Faith that Builds: The Righteousness of Noah
Introduction: A World Under Water
The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is God's great hall of faith. It is a divine portrait gallery, showcasing men and women who took God at His word when all the world around them was screaming that God was either silent, irrelevant, or a liar. And in this gallery, the portrait of Noah is stark, massive, and smelling of gopher wood and pitch. It is a portrait of a man who built a ship on dry land under sunny skies, and in so doing, became the hinge upon which human history turned.
We live in a world that is drowning, though not in water. Our world is drowning in skepticism, in cynicism, in rebellion, and in a frantic effort to define reality for itself. Like the world of Noah's day, it is a world characterized by sophisticated mockery. The scoffers of our day, like the scoffers of his, look at the warnings of God's coming judgment and they say, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation" (2 Peter 3:4). They see the clear skies of their own prosperity and intellectual conceits, and they laugh at the man building an ark.
But faith is the business of seeing things that are not yet seen. Faith is not a blind leap in the dark; it is a confident step in the light of God's Word, even when that light is the only one shining. Noah's faith was not a vague, sentimental feeling. It was a rugged, practical, obedient faith. It was a faith that swung an axe, that measured beams, that hammered pegs, and that preached righteousness for 120 years to a world that had plugged its ears. Noah's faith was a construction project. And in this, he is a model for us, not just as an individual believer, but as the head of his household, and as a public witness against a corrupt and dying world.
The story of Noah is often relegated to the nursery, with cartoon animals two-by-two. But this is a profound mistake. This is a story of cosmic judgment, of covenantal salvation, and of the righteousness that comes, not by works, but by faith alone. It is a story that teaches us how to live in our own crooked generation, how to save our households, and how to condemn the world by the sheer, scandalous sanity of our obedience to God.
The Text
By faith Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
(Hebrews 11:7 LSB)
Warned of Things Not Yet Seen
The first thing we must grasp is the nature of Noah's faith. It was a response to a divine warning.
"By faith Noah, being warned about things not yet seen..."
God spoke to Noah. He gave him privileged information about the future. He told him that a catastrophe was coming that was utterly outside of human experience. Up to that point, it had likely never rained. The world was watered by a mist that came up from the ground (Gen. 2:6). The idea of a global, mountain-covering flood was not just improbable; it was unimaginable. It was an absurdity. It would be like a man in the middle of the Sahara Desert being told to build a submarine.
This is the first test of faith. Faith is not believing what makes sense to us. It is believing what God has said, precisely when it makes no sense to our fallen, limited, empirical reason. The world operates by sight. It trusts in what it can measure, test, and observe. But the Christian walks by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). We have also been warned about "things not yet seen." We have been warned of a coming judgment, a day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We have been warned that this present world system is passing away. And the world looks at us, sees the sun shining, and laughs. "Where is the flood?" they ask. "Where is the judgment?" Our faith, like Noah's, must be grounded not in the observable data of the moment, but in the immutable Word of the God who speaks.
Noah's faith was not passive. It was not an intellectual assent to a theological proposition. Upon hearing God's warning, he was moved. The text says he acted "in reverence." The Greek here is eulabetheis, which carries the sense of a godly, reverent fear. This is not the cowering fear of a slave before a tyrant, but the awe-filled, respectful fear of a son before a holy and powerful Father. This is the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom. It is the fear that takes God's warnings with the utmost seriousness. A casual faith does not build arks. A sentimental faith does not endure a century of mockery. It takes a profound, holy reverence for the word and character of God to undertake a task so monumental and so counter-cultural.
The Salvation of His Household
Notice the immediate scope of Noah's obedience. His faith was not a private, individualistic affair.
"...prepared an ark for the salvation of his household."
Here we see the principle of federal headship in action. Noah acts as the covenant head of his family. His faith and obedience are the instruments God uses to save not just himself, but his wife, his three sons, and their wives. This is a foundational, biblical pattern. God deals with mankind through representative heads. He dealt with us all through Adam, and we all fell in him. He deals with His people through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, and all who are in Him are saved. And in a derivative way, God has structured the family so that the faith of a father is a covering, a protection, and a means of grace for his entire household.
This is a direct rebuke to the radical individualism of our age, which has even seeped into the church. We have this notion that every person is an island, and that a father's faith has no bearing on his children until they make their own autonomous "decision." That is not the biblical pattern. The promise is to you "and to your children" (Acts 2:39). When the Philippian jailer asked what he must do to be saved, Paul replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household" (Acts 16:31). This does not mean that children are saved automatically, without personal faith. It means that God has ordained the family as the primary greenhouse of faith, and that a father's faithful obedience, like Noah's, builds an ark of protection, instruction, and covenantal privilege around his children.
Fathers, this is your charge. Are you building an ark for the salvation of your household? An ark is a place of separation from the world. It is a vessel of deliverance from judgment. You build this ark through family worship, through catechism, through discipline, through loving instruction in the Word, and through your own unwavering example of reverent obedience. You cannot be passive while the floodwaters of secularism and godlessness are rising all around you. You are called to be a Noah, to hear God's warning and, in godly fear, to build.
Condemning the World
Noah's act of faith had a profound public consequence. It was a sermon in wood and pitch.
"...by which he condemned the world..."
How did his faith condemn the world? It did so by being a living, tangible, and unavoidable contrast. Every day that Noah worked on that ark was a day he preached a sermon without opening his mouth. His obedience was a public testimony against the world's disobedience. His faith in God's Word was a judgment on their unbelief. His sober preparation for the future was a condemnation of their hedonistic obsession with the present. They were "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark" (Matt. 24:38). They were consumed with the normal, legitimate activities of life, but utterly oblivious to the coming wrath of God.
Noah's righteousness, demonstrated by his work, left them without excuse. He was, as Peter tells us, a "preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5). For 120 years, the sound of his hammers was a gospel invitation and a warning of judgment. The very existence of the ark was a constant, visible indictment of the world's rebellion.
This is how our faith is to function as well. We are not called to condemn the world by being censorious, bitter, and perpetually outraged. We are called to condemn the world by our joyful, steadfast, and constructive obedience. When we build strong, covenantal households in an age of family disintegration, we condemn the world. When we practice generous hospitality in an age of isolation, we condemn the world. When we sing psalms with gusto in an age of despair, we condemn the world. Our simple, happy, obedient faithfulness to God's Word is the most powerful polemic there is. It shines as a light, and that very light exposes and judges the darkness.
Heir of Righteousness
Finally, we see the result of Noah's faith. It is the great prize that all the patriarchs sought.
"...and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith."
This is the heart of the gospel. Noah was not saved because he was a good boat builder. He was not declared righteous because of his works. Genesis 6:9 says, "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God." But the verse just before that, verse 8, gives us the foundation: "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." His righteousness was a gift of grace, received by faith.
This verse in Hebrews makes it explicit. He became an "heir" of this righteousness. An heir is someone who receives an inheritance he did not earn. The righteousness that was credited to Noah's account was not his own. It was God's righteousness. It is the same righteousness that is credited to every believer. We believe God, and He credits it to us as righteousness (Rom. 4:3).
Noah's ark-building was the fruit of his faith, not the root of it. His works were the evidence of the righteousness he had already received by grace. This is crucial. We are not saved by faith plus works. We are saved by a faith that works. The faith is the instrument that receives the gift of righteousness, and the works are the necessary, inevitable, and grateful response to that gift.
Noah believed God's warning about a coming judgment. He believed God's promise of a coming salvation. And in response to that belief, he went to work. He became an heir of the righteousness that is "according to faith." This is the only kind of righteousness there is. It is the righteousness of Christ, given to those who, like Noah, take God at His word.
Conclusion: Come Into the Ark
The story of Noah is our story. We too live in a world ripe for judgment. We too have been warned of things not yet seen. And we too have been shown the ark of salvation. That ark is not a wooden boat; it is a person. The Lord Jesus Christ is our ark.
In the days of Noah, God gave a gracious invitation: "Come into the ark" (Gen. 7:1). He shut the door Himself, securing those who were inside. All who were in the ark were saved; all who were outside perished. The distinction could not be more absolute. There was no middle ground. You were either in the water or in the wood.
The gospel call is the same today. Come into Christ. Flee the coming wrath. Do not trust in your own righteousness. Do not be swayed by the mockery of the scoffers. Hear the warning of God in holy fear. Believe His promise of salvation. By faith, enter the ark. And then, once you are safe inside, spend the rest of your days building. Build a faithful household. Build a strong church. Build a life of such joyful and rugged obedience that the world, in seeing your good works, is left without excuse, and may even be provoked to glorify your Father who is in heaven.