Big Picture: The essential promise of the Noahic covenant is as follows: never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth (Gen. 9:11). The covenant with Noah is a covenant of preservation, signifying a new beginning for human beings and the continuance of life on earth until the time of the end. Despite the depth of human wickedness, human beings are still made in God’s image, and God continues to bless them as they are fruitful and multiply on the earth. The bow in the clouds, the sign of the covenant, testifies that God will preserve the world until redemption is accomplished. God will not wipe out the world every few years and start over. The covenant with Noah does not provide redemption, but the preservation of creation is the context in which redemption will be realized.

Sermon Outline

1. The Noahic Covenant

• The blessings and terms of the covenant
  (Excursus: capital punishment)
• The parties of the covenant
• The promise of the covenant
• The sign of the covenant
• The place of the covenant with Noah in the larger story.

2. Noah and his sons

3. New Life: (Ephesians 2:4-7)

• God made us alive with Christ (verse 5 = resurrection)
• God raised us up with Christ (verse 6a = ascension)
• God seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (verse 6b =
  session)
• Why? So that God might demonstrate forever the overwhelmingly merciful,
  loving, and gracious nature of his divine character, expressed in his kindness
  to us in Christ Jesus (7)