What a journey we’ve been on through The Red Thread in Noah’s Ark!

It’s taken awhile, but I hope you can now see God’s work in Noah’s Ark that sails past your childhood Sunday School lessons. 

Below, I’ve collected each of The Red Threads we’ve seen, and I’ve shown how we can apply them to our lives today.

For more information about each Red Thread, click on the titles or the small photos below. The links will take you to the original post.  

To read the full story of Noah and the Ark in the Bible, click on this link: Genesis 6-9.

 

1. The Man

Noah was blameless in his desire to follow God in all his ways. He found favor in God’s eyes. 

Jesus was sinless in all His ways. He found favor in God’s eyes. 

Respond to this truth by accepting the grace God offers and come to Christ just as you are — sins and all. (They should make a song about that, and Billy Graham should use it in his revival meetings.)

Don’t wait until you’ve “cleaned up your life,” and don’t think that just living a “good life” will get you where you want to be in the end.

Noah found favor in God’s eyes because he trusted in God and His promises. God’s #1 promise that Noah trusted in was God’s promise that He would send a Savior. He did. His name is Jesus Christ.

 

2. The Family

Noah’s wife, his sons, and their wives weren’t righteous in God’s eyes, but they belonged to his family. 

Likewise, none of us is righteous, but all who accept Christ as their Savior are adopted into His family. His righteousness becomes ours.

Respond to this truth by accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

When you do, you’ll instantly be adopted into Christ’s family and receive salvation. Once you’re in Christ’s family, no one can ever remove you from it. You’ll become a child of God and a co-heir with Christ forever.

 

3. The Choice

Noah and his family accepted God’s invitation, entered the ark and were saved from the flood. All who refused to enter, perished.

Likewise, all who accept Christ’s invitation to enter into salvation through Christ will be saved from sin. All who refuse, will perish.

Respond to this truth by making your choice today what you will do with Christ’s invitation.

If you have chosen to accept it, rejoice and walk in the freedom of Christ.

If you haven’t chosen to accept it, realize that not choosing to accept it is choosing to reject it. There is no neutral ground.

All who choose to do nothing about the invitation have chosen to accept eternal separation from God along with those who actively choose to reject Christ.

You can believe in God and still spend eternity separated from Him, because God has chosen Jesus Christ, His Son, as the only way to Him. (John 14:6)

 

4. The Work

Noah alone is credited with the work of building the ark — the means of their salvation from the flood. He did all God commanded him.

The work of salvation from sin is a work of Christ alone. Christ did all God commanded Him. “It is finished.”

Respond to this truth by letting go of any notion that you can do one single thing to save yourself, and freely accept that Christ did it all.

It’s not Christ plus something else – it’s Christ alone. Christ must do it all – and He has.

Then live the rest of your life exactly as you came to Christ – by faith, not by works.

Your good works should be a response to God’s love, not an effort to earn favor from Him or manipulate Him. 

 

5. The Door

The one way to be saved from the flood was to enter the ark through the one door. 

Likewise, the one way to be saved from the penalty of sin is through faith in the saving work of the one and only Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Respond to this truth by embracing the one way to God — faith in Jesus Christ.

I’ve heard people say that Christians are arrogant for thinking that we have the only way to God. I’d actually agree if there were other ways, but there aren’t. Christians didn’t make this up.

God chose the way, and He has the right to decide. His choice wasn’t random, either.

Sin comes at a high cost – death. He chose, out of love, not exclusion, to make His Son pay the cost for all of us so that we don’t have to. That’s not arrogance – that’s amazing love.

 

6. The Time

God alone chose the time when the door of the ark would be shut, and He alone shut the door.

Likewise, God alone has chosen the time for us to be born and to die. He alone controls it.

Respond to this truth by living every day as if it might be your last.

I don’t mean live in fear, but live with intention. Some things can wait until tomorrow. Some things can’t. 

The choice to believe and enter the ark had to be made before the door was shut and the flood came. Afterwards, it was too late.

Likewise, the choice to trust in Jesus for salvation must be made before we die and face judgment. After we die, it’s too late.

Respond to this truth by choosing to accept Christ before it’s too late.

God is exceedingly patient, but the time will come when we will all be judged for our sins.

If you’ve accepted Christ, you’ll be found free of all guilt.

If you haven’t, you’ll be held accountable. You’ll finally believe as you stand before Him, but it will be too late. 

Decide to trust Christ as your Savior before you’re standing before Him as your judge.

 

7. The Hiding Place

Noah and his family’s security from the flood wasn’t dependent on what they did on the ark, but on their hiding place — the ark. 

Our security from judgment of sin isn’t dependent on what we do after we enter salvation, but on our hiding place — Christ. 

Respond to this truth by releasing all fear of your future or your present.

Don’t rush around trying to do good works to ensure that you really get to go to heaven. If you’ve trusted in Christ, the work is done. Christ did it and you can’t un do it.

If you’re facing trials that seem like they’ll drown you, know that God has you secure in His hands, and He’ll deliver you either: 

from it (as He did Elisha and his servant when they were surrounded by the enemy),

in it (as He did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when God brought them out of the midst of the fiery furnace),

or through it (as He did when He brought Noah and his family through the flood, or when He brought John the Baptist home to his great reward in heaven. You may not feel like John was saved, but this world held nothing more for him. It was his time to get to go home into God’s presence.)

 

8. The Resurrection

Noah and his family passed through the waters inside the ark, as good as dead and buried, until God brought them out — Resurrection!

Jesus Christ died and was buried in the grave until the third day, when God raised Him from the dead — Resurrection!

Respond to this truth by embracing the resurrection life available in Christ.

In Christ, your old life is dead, and you’ve become a new creation.

We’ll not only experience a true resurrection of our bodies, but our old life of slavery to sin is dead. From those of us who’ve needed a “ctrl+alt+del” in our lives, can I get an “Amen!”

 

9. The Altar

Noah built an altar on which he willingly offered a costly sacrifice as a pleasing offering to God.

Jesus is the altar and the sacrifice. He paid the ultimate cost, presenting Himself as the final sacrifice, wholly pleasing to God.

Respond to this truth by placing your faith in Christ’s sacrifice for your salvation.

I realize I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but my whole intent in tracing The Red Thread through the Old Testament is to show you how intentional God was from the very beginning to provide a way of salvation from our sins.

God didn’t make the promise in the Garden (Genesis 3:15), wait a few thousand years, and then randomly decide to send Jesus . . . “NOW!”

God was laying a body of evidence across history to prepare the world for the time the Savior would come, so we’d have no excuse not to recognize Him when He came to offer Himself as the final sacrifice for the payment of all sin.

 

10. The Rainbow

God set the rainbow in the cloud as a sign of His covenant of grace. He’d never again judge the world’s sin by destroying all living flesh on earth with a flood.

God sent Jesus Christ, who established a new covenant of grace, taking the full judgment of the world’s sin upon Himself.

Respond to this truth by walking in the incredible freedom of the grace you’ve received in Jesus Christ.

(I’m assuming that surely by now, you’ve decided not to wait any longer and have chosen to trust Christ for your salvation. If not, why not, and why not now?)

For those who have, we should thank God every day that the grace we’ve received through Christ will never be revoked – there’s nothing we can do that’s so bad, we’d lose our salvation. Amen to that!

My biggest rebellion came after I began to follow Christ, but His grace never left me for a second. He didn’t change His mind about saving me. What an incredible promise.

I’m still basking in God’s grace towards me and am determined to get better at passing His grace on to the next person I meet.

 

11. The Cloud

The rainbow symbolizes God’s grace. The cloud symbolizes God’s holy presence, dwelling and dealing with man according to His righteousness.

Jesus came to dwell with man and offer grace. When He comes again, He’ll deal with man according to their sin and His righteousness.

Respond to this truth by living life in a manner that’s worthy of a Christ follower.

God’s Spirit dwells inside of every believer from the moment of salvation.

A lamp doesn’t make a light bulb glow. The electricity flowing through the lamp does.

God’s Spirit gives us the power to do all He’s called us to do – which includes living holy lives while spreading the great news of the Gospel.

We just need to let His power do its thing. (Philippians 2:13, Hebrews 13:21)

 

And that, my friends,
is The Red Thread in Noah’s Ark as I see it.

I hope you’ll never look at Noah’s Ark the same — and as you look at it differently, I hope you’ll never be the same. 

 

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Which was your favorite Red Thread Clue? Leave me a comment below. 

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