Dear Gentle Readers,
Thank you for being patient with me as I took a wee sabbatical, Marti’s mother is doing as well as someone with Cancer can be expected to do, She is holding her own, and we thank you for all of your prayers.
In the mean time we were looking Last time we mentioned seven great men of Genesis, and now comes Noah. As a type figure among the seven outstanding men of Genesis, the special significance attaching to Noah is unmistakable. From the New Testament we learn that Noah’s experience of being “saved through water” is a typical anticipation of what we theologians call regeneration of what the Christian “baptism is a symbol “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ”: (1Pe 3:21)
Note:The water saved Noah and his family from perishing in the flood; to wit, by bearing up the ark. Baptism, in the proper sense of the term, as above explained, where the water used is a symbol, in like manner now saves us; that is, the water is an emblem of that purifying by which we are saved. It may be said to save us, not as the meritorious cause, but as the indispensable condition of salvation. No man can be saved without that regenerated and purified heart of which baptism is the appropriate symbol, and when it would be proper to administer that ordinance. The apostle cannot have meant that water saves us in the same way in which it saved Noah, because that cannot be true. It is neither the same in quantity, nor is it applied in the same way, nor is it efficacious in the same manner. It is indeed connected with our salvation in its own proper way, as an emblem of that purifying of the heart by which we are saved. Thus, it corresponds with the salvation of Noah by water, and is the (ἀ?τί?υπον antitupon) “antitype” of that. Nor does it mean that the salvation of Noah by water was designed to be a type of Christian baptism. There is not the least evidence of that; and it should not be affirmed without proof. The apostle saw a resemblance in some respects between the one and the other; such a resemblance that the one naturally suggested the other to his mind, and the resemblance was so important as to make it the proper ground of remark.
(But if Noah’s preservation in the ark, be the type of that salvation of which baptism is the emblem, who shall say it was not so designed of God? Must we indeed regard the resemblance between Noah’s deliverance and ours, as a happy coincidence merely?
Of Noah, as well as of Enoch it is written that “he walked with God”, but the type-emphasis is shifted a further stage forward in the account of Noah, so that now, consequent upon the spiritual choice indicated in the words “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. (Gen 6:9) we see spiritual renewal, typified in Noah’s passing through the waters of the Flood. First in Chapter 6, we see Noah , the man of spiritual choice still on the ground of the old world. Then in Chapter 7, we see him separated from the old world, in the ark (a type of Christ- sealed inside, as we a sealed by the Spirit of promise), and by the water (regeneration). Then in Chapters 8 & 9 we see him going forth into a new life in a new world-which speaks of newness of life through regeneration. Thus we see in Noah, typically, spiritual renewal.
To be continued....
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