pilgrim people

The story of the Bible opens up with one creation, one covenant, one people, and one city. After the fall, however, there is still one creation, but there are now two covenants (works and grace), two people (seed of the serpent and seed of the woman), and two cities (the City of Man and the City of God). This continues along through the unfolding drama of redemptive history until we come to the catastrophic flood in Noah's day.

Before we get into the Abrahamic Covenant (which is really the anchor of the Old Testament), we need to think about Noah and this covenant that God made with him. Between the Seed Promise and the Abrahamic Covenant is this whole episode featuring Noah and the flood. What is this all about?

The story of Noah appears in the context of the unfolding of these two seeds separated at Genesis 3.15: the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. While these two seeds survived alongside each other since Adam's exile from the Garden, the enmity reaches a breaking point and there comes a type of consummation. God's judgment is unleashed and we see a terrible preview of his eschatological wrath (that is, his wrath that will come on the Last Day), yet a wonderful display of his grace that saves his people from that wrath. Total destruction will fall upon the seed of the serpent, while free and demerited grace shall be lavished upon the seed of the woman.

Now, we want to understand that from the time of the Fall until the time of the Flood, the world survives under God's providence and kindness, sometimes labeled, "common grace." What is common grace? When we use that phrase, all we mean is that both the elect and the reprobate dwell together in one common realm of God's temporary kindness and patience, a realm upheld by his providence. After the fall, any positive act of God toward human beings can be considered gracious. For example, God preserved Cain and allowed him to live and build a city, even though Cain was reprobate and of the seed of the serpent. In his common grace to the earth, God restrains his wrath as well as the effects of sin. He also provides the wicked with good things: food, rain, sunshine, and abilities. (See Matt 5.45 and Acts 14.17. Even in his rebellion and wickedness, man still experiences the kindness of the Lord in this way.)

More to come...