In Genesis 6:18, God spoke to Noah and revealed his plan of salvation. The flood will destroy all living things on the earth, but there will be an exception. God told Noah, “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.” God made promises to Noah and his family. God calls it a “covenant.” It is the promise that he and his family members would be afforded a place of refuge from the coming judgment upon the world. When the rains came and the water from below and above was released upon the world, Noah acted. In Genesis 7:7 we read, “And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood.” The flood account continues to describe the universal flood that ended all life upon the earth except for those preserved in the Ark according to the covenant God made with Noah. God kept His promise. Noah’s eight were saved. The rest perished.
God’s plan of salvation in the New Testament, referred to as the New Covenant, is revealed to us in the person of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. The most relevant and probably the most famous passage in the New Testament that explains that is John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, so whosoever would believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.” Jesus went out of his way in His teaching to connect the New Covenant with the Covenant God made with Noah. He did not want his listeners to miss the comparison. Jesus said in Luke 17:26-27, “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”
Believing God’s promise and entering the ark was the means of salvation from worldwide destruction for Noah and his family. Believing God’s promise as recorded in John 3:16 and putting our faith in Jesus is the means of our salvation today. It was about 120 years from God’s first address to Noah about the coming judgment to its fulfillment. Although we often think of that as a long time, it is nothing compared to the wait we have today. It’s been 2000 years since the Apostle John recorded the new promise of God for those who would believe in Jesus. We are still awaiting the final fulfillment of the next worldwide judgment. Peter goes out of his way to explain this to us. He writes in 1 Peter 3:20, “Because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.” God so loved the world part of John 3:16, explains God’s delay. He wants us all to enter into the Ark of salvation, faith in Jesus Christ.