A world overflowing with wickedness. People chasing their own selfish desires. God judging humanity and devoting the world to destruction. And a small, faithful remnant spared through belief and obedience.

At first glance this describes the return of Jesus and the final judgment—but it also perfectly captures the days of Noah and the flood.

In these parallel narratives, Jesus and Noah occupy similar roles: faithful men appointed by God to provide a means of escape from imminent judgment. The story stands as a sobering warning of what is to come, yet even more as a reassurance that God has already prepared a path to salvation. In a striking symmetry, just as Noah’s family was borne to safety through the floodwaters, so we are delivered by Jesus through the waters of baptism.

Paul tells us that “by works of the law no human being will be justified in his [God’s]sight”(Romans 3:20). So the Law of Moses cannot save us... one has to wonder why it existed in the first place then. Why did God make the Israelites follow it for a thousand years if he was just going to tear it up once Jesus came along? 

Well, the truth is not so simple. Jesus himself says "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17). So if Jesus did not abolish the law, how is it still relevant to us today? And in what way did Jesus fulfill it?