We have seen from earlier
studies (“Noah,
before and during the flood” and “Noah, after
the flood”) that Noah is a great typology of Jesus Christ in the atonement
from a time-based standpoint. However, the atonement occurred before the ages
of time as well and before the beginning of the world even as the following
passages indicate:
2Ti
1:9 “Who hath
saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began (the ages of time)”
Tit
1:2 “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised
before the world began (the ages of time).”
1Pe 1:1-2 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers [the
elect] scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and
Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you [the elect],
and peace, be multiplied.”
We see the foreknowledge of
God before the ages of time working in the predestination of the elect:
Ro 8:29 “For whom [the elect] he [God, the
Father] did foreknow, he [God, the Father] also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his Son [Jesus Christ], that he [Jesus
Christ] might be the firstborn among many brethren [the elect].”
But
this predestination required that there would be an adoptive process according
to God, the Father’s own supreme will, purpose, and counsel:
Eph 1:4-5 “According as he [God, the Father] hath
chosen us in him [Jesus Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself [God, the Father],
according to the good pleasure of his [God, the Father’s] will.”
Eph 1:11 “In whom [Jesus Christ] also we [the
elect] have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him [God, the
Father] who worketh all things after the counsel of his [God, the
Father’s] own will”
The adoptive process is
arranged before the foundation of the world as the Father makes plans for His
only beloved Son, Jesus Christ:
Joh 17:24 “Father, I [Jesus Christ] will that they [the
elect] also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they
may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.”
1Pe 1:20 “Who [Jesus Christ] verily was foreordained before the
foundation of the world, but was
manifest in these last times for you [the elect].”
And the Father assigns the “joy of having the elect
eternally” before His Son:
Heb
12:2 “Looking
unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down
at the right hand of the throne of God.” {author: or, beginner}
The Son, therefore, willingly
accepts being the atoning lamb that the Father slays and the Father writes a
book identified with the slain atoning lamb containing the names of only
the elect that He had in His foreknowledge before the foundation of the
world:
Re 13:8 “And all [the
unsaved who were not elected] that dwell upon the earth shall worship
him [Satan], whose names are not written in the book of life
of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Re 17:8 “The beast [Satan] that thou sawest was, and
is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and
they [the unsaved] that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose
names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was,
and is not, and yet is.”
Re 21:27 “And there shall in no wise enter into it [the new
heavens and earth] any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they [the
elect] which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
The Father then gives the
elect to Christ, before time began, for them to receive eternal life:
Joh
6:39 “And
this is the Father‘s will which hath sent me [Jesus Christ],
that of all [the elect] which
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
last day.”
Joh
10:27-29 “My [Jesus Christ] sheep [the elect] hear my voice, and I know
them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My
Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man
is able to pluck them out of my Father‘s hand.”
As part of the atonement
plan, God sets up a kingdom for the elect before time begins and ensures that
His Son will have the same glory He had before time:
Mt 25:34 “Then shall the King [Jesus] say unto them [the
elect] on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Joh 17:5 “And now, O Father, glorify thou me [Jesus]
with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world
was.”
We see also that the
atonement was finished before time began:
Heb
4:3 “For we [the
elect] which have believed do enter into rest, as he [God]
said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although
the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”
And that the details of the
atonement are eternal spiritual matters that God has kept secret from before
time:
Mt 13:35 “That it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in
parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.”
Now we will see some of the above
declarations about the atonement before the ages of time being unveiled in the
life of Noah both before the flood and during the flood.
When God first introduces us
to Noah at his birth and Lamech names him saying Noah shall be the comforter
for mankind because of their transgressions and also for the creation that fell
away with mankind (Gen 5:28-29), we can see how this historical account mirrors
the plan of atonement in the foreknowledge of God, the Father, before time
began, as He selects the Lord Jesus Christ to be the eternal comforter as the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The naming of Noah, is also a
portrait of the naming of the elect by the Father in the Lamb’s book of life
before the foundation of the world and the giving of the elect to Jesus before
the ages of time is mirrored by Noah’s family who were in his loins at the time
he was born and all the elect that would be saved after the flood did come from
the loins of Noah as by his sons was the whole earth repopulated after the
flood (Gen 9:19).
Also, when Lamech names Noah
and made the prophecy of Noah being the comforter, he was referring to Noah
saving mankind in the judgment flood that was still six hundred years later
(see Biblical
Calendar—Page 10). Here, Lamech was depicting God, the Father, who foresaw
what Christ would accomplish in time on the cross in 33 A.D. (11,045 years
after Adam sinned, see Biblical
Calendar—Page 26) and God, the Father, slew Christ as the Lamb of God slain
from the foundation of the earth pictured in time by Noah coming through the
judgment flood with the elect of God six hundred and one years after his birth
and naming:
Ge 8:13 “And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month,
the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth:
and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of
the ground was dry. 14 And in the second
month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. 15 ¶ And God spake unto Noah, saying, 16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and
thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.”
When, in Genesis 6:8-9, God
says Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and that Noah was a just and
perfect man who walked with God, He was establishing Noah as a picture of Christ’s
righteous qualifications for being the Lamb of God to be slain from the
foundation of the world:
1Pe
1:19 “But with
the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
And, even as Noah walked with
God and so too the elect within Noah’s loins, so it was that Christ and His
elect in Him were in perfect union with the Father before the ages of time
began:
Joh 17:5 “And now, O Father, glorify thou me [Jesus]
with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world
was.”
Joh 17:24 “Father, I [Jesus]
will that they [the elect] also, whom thou hast given me, be with
me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou [the Father]
hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.”
Rom 9:23-24 “And that he [God] might make known the riches
of his glory on the vessels [the elect] of mercy, which he had
afore prepared unto glory, even us [the elect], whom he hath
called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.”
Next, God pictures the naming
of the elect in Christ in the lamb’s book of life from the foundation of the
earth (Rev 13:8, Php 4:3):
Gen 6:10 “And Noah begat
three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”
After this God gives us a
portrait of those whose names were not written in the Lamb’s book of life from
the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8, 17:8) and who would come under His
judgment flood picturing the lake of fire (Rev 20:12-15):
Gen 6:11-13 “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was
filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was
corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto
Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with
violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” {with the earth:
or, from the earth}
Next, in Genesis 6:14-16,
God, the Father, pictures himself preparing His Lamb for the sacrifice before
the foundation of the world as He gives Noah the instructions to build the ark
(a portrait of Christ as the Lamb of God) and the blueprint for its
construction.
God then pictures His
everlasting covenant of eternal salvation with Christ and His elect that He
made before time by declaring this joyful declaration to Noah about his
salvation and that of his house as well:
Gen 6:17-18 “And, behold, I [God], even I, do bring a
flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the
breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the
earth shall die. But with thee [Noah—portrait of Christ] will
I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy
sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee [i.e., all the elect].”
Then in Genesis 6:22 and the
rest of the historical account of the flood in chapters 7 and 8, we see Noah
being perfectly obedient to all things that God commanded him, so that as we
have already covered, the ark going through the flood is a picture of Christ
being the lamb slain from the foundation of the world and the dove bringing
back an olive leaf to Noah representing God giving the elect (whose names He
had written in the lamb’s book of life) to Christ (See “Noah,
before and during the flood”). God had thus illustrated the everlasting
covenant wherein Noah had the joy set before him of saving his house even as
Christ:
Heb
12:2 “Looking
unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down
at the right hand of the throne of God.” {author: or, beginner}
God, having accomplished His
atonement before the ages of time began, shows us this fact and that all His
works for the atonement that he did before time began are also known unto Him:
Heb
4:3 “For we [the
elect] which have believed do enter into rest, as he [God]
said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although
the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”
Acts 15:18 “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of
the world.”
Thus, we see that the ark
with Noah and his family going through the judgment flood as described in
Genesis 7 and 8 is a portrait of Christ as the Lamb of God being slain in the
accomplishment of the atonement before the ages of time.
After considering all the
scriptures given in the first section of this study entitled “Atonement
effected before the world began”, we found in the second section of this study
that they were all typified in Noah’s life before and during the flood so that
Noah and his life greatly portray every aspect of the atonement before the ages
of time and before the world began!