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How Was Noah Saved Through Water?

How was Noah and his family saved through water? Peter, in 1 Peter 3:20-21, says
they were but just how is a little hard to understand without some thought and
study. The passage reads as follows: “when once the longsuffering of God waited
in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight
souls, were saved through water. There is also an antitype which now saves us,
namely baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good
conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (NKJV)

How was Noah and his family saved through water? What was he saved from?
What is an antitype? Was he saved by grace or by works (he did build the ark)?
There are a lot of questions. Let us start from the beginning.

We are all aware of the story of how the flood came about. After God made man in
due time mankind came to be great sinners before God. “Then the Lord saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen. 6:5 NKJV) God determined to destroy
man for his evil, an evil so great it grieved God in his heart and made him sorry he
had created man. (Gen. 6:6-7)

However, the text then says, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” (Gen.
6:8 NKJV) One cannot emphasize too much the teaching of this text. That said it
goes against almost everything that men today have to say about grace. Grace
today, as men see it, means you need do nothing at all toward your own salvation
other than believe in Jesus. If more was required of you that would be, so they
reason, salvation by works.

How did God show Noah grace? Was it not by telling him what was going to happen
(judgment was to befall the inhabitants of the earth and life on the earth be
destroyed) and what he (Noah) needed to do to save himself? That was it exactly.

But, in today’s world of so called Christendom this is not grace. Noah had to work
some say, based on Gen. 6:3, one hundred and twenty years on the ark. Peter
spoke of the longsuffering of God waiting in the days of Noah while the ark was
being prepared (1 Peter 3:20) so it was no short term project. Noah received grace
but had something to do, an obligation to fulfill, if he was to be saved. Being saved
by God’s grace does not mean man has no part in his own salvation, that man has
nothing to do.

There is also one other very important New Testament verse on Noah’s salvation.
“By faith Noah, being divinely warned (God’s grace-DS) of things not yet seen,
moved with Godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he
condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to
faith.” (Heb. 11:7 NKJV) How is it we freely admit that Noah was saved by grace
and faith and yet he had to work many, many years building this giant ark and yet
we say if a man is baptized to be saved it is being saved by works even though the
whole process takes but minutes?

Is it ignorance, is it prejudice, is it hypocrisy, is it something else? I have no answer.


This much I do know—Noah was saved by grace through faith the same as we are
today (Gen. 6:8, Heb. 11:7). He was moved so much by faith that it instilled within
him “godly fear” (Heb. 11:7) and put a diligent work (or obedience) ethic into his
life. James says, “so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26 NKJV) which is
exactly where Noah would have ended up without the works.

There is a difference between a work of obedience to God’s command and a work


that merits salvation. The Bible condemns the latter. You cannot merit your way to
heaven by works. Don’t you think Noah was well aware that the God who caused
the flood was just as capable of capsizing the ark Noah had built if he chose to do
so? Do you really believe that people who believe the Bible teaches that baptism is
necessary in order to be saved think that they are saving themselves apart from
God when they are baptized and that they have no fear of God? If the ark of
salvation floats, whether it be Noah’s or our own, it is only because the grace of God
allows it.

How was Noah and his family saved through water? By water they were saved from
a sinful world, separated from it, separated to God. They became creatures in a
new world, one without sin. The water that brought death to others brought life to
them as it lifted the ark up placing them in a place of safety above the waters of
destruction. To say they were not saved, they were already saved with or without
water, is to argue with the text which says specifically, “eight souls, were saved
through water.” (1 Peter 3:20 NKJV)

Do you think it strange that the water that brought salvation to the 8 brought death
to the multitudes? One cannot help but think of the waters of baptism of our own
era. The water that brings salvation to some (Mark 16:16) will bring death to others
who are willingly disobedient to the command.

This brings us to Peter’s use of a word somewhat strange to many - the word
“antitype” used in verse 21 in the New King James version and also the word that is
found in the Greek text. Let me quote that to you again. “There is also an antitype
which now saves us, namely baptism.” (NKJV) Some of the more modern versions
phrase it like the ESV or nearly so, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves
you.” The New American Standard is very close to this when it says, “And
corresponding to that, baptism now saves you.” Many of the things in the Old
Testament symbolized or we might say were types of things that would come to be
under Christ in the new dispensation. The waters of the flood in the days of Noah
were the type while baptism today is that which corresponds to it, baptism is the
antitype.
If we wish to deny that baptism saves us today (the text does not say baptism is a
symbol of salvation already achieved, it says it “saves us”) we do two things. (1)
We deny the very words of the text. (2) We essentially end up denying also what
the text says about Noah being saved for his salvation was the type and ours the
antitype. His salvation as per the newer versions corresponds to ours or ours to his.

What did the water do for Noah and how does it correspond to baptism today? (1)
Both place those who are obedient by faith (believers) into a new spiritual world.
The world Noah entered through water was cleansed of sin. The world we enter
when baptized is a spiritual world that has been cleansed of sin. [see Acts 22:16,
Acts 5:25-26, Titus 3:5] (2) Both salvations were by grace for Noah was warned and
given an opportunity for salvation and so are you and I. God was under no
obligation to warn Noah and give him a way to be saved and the same can be said
of you and I today thus both were acts of grace.

I would not begin to know how many verses there are in the New Testament telling
us about baptism and our need for it but let me give it a shot - Acts 2:38, Acts
22:16, 1 Peter 3:21, John 3:5, Eph. 5:26, Col. 2:11-12, Titus 3:5, Mark 16:16, Matt.
28:18-20, Rom. 6:3-6, Gal. 3:26-27, 1 Cor. 12:13, Heb. 10:22. These were just those
that came to mind without using a concordance. I barely touched the book of Acts.

Like Noah we have been given warning. We will like him be obedient with “godly
fear” or else we will take God on by being disobedient. Who do you think is really
saved by grace? Is it the man who hears and believes and obeys or is it the man
who hears and disbelieves and does not obey? Who truly has “the answer of a good
conscience toward God”? (1 Peter 3:21 NKJV) I am sure Noah’s conscience was
clear as he obeyed God and did all he was told and that out of faith. How does a
man have “a good conscience toward God” all the while being disobedient? Will he
say I didn’t know? Will he say I heard the passages, I read them, I just did not
believe them? Will he tell God it was God’s fault for being unable to communicate
effectively?

What saved Noah? The answer is God’s grace, Noah’s faith, and Noah’s obedience.
If you and I are saved today it will be because of God’s grace, our faith, and our
obedience. Yes, everything depended on God’s grace for without it Noah was
helpless, a doomed man. The same can be said of you and I but just like Noah we
must act if God’s grace is to benefit us. We must believe and respect God enough
to obey him.

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