Chen

Our sin is a horrible thing. You don't have to look far to see its prevalence and harmful effects. Sin abounds in news stories from around the world and just down the street. Daily, we practice sin in our homes, commit it at school or work, and even seek for it in our entertainment. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, we are absolutley entrenched in our sin. However, the incredible fact is that once upon a time it was even worse:

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
-- Genesis 6:5-7

Seriously, can you fathom in your deepest imagination living in a world where every single thought of every person in the whole world is exclusively evil? Whether we can comprehend it or not, that is exactly what the world was like a mere nine generations after Adam. It is hardly surprising that such a state of affairs "grieved [God] at his heart" and moved Him to utterly destroy His creation with a flood. What is surprising is Genesis 6:8 which states, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD."

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
-- Romans 5:20-21

In order to begin to appreciate the heights of God's grace, one must recognize the depraved depths of sin. If you care to read Genesis chapter 6, then you will notice that no where is Noah excluded from the shared wickedness and condemnation of the rest of humanity. In other words the thoughts of his heart were continually evil, too. It was only after he "found grace in the eyes of the LORD" that he was described as "a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God" -- Genesis 6:9b. Noah got out of his horrible pit of sin because God in His grace reached down and brought him out. It was through God's grace that Noah was reckoned as "just" and "perfect" as well as his being reunited with God.

Sadly, nearly every religion in the world is at odds with this simple but important account. Religion wants to teach you to be just and perfect in order to earn God's grace. There are two major problems with this line of thinking. First, grace is not something one earns. Second, even if one could "earn" grace, humans are utterly unable to do so because of our nature having been corrupted by sin. Unfortunately, you cannot climb out of your horrible pit of sin; but God would bring you out of it as we shall see in the next post because God's grace had only just begun in Noah's life.