Examining Genesis 6:8
Last Update: 2025, March 3
How did Noah find grace? Non-Calvinists (NC) will say that Noah was righteous, different from the rest, or at least he obeyed God. Here in this post I’ll demonstrate and show straight from Scripture that only Reformed Soteriology can give a biblical and satisfactory answer. Before we get to v.8, let us get v.22 out of the way first.
Verse 22
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. —Genesis 6:22
If you have read Examining John 20:31, you’ll see that NCs are inconsistent when it comes to the ordering of things because they just pick and choose whichever fits their theological system. What we’re about to look at is just one more example. Verse 8 explains Verse 22, but the NCs are going in reverse, saying that Verse 22 explains Verse 8, which is incorrect.
What v.22 proves is that the calling of God is effectual. Those whom God draws to Himself will become obedient from the heart. The life of Paul is a perfect demonstration of this biblical truth. Paul was dead set on taking down Christians, and what happened? Look how God turned him around. He didn’t disobey like he was previously but became obedient. What about Abraham? See Examining Psalms 1. God first chose Abraham while he was an idolater living in a pagan land. Abraham’s faithfulness was the result of God first choosing him. God tested Abraham long after he left Ur of the Chaldeans (after God chose him), and Abraham proved himself to be faithful to God and a covenant was made.
Paul says that the fact that the Thessalonians [believed] the gospel when he preached it (“for our gospel came to you… in power …and with full conviction”) [is the reason he knows that God chose them]. As soon as they came to faith Paul concluded that long ago God had chosen them, and therefore they had believed when he preached. He later writes to the same church, “We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because [God chose you from the beginning to be saved], through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13). —Wayne Grudem
It’s crucial that we read the Scripture as a whole. Noah’s obedience shows that he was known and called by God beforehand. In this case, Verse 8 is what explains verse 22! We’ll look more at this in future post(s).
Verse 8
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. —Genesis 6:8
Noah found grace the same way Abraham found it. The same way Moses, Naaman, Paul, Cornelius and the rest of us found it. Let us be reminded that the Wind is Sovereign, for it blows where it wishes (John 3:8). The Lord knows those who are His, and He’s moving through HIS-story to save His people. We see a demonstration of that here in Acts 16.
6 Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. 7 After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. 8 So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.
—Acts 16:6-10, NKJV
God directed them to Macedonia because Lydia was there, and God had His eyes on her like He did with Naaman, Cornelius and the rest of His people. God hides and reveals Himself to whoever He wants (Luke 10:22). Lydia was just like the rest, and if God didn’t open her heart, the Gospel would have appeared as foolishness to her as well. To put it simply: God demonstrated His goodness and grace, and Lydia found it. But I know you’re not convinced just yet…
God preserved Noah and his family, not because they were more righteous and humble than the rest, but because of God’s grace and mercy. A surface reading of Scriptures is insufficient to put everything together. In wrestling with this difficult text (Genesis 6:8), I have checked many commentaries and found no satisfying answer. Not until I came across Exodus 33:12-19!
Scripture says that “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the LORD.” But it was God who brought Eve to Adam. Adam didn’t go looking for it. God demonstrated His goodness and Adam found it (Genesis 2:21-22). A good wife comes from God as seen in the case of how Rebekah and Isaac came together. The same is true of Noah and everyone else when it comes to salvation. From a human perspective, Noah found it, but from a divine perspective, God prepared it beforehand. Paul found it on the road to Damascus, but God prepared it before he was born (Galatians 1:15). See also: Election is not Salvation.
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”
God always have a remnant that He Himself preserves among the lost. Noah is the most obvious example of this. Had God not preserved Noah and his family the entire human race would have been gone. Moses said this to God in Exodus 33:12, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’”
Note and observe carefully:
I [God] “know you [Moses] by name”
Moses found grace in God’s sight
God knowing us comes first, and then us finding it comes later. It was God who called out to Moses, “Moses, Moses!” (Exodus 3:4). Isn’t that the case with Paul? “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). Paul found it on the road to Damascus, but God prepared it before he was born (Galatians 1:15).
“There are only about fifteen occurrences in all of Scripture where someone is addressed by the repetition of his or her name… This rare grammatical structure has significance in the Hebrew language. When someone repeats the personal form of address, it suggests and communicates an intimate personal relationship with the person to whom he is speaking.” —R.C. Sproul
God knew Moses intimately long before Moses encountered God. We love Him because He first loved us.
Blessed is the man You choose,
And cause to approach You,
That he may dwell in Your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Of Your holy temple.
—Psalms 65:4
Summary
When all is said and done, you have only two options:
Something in Noah made him to differ. Perhaps he was more faithful and obedient. Millions of people went their own way in rejecting God, but Noah exercised his free will not to. He was one of a kind.
God showed him mercy and turned Noah’s heart around.
Everyone, without exception, is corrupted as the text clearly says (Genesis 6:11-12). However, it is a problem for your theological system if you’re a non-Calvinist. In Calvinism, God in His grace and mercy saved Noah and his family, since all were corrupted. In your theological system, Noah was corrupt, but wasn’t as corrupted as the text says. The world was so corrupted that God had to destroy them all, but Noah had a spark of goodness in him and was able to come to God on his own: “all flesh had corrupted their way.” But not Noah, he was good. So good that he found grace.