26 Jul Moses, Abraham, and Paul Part 2
Genesis 6:6-7 – “The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth-men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air-for I am grieved that I have made them.’”
Yesterday, we started looking at the correlations between Moses, the writer of the book of Genesis, Abraham, the subject of much of the book of Genesis, and Paul, the writer of the majority of the Old Testament. Today, we will study three more similarities.
Fifth, Paul did not get his gospel of free grace and salvation by faith alone solely from the writings of the biblical prophets because the prophets got their insights from reading the Law/Pentateuch, and Paul received his insights from reading both the Law and the Prophets. In the Flood account of Noah in Genesis 6-9, we find that, contrary to much popular opinion, Noah was not spared from the flood because he was a righteous man.
In Genesis 6:6-7 we read, “The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth-men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air-for I am grieved that I have made them.’” Simply, everyone on the earth in that day was evil all the time – including Noah. Like Abraham, Noah was a sinner saved by grace alone to a new life and this is exactly the gospel Paul preaches. Genesis 6:8 says, “But Noah found favor [grace] in the eyes of the LORD.” This is the first occurrence of the Hebrew word for grace in the Bible and what it tells us is that Noah was sinful like everyone else, but that God gave Noah grace while the rest of humanity received God’s justice in the Flood. Genesis 6:9 says, “This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.”
In what sounds to be very Pauline, Moses tells us that Noah was totally depraved, but that God gave grace to Noah and saved him from judgment. He said it was God’s grace that made Noah a righteous man, covered his sins to make him blameless, and enabled him to walk with God. At the end of the Flood in Genesis 8:20, we see that the first thing Noah did after exiting the Ark was worship God for His grace and offer a burnt offering sacrifice of atonement for his sin, which prefigured the atoning death of Jesus Christ for Noah’s sin. Simply, upon seeing that God had destroyed all sinners but himself and some family members, Noah was keenly aware that he was as sinful and deserving of death as those who had perished in the flood and needed atonement and grace to cover his sin.
Likewise, Paul’s gospel throughout the New Testament is that no one is righteous, no one seeks God, and no one deserves to be saved from God’s just wrath – just like Abraham and Noah. But God in His kindness gives grace to some people that makes them righteous, saves them from His just wrath, has Jesus’ death atone for their sin (thereby making them blameless before Him), and enables them to walk with and worship God humbly – just like Abraham and Noah.
Sixth, Genesis 28:3 says, “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community [church] of peoples.” In this verse, God’s intentions from Abraham is that there would be a community/church (the word here is the Hebrew word for church) of peoples from many nations. This same idea is again stated in Genesis 35:11 and 48:3, further showing that God wanted the nation of Israel that came from Abraham to be missionaries bringing the good news of God to the nations of the earth. His desire was that there would be a universal church comprised of the tribes, tongues, and peoples of the earth, which we read are worshiping Jesus in Heaven in the book of Revelation.
Lastly, Paul echoed God’s intentions to have a church of many nations worshiping Jesus from Genesis in Romans 16:25-27 writing, “Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him—to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.”
The book of Romans is arguably Paul’s greatest work, among many in the New Testament. I would encourage you to read it and look back at the sermon series and daily devos on the book of Romans at legacy.realfaith.com.
To help you study the book of Genesis with us, check out the third free e-book study guide here.
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