Commentary - Hebrews 11:7

Bird's-eye view

Hebrews 11:7 presents Noah as a paradigm of living faith. This is not a sentimental faith, but a robust, architectural, world-altering faith. Warned by God of a judgment that had no precedent or empirical support, Noah's belief was not mere intellectual assent. It was a belief that drove him to reverence, which in turn drove him to decades of obedient labor. This one act of faith, the building of the ark, had a threefold effect. First, it secured the salvation of his household, demonstrating the covenantal and corporate nature of God's dealings. Second, his obedient construction project was a loud, silent sermon that acted as a public condemnation of the unbelieving world. Third, through this very faith, Noah was constituted an heir of the righteousness that God imputes to those who believe Him. Noah's story is a powerful illustration that true faith sees the unseen, fears God rightly, works obediently, saves covenantally, and condemns the world by its sheer, righteous contrast.

In short, Noah believed God's Word over the evidence of his senses. The sky was blue, the weather was fine, and the world was carrying on with its business of sin. But God had spoken. Faith is taking God at His Word, and the result was that Noah and his house were saved, the world was judged, and Noah was vindicated as a righteous man. This is the pattern for all believers.

Outline

Context In Hebrews

This verse sits in the great "Hall of Faith" in Hebrews 11. The author is exhorting his readers, who were tempted to fall away from Christ and return to the shadows of the old covenant, to persevere. To do this, he marshals a great cloud of witnesses from the Old Testament, demonstrating what true, forward-looking faith looks like. He has just mentioned Abel, whose faith resulted in a righteous sacrifice, and Enoch, whose faith resulted in him pleasing God and being taken. Now he comes to Noah. Each example builds on the last. Abel's faith was personal. Enoch's was devotional. Noah's faith is architectural, covenantal, and judicial. It is a public and world-impacting faith. Noah provides a crucial example of one who believed God's warning of future judgment and acted on it, resulting in salvation. This was a direct parallel for the Hebrew Christians, who were being warned of the impending judgment on Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and were called to enter the safety of the true Ark, Jesus Christ, before that judgment fell.

Key Issues

The Architecture of Righteousness

Faith is not a vague, ethereal feeling. It is substantive. As the chapter began by telling us, faith is the substance of things hoped for. For Noah, faith had substance. It had dimensions. It was made of gopher wood and pitched within and without. Faith builds things. Sometimes it builds a family, sometimes a church, sometimes a civilization. In Noah's case, it built a boat on dry land, a project so audacious and counter-intuitive that it could only have been born of a deep and abiding trust in the Word of God against all appearances. This is what we must recover. We tend to think of faith as the internal decision we make, and we stop there. But biblical faith is an engine. You turn the key of belief, and the engine of obedience roars to life, and you start building. Noah's faith was not just a blueprint in his head; it was a finished ark in his yard, ready for the promised flood.

Verse by Verse Commentary

By faith Noah,

The verse begins where it must, with faith. Everything that follows is a consequence of this one thing. Noah's actions were not the product of prudence, or architectural genius, or a particularly cautious disposition. They were the product of faith. He is our third great example after Abel and Enoch. Abel shows us faith in worship, Enoch shows us faith in our walk, and Noah shows us faith in our work. He is introduced simply by his name, a man who "found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Gen 6:8). His entire story, and his inclusion in this list, is to demonstrate what a man does when he truly believes God.

being warned about things not yet seen,

Here is the essence of the test. God warned him about a global, cataclysmic flood. This was not a forecast based on meteorological data. There were no storm clouds on the horizon. In fact, it is likely that the pre-flood world had never even experienced rain (Gen 2:5-6). God was telling Noah about something for which there was absolutely no category, no precedent, no visible evidence. This is the nature of faith. Faith is not believing what you can see; that requires no faith at all. Faith is believing what God has said, precisely when you cannot see it. It is taking God's Word as more real than the world you can touch and measure. The Christian life is a life lived in reference to "things not yet seen", the resurrection of the body, the new heavens and new earth, the final judgment.

in reverence prepared an ark

Faith's firstborn child is reverence. The text says he was "moved with fear" or "in reverence." This is not the cowering fear of a slave before a tyrant, but the awesome, respectful, trembling fear of a creature before his holy Creator. When God speaks of a world-destroying judgment, the only sane response is godly fear. This fear is not paralyzing; it is mobilizing. It "moved" him. His reverence for God and His Word compelled him to get to work. And the work was specific: he "prepared an ark." For one hundred and twenty years, the sounds of sawing and hammering were Noah's sermon. His faith was not a quiet, private opinion. It was a massive, public construction project. True faith always takes tangible form. It obeys.

for the salvation of his household,

Notice the scope of the salvation. It was not just for Noah. It was for his household. This is a foundational principle of covenant theology. God deals with men as federal heads, as representatives of their families. Noah's faith was the instrument God used to save his wife, his three sons, and their wives. This does not mean that the family members were saved apart from their own belief, but rather that they were brought under the umbrella of covenantal protection because of their head. The promise is always "to you and to your children" (Acts 2:39). The Philippian jailer is told, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household" (Acts 16:31). A believing man should build his life as an ark for the salvation of his house.

by which he condemned the world,

This is a staggering thought. By what did he condemn the world? By his faith, embodied in the ark. He didn't have to stand on a soapbox and shout denunciations (though as a "preacher of righteousness," he certainly warned them). The ark itself was the condemnation. Its very existence was a massive, wooden indictment of the world's unbelief. Every plank he nailed was a testimony against them. Every day the world saw him laboring on this absurd project was another day their mockery and dismissal added to their judgment. The righteous obedience of one man threw the wickedness of the entire world into sharp relief. In the same way, the quiet, faithful, obedient life of a Christian is a constant rebuke to the world. We condemn the world not primarily by our arguments, but by building our lives on a different foundation and for a different destination.

and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

This is the final and most glorious result. Noah did not become righteous because he built the ark. He built the ark because, by faith, he was already counted as righteous. This verse clarifies the nature of his righteousness. He "became an heir" of it. It was an inheritance, a gift, not a wage. And the basis of this righteousness was not his meticulous boat-building, but his faith. "The righteousness which is according to faith." This is the gospel in Genesis. It is the same righteousness that Abraham had, and that we have. God declares a man righteous, not on the basis of his performance, but on the basis of his trust in God's promise. Noah's obedience was the fruit of that imputed righteousness, not the root of it. He believed God, and that belief was the channel through which the gift of righteousness was given to him.

Application

The story of Noah is not a quaint children's tale about animals on a boat. It is a stark and potent lesson for us. We too have been warned by God about a judgment to come, a judgment by fire. We too are called to believe in "things not yet seen." The world around us sees no evidence for this. They are eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, just as they were in the days of Noah. They see our faith as a foolish, antiquated project.

Our task is the same as Noah's. First, we must believe God's warning. We must take His Word about sin, judgment, and salvation as more solid than the ground beneath our feet. Second, this belief must produce a godly fear, a reverence that moves us to action. What is our ark? Our ark is Christ. We are to flee to Him for safety, to enter into Him by faith. But we are also to build. We are to build our lives, our marriages, our families, and our churches on the solid rock of His Word. This is our ark-building project.

And as we do this, we must understand that our faithful, obedient work will have the same effects as Noah's. It will be for the salvation of our households. We are to be the federal heads who lead our families into the safety of the covenant. And our work will condemn the world. Our sexual purity condemns their license. Our financial integrity condemns their greed. Our joyful worship condemns their cynical despair. We do not need to be belligerent; we just need to be faithful. The ark of a godly life is condemnation enough. And finally, we do all this knowing that our righteousness is not in the quality of our building, but is a gift, an inheritance, that we receive by faith alone.