Latest / Reformed Thinking / Sacrifice, Sin, and Stability: God’s Post-Flood Promise (Genesis 8:20–22)

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Sacrifice, Sin, and Stability: God’s Post-Flood Promise (Genesis 8:20–22) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed thinking. We're doing another deep dive
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today, looking at a few verses that you might read right past,
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but they contain some incredible insight into how God acts in
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history, the nature of humanity, and really the whole story of
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redemption. We're in Genesis 8, specifically
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verses 20 through 22. Right.
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And the scene is just, well, it's epic.
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The flood is over. The Judgement has wiped the
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earth clean of all the violence, all the rebellion.
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The waters are gone. And Noah and his family, the
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only people left, step out onto this new earth.
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You can just imagine it. It's the ultimate reset button.
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You'd think so if you stopped reading right there.
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You'd think, OK, clean slate, perfect second chance.
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But the next three verses, which we're calling the Hinge of
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history, shows something much more radical was going on.
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That's the goal today. We want to really analyze these
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verses because they are the pivot from universal judgement,
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this constant threat of D creation, to the stable,
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predictable history that you know we're all living in right
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now. And it sets up this huge
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tension, this paradox. If the flood was supposed to get
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rid of wickedness, why does God immediately say He knows the
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human heart is still evil from his youth?
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Exactly. I mean, if the world continuing
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depended on us getting better, the whole thing should have
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collapsed again instantly so. We need to figure out what
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single event happened right there on that muddy ground that
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changed God's entire way of relating to the world.
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And it all starts with Noah's very first action.
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OK, so let's walk through the sequence.
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They're off the Ark, the whole family, all the animals.
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They are literally the only living things on the planet.
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So your first instinct, your survival instinct has to be
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build a house, right? Find water, plant something so
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you have food in a few months. The practical things, the
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logical thing. But the text is very clear about
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Noah's first recorded action, and it's not practical, It's
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theological. He builds an altar.
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And that priority, that choice, it tells you everything about
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how Noah understands reality. By building that altar Firth
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before a shelter, before a farm, he is making a huge statement.
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What's the statement? That the most important issue
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for this new humanity is their relationship with God, Not their
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physical safety, not their food supply.
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They were saved by an act of Divine Mercy.
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Right. Not because the Ark was a great
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boat. Not at all.
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So to just get on with life and ignore the one who saved them
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would be well, it would be the first act of apostasy in the New
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World. So he's immediately stepping
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into this role, almost like a priest for this new human race.
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He's the mediator. He knows there's still a huge
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gap between them even though they were saved and a holy God.
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A priestly act, yes, and it requires a very specific kind of
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worship. We have to look at what he
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actually offered. He takes from every clean animal
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and some of every clean bird. And offers them his burnt
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offerings. The Hebrew term is cherlo.
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It is. And this was not just some minor
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ritual. This was incredibly costly.
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Let's talk about that cost, because I think we can just
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gloss over that in the entire world, there are maybe 7 pairs
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of some of these clean animals. That's it.
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That's the entire global population and he's taking one
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of every clean type that's a significant cut into his
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breeding stock into his future resources.
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This. Isn't a token gesture from a guy
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with a huge flock? Not even close.
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It's a massive investment in worship.
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It's a real sacrifice and that high cost shows how serious this
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is. Noah is basically declaring
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total dependence on God and acknowledging a need for
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complete atonement before he does anything else.
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Before he even thinks about building a civilization.
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Exactly, and that specific offering the straw is key.
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The burnt offering, How is that different from, say, a peace
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offering or some of the others we see later in Leviticus?
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Well, the Shaw is unique. It's the only sacrifice where
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the entire animal except for the hide is completely consumed by
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the fire on the altar. So nothing is held back.
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The worshipper doesn't need part of it, the priest doesn't need
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part of it, right? It all ascends in smoke to God.
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That's why it's called the whole burnt offering.
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It symbolizes total surrender, total consecration.
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It's a picture of the comprehensive nature of the
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atonement that's needed. So it's like Noah's saying
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everything we have belongs to God, and this substitute life
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has to be completely given up to satisfy His Holiness, to turn
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away his wrath. That is precisely the theology
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behind it. By choosing NOLA, Noah is
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seeking total propitiation. He doesn't just want a blessing,
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he needs God's anger at sin to be averted from this new earth.
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So atonement, fixing the relationship comes before
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anything else. It's the foundation for the New
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World. It has to be, and this specific
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costly act of worship sets the stage for God's reaction, which
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is immediate and frankly world altering all.
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Right, so Noah makes the offering and now we get God's
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response. Genesis 8.21 says God smelled
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the pleasing aroma. And you know, that's such
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strange anthropomorphic language.
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It is God smelling something. What does that phrase reach
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Nikish actually mean here? It's a great question because
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that Hebrew phrase reach nikyoj. It's not just descriptive, it's
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technical. It's a technical term from
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Israel's worship system that we see over and over again in
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Leviticus and Numbers. So it's like a formal
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designation for something. It is.
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The sources show It functions as a judicial declaration.
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It's God's official verdict on the sacrifice.
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It means the offering is acceptable.
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It is satisfying. So it's not about God having a
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literal nose and liking the smell of BBQ.
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No, it's God saying this offering meets the standard.
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This substitutionary life, this act of total consecration is
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sufficient to cover the debt. The wrath that was due is
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diverted because of this sacrifice.
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It's his stamp of approval. And we see it here in Genesis 8,
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long before the law on the Tabernacle.
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What does that tell us? It tells us the principle was
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already in place, the principle of mediated favor, that a holy
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God relates graciously to sinful people only through an
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acceptable substitutionary sacrifice.
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So the Mosaic Law later on just formalizes in details a
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principle that was already at work from the very beginning of
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the New World. That's right, the need to
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approach God through a mediator and a sacrifice is consistent
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all the way through redemptive history.
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But let's stay with that idea of smell for a second.
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Even if it's technical, the Bible uses physical language for
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a reason. Why that sense?
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Why not? God saw the pleasing sacrifice
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or heard the pleasing prayer. Well, think about an aroma.
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A smell is immediate. It's pervasive.
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It fills the entire space. When you burn incense or cook a
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satisfying meal, the aroma communicates a kind of holistic
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acceptance. It's not a cold detached
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approval. It's all-encompassing.
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Yes, the imagery suggests God's satisfaction was complete,
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immediate and wholehearted. He fully accepted the atonement
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that was offered. And this acceptance is the
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absolute pivot point. It's the hinge.
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It links Noah's act of worship directly to the change in God's
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posture toward the world. It is everything because think
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about the alternative. What if the sacrifice had been
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unacceptable? What if the aroma had not been
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pleasing? Well, given what we're about to
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learn about the human heart, the judgement would have to start
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right back up again. Immediately.
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God's holiness can't coexist with sin.
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So if there's no buffer, no mediating sacrifice that's been
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accepted, then his justice requires a swift response.
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The world is only preserved because this specific offering
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worked. The sources connect them
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directly. The accepted sacrifice and the
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gracious resolve that aroma is what allows the story to shift
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from judgement to preservation. Right.
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The world is saved not because humanity changed, but because a
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payment was made that satisfied God's holiness.
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And this leads us right into that shocking look inside the
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mind of God. Yeah, this next part is just
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astounding, the text says. God said in his heart.
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We're getting access to God's inner thoughts, his divine
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deliberation. And this is where the tension
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just becomes incredible. God accepts the sacrifice and
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then he explains why he won't destroy the world again, and his
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reason is the exact same reason he destroyed it in the first
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place. It's a stunning paradox.
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Let's just put the two diagnosis side by side.
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Before the flood in Genesis 6.5, God saw that every intention of
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the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
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And that led to D creation the flood.
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Now after the flood, after the reset, God says in Genesis 8.21
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I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the
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intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.
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The diagnosis is identical. The cosmic washing didn't change
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the human heart one bit. Not one bit.
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The flood was like a form of cosmic surgery.
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It cut out the cancer of violence that had filled the
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earth. But the sources are so clear.
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The water did not regenerate mankind.
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It did not cure our fallen nature.
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So the violent people were gone, but the source of the violence,
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the evil inclination in the heart, was still there, right
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inside Noah and his family. Exactly.
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So if you're asking did God's plan fail, you have to
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understand the purpose of the flood.
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The Reformed view on this is that the flood's purpose was
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primarily retributive and preservative, meaning meaning it
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successfully executed judgment on the wickedness that existed,
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and it successfully preserved the promised line of redemption
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through Noah. But its purpose was never to
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spiritually rewire our nature. That's a work of grace, not a
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work of judgement. So the problem is just too deep.
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You can wash away the external symptoms, the violence, but you
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can't wash away the internal disease of sin.
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Right. And that's where this idea of
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congenital depravity comes in, which is confirmed by that
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little phrase evil from his youth.
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That is a hugely significant phrase for the doctrine of
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original sin. From his youth, so this isn't
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something we learn or pick up from a bad environment.
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No, it's innate. It's a deep internal heart
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problem that we are born with. The sources really stress that
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from his youth means this evil inclination is part of who we
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are from our earliest moments. It aligns perfectly with the
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Westminster Confessions view of pervasive depravity.
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This just completely contradicts so much of modern thinking,
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doesn't it? What the sources call optimistic
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anthropology. Oh.
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Absolutely. The Enlightenment idea that
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people are born basically good or as blank slate, and that we
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can perfect ourselves through better education or better
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politics or better economic systems.
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If you think people are fundamentally good, you believe
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you can build a utopia just by changing the external
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structures. But if God's diagnosis right
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here is true, that the human heart is bent toward evil from
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birth, then any system built on the idea of human goodness is
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doomed to fail from the start. The corruption is inside the
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person, not just outside in the system.
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So this verse rules out any hope in human solutions to the
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problem of sin. It does.
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The problem is internal, it's in the heart, and it's incurable by
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any human means. And because God knows this, His
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plan for the future must be grounded in something other than
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human improvement. It'd have to be grounded in
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grace. And grace alone.
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So nothing has changed in humanity, but because of that
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one accepted sacrifice, everything is about to change
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and how God deals with the world.
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OK, so that brings us to the result of all this, the
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sacrifice. The rich and George has been
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accepted, so God makes a change. He does.
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He changes his covenantal stance.
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He shifts from a posture of strict, immediate, retributive
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judgment, where sin equals destruction, to a new posture of
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gracious forbearance. And this is totally A1 sided
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decision, right? It's a unilateral sovereign
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choice on God's part. He resolves to keep the world
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going even though He knows our hearts are still evil.
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Yes, and he grounds the preservation of the world
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entirely in his own promise, not in our performance or our
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potential. The stability of the world from
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this point forward is a mediated stability.
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Mediated by that sacrifice. Mediated by the sacrifice.
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The framework for this is the Noah hit covenant, and the
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mechanism is what theologians call common grace.
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And the content of that promise is so specific and almost
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poetic. He's he guarantees this cosmic
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order. He lays it out in 4 pairs.
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Seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and
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night, shall not cease. It's so comprehensive.
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It covers everything from farming to the basic rhythm of a
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day. It's a promise of a stable,
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predictable, ordered world. The basic cycles that you need
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for life and civilization will be maintained.
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And we take that predictability completely for granted.
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You know, you plant a seed, you expect a harvest, you go to
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sleep, you expect the sun to arrive.
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But the sources are clear. This isn't just happening on its
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own. It's not some blind, natural
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process that just keeps ticking along.
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Not at all. That phrase shall not cease is
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so important. It implies these cycles continue
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only because God is actively, willfully, and continuously
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upholding them by his covenant promise.
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It's a constant act of divine maintenance.
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Which is the exact opposite of the Flood, which was an act of
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divine decreation, of unraveling all that stability from Genesis
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1. Right.
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So with this covenant, God puts a permanent preservative bubble
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around creation. He secures it from another total
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collapse. And this preservative framework
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is what defines common grace. It's common because it's
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universal, right? It is.
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It's for all flesh. It benefits the just and the
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unjust. The person who curses God still
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gets the benefit of the sun and the rain and the harvest.
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So why is that so important for the rest of salvation history?
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What's the point of preserving a world for everyone if not
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everyone is saved? That gets to the teleological
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purpose, the end goal. By holding back the chaos, by
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guaranteeing stable seasons and predictable laws of physics, God
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creates a stable stage, an arena.
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Then arena for what? For the entire rest of the
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biblical story to unfold without common grace, there's no
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civilization, there's no time for the law to be given to
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Moses, there's no Kingdom for David, and crucially, there's no
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stable world for the Messiah to be born into.
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So the preservation of the physical cosmos is all pointed
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toward the incarnation. God keeps history going long
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enough for Christ to come. That's it.
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We have to remember that a stable world is a gift.
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It's not a right. Common grace holds back the
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full, immediate consequences of our sins so that redemptive
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history can run its course. Without God's forbearance,
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guaranteed by Noah's sacrifice, history would have ended long
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ago. So the physical security of our
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world exists for the sake of God's spiritual mission.
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Let's think about that for a second.
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The implications of living in a world upheld by this divine
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promise. If the stability of the weather,
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the cycles of agriculture, all rest on this ancient covenant,
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how should that change how we think about our daily lives?
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Well, it certainly provides a foundation for everything we do.
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It means that the ultimate backstop for cosmic stability is
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God's Word, not just natural law.
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Right. Which doesn't mean science is
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invalid, of course, but it subordinates the natural
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processes to the divine will. We can rely on the seasons
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because God promised to uphold them, not because they are some
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independent blind force. So if a harvest fails in one
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place, it's not the covenant failing.
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It might be a localized judgement or a consequence of
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our own actions, but the underlying guarantee that seed
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time and harvest as a system will continue that remains.
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Yes. The promise is that the system
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shall not cease, the framework holds, and that stability is
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this daily visible mercy. Every sunrise is a reminder that
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we live in a world preserved by grace.
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And this provides a basis for all human culture, doesn't it?
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Art, science, government, even when done by unredeemed people,
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They can do those things because God is guaranteeing the physical
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and environmental stability they need.
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That is the function of common grace.
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It allows non believers to discover mathematics or compose
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music or grow food. God restrains the full effects
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of sin and preserves the structures necessary for a
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functioning society. And why?
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So the gospel can be preached. So the gospel can be preached.
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The entire stage of history is upheld by grace for the purpose
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of salvation. So this whole deep dive, it
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really forces you into a position of, well, radical
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realism about ourselves and just immense gratitude toward God.
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The world keeps going. We have seasons, we have
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stability, we can plan our lives, and it's not because we
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got our act together after the flood.
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It's because an acceptable sacrifice was offered and that
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allowed God to sustain the world by His grace alone.
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And that brings us to the final beautiful connection, the way
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Noah's alter was a type, A pointer to its ultimate
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fulfillment in Christ, in Christ.
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The New Testament writers knew this.
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They pick up the exact same imagery of the richest nechoch,
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that pleasing aroma, and they apply it directly to Jesus.
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Where do we see that most clearly?
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Ephesians 5 verse 2 it says that Christ gave himself up for us a
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fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
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That's not accidental language. Paul is deliberately echoing
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Genesis 8 and the sacrificial system.
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So Christ's death is the one perfect, permanently acceptable,
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offering the true reach makeshouch.
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Yes, the one that truly and eternally satisfied God's
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holiness. It's the propitiation that
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Noah's sacrifice could only foreshadow.
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Noah's offering secured temporal stability.
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It was like a stay of execution for the physical world,
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guaranteeing the stage for history.
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And Christ's sacrifice secures eternal salvation for his
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people. Do you see the parallel?
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The temporary preservation of the cosmos is tied to an
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accepted sacrifice, and our eternal redemption is tied to
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the ultimate perfect sacrifice. Noah set the pattern sinful
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people need a mediator and a sacrifice to be preserved.
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And Christ is that final mediator.
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His acceptance secures not just stability for the world for a
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time, but permanent, irreversible reconciliation for
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his Church. We live right now in a world
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that is preserved and ordered for the sake of the gospel
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mission. And that preservation is
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guaranteed by a sacrifice that has already been accepted.
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So for you listening, here's the thought to leave with If every
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sunrise, every predictable season, the very stability of
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the ground under your feet is a covenant mercy.
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If it was secured not by your goodness, but by a sacrifice
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that points to Christ, what does that compel you to do?
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Knowing that you are living on a stage that God is holding
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together by grace, specifically so that redemption could unfold,
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what does it really mean for us to respond with that same total
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consecration to present our own lives as living sacrifices of
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Paul says in Romans 12, If God maintains the stability of the
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entire universe for the sake of the gospel, how should that
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purpose reorient our own daily priorities, knowing that our
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security, both for today and for eternity, rests entirely on an
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offering far more costly than Noah's?