Total Depravity and Noah

[ghs1994]

I was thinking about Total Depravity and wondered about Noah.

In Genesis 6:1-7, describes God's displeasure with the human race. But in verse 8, the Bible says Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

So I wonder, why did God find favor with Noah?

In verse 9, it says Noah was righteous and blameless in his time.

Did God find favor with Noah because he walked right with God (which would somehow negate man being totally depraved and never seeking God) or did God choose to save Noah and his family from the flood out of His good pleasure, by grace?

I ask to sharpen myself for others who try and question me about certain things. I don't ask to debate, but for information. Thanks.

 

[heymikey80]

I was thinking about Total Depravity and wondered about Noah.

In Genesis 6:1-7, describes God's displeasure with the human race. But in verse 8, the Bible says Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

So I wonder, why did God find favor with Noah?

In verse 9, it says Noah was righteous and blameless in his time.

Did God find favor with Noah because he walked right with God (which would somehow negate man being totally depraved and never seeking God) or did God choose to save Noah and his family from the flood out of His good pleasure, by grace?

I ask to sharpen myself for others who try and question me about certain things. I don't ask to debate, but for information. Thanks.

The issue revolves around a couple of things. Yes, Noah found favor with God. That's a critical point independent of Noah's blamelessness and righteousness. To find favor with God as a fallen creature is not something that is done on the basis of our fallen acts of righteousness.

Noah was blameless and righteous in his time. In general this is an effect of God's favor, not a cause. "God ordains means as well as ends." Noah has been prepared for this time by his personal history, which brought him to a reputation for righteousness and blamelessness in his culture.

 

[Iosias]

I was thinking about Total Depravity and wondered about Noah.

In Genesis 6:1-7, describes God's displeasure with the human race. But in verse 8, the Bible says Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

So I wonder, why did God find favor with Noah?

John Gill writes:

<B>

Gen 6:8</B> - But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This man and his family were the only exception to the general apostasy; God always reserves some, in the worst of times, for himself; there is a remnant, according to the election of grace; it was but a small one, and that now appeared; and this was owing to the grace of God, and his choice upon that, and not to the merits of the creature. This grace, which Noah found and shared in, was the favour and good will of God; Noah was grateful and acceptable to him; he was well pleased with him in Christ; his person, services, and sacrifices, were acceptable to him through the Beloved; though he might not be acceptable in the eyes of men, who derided him for his piety and devotion, and especially for his prediction of the flood, and making an ark to save him and his family from it; yet he was very acceptable in the eyes of the Lord, and grateful in his sight, and was favoured with grace from him, who is the God of all grace, and with all the supplies of it: the Jerusalem Targum is, he"found grace and mercy;''the grace he found was not on account of his own merit, but on account of the mercy of God: and this shows that he was not without sin, or he would have stood in no need of the mercy and grace of God to save him; and as he found grace and favour in things spiritual, so in things temporal; he found favour with God, and therefore he and his family were spared, when the whole world of the ungodly were destroyed; he found favour with God, and therefore was directed by him to build an ark, for the saving of himself and his; he found favour with him, and therefore he had the honour of being the preserver of mankind, and the father of a new world.
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