We all need grace!

Posted on by Pam Larson

According to this song, popularized by the Statler Brothers,

Well the Lord looked down from his window in the sky
And said I created man but I don’t remember why
Nothin’ but fightin’ since creation day
I’ll send a little water and I’ll wash’em all away

So the Lord came down to look around a spell
And there he found Noah behavin’ mighty well
And that is the reason the Scriptures record
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord…

But is this really what the Bible says? Sometimes we fall into the trap of believing something is in the Bible, when actually the OPPOSITE may be in the Bible.  Look at our reading from Genesis 6 today:

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis 6:5-8 ESV)

The truth is that Noah was a recipient of God’s grace, God’s favor.  He did NOT find grace because he was a righteous man. God’s grace is not grace if it is earned.  Pastor Mark Driscoll and Gary Breshears in a book “Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe” says this:

Genesis 6:8 does not say that Noah worked hard to merit God’s favor.  Noah did not begin as a righteous man.  Rather, he began as a sinner among sinners.  His status with God was God’s gracious gift, not a result of Noah’s religious works.  It is beautiful that the word “favor” in this passage is the Hebrew word for grace, which appears here for the first time in the Bible and is echoed repeatedly throughout the Bible in the teaching that salvation is by grace through faith alone.  Throughout Scripture people are saved through the undeserved working of God.  Because everyone was a sinner in Noah’s day- just like everyone is a sinner in our day- no one earned God’s favor.  God’s favor is a free gift.  So God worked, as He always has, by saving an ill-deserved sinner by grace alone, through faith alone, thereby enabling him to live a righteous life.  (Doctrine p 182)

Later in Genesis 6, we read that Noah was righteous and walked with God.  But this happens after he finds favor or grace with God.  In Exodus 33:18 Moses pleads with God, “Show me thy glory!” And God answers, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, YAHWEH! and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.” So Noah and his family were rescued from the coming flood, but not because of his righteousness but because of God’s grace. Noah was far from perfect.  In fact, in tomorrow’s reading, we will see that even after God rescues his whole family and makes a covenant with him, Noah plants a vineyard and got drunk and naked.  You see, we all need grace!