 1:29; 2 Pet 1:1), which has been authored and will be perfected by Jesus Christ, Himself (Heb 12:2). The ark of our salvation is anchored in the holiest place in heaven (Heb 6:19).

Though the storm rages all around us, and we are tempted to fear and despair, a voice is heard through the tumult and trial, “Where is your faith?” And a song springs to life in one’s soul, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” The preacher of righteousness smiles, and says, “Here is the right answer for right standing.” Let us sing to the Lord, our Righteousness, who is able to deliver us from the wrath to come. He is our strength and song. Come, enter the joy of the Lord!

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

April 28, 2021