The Messiah is the Ark of Baptism. This was a fulfillment in the Noahic Covenant. Peter, in his first epistle, instructs us that Noah’s Ark has an allegorical anti-type in Christ. Just as eight people entered into the Ark and was saved from God’s wrath that destroyed everything outside the Ark, so Baptism places us into Christ and protect us from  God’s wrath – with Baptism here representing the response of our hearts towards God rather than any external activity aimed towards washing dirt from  the body.

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1 Pe 3:18-22  For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:  (19)  By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;  (20)  Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.  (21)  The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:  (22)  Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

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There are three features in this Covenantal fulfillment. The first is that we have a New Testament witness that the apostles viewed Genesis as literal history. The Second is that Baptism destroys sin like the Flood destroyed sinners/ The last is that believers are protected by identification with Christ through faith in the same way that entering the ark saved those who survived.

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The first is that we have Extensive    New Testament witness that the apostles viewed Genesis as literal history.

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Genesis as History

• Luke 3:23-38 assumes Genesis literal history
•  Jude 1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
• 1 Peter 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

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Genesis Flood as History

• Mat 24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
• Luke 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
• Luke 17:27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
• Heb 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

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Genesis Adam regarded as History

• Mat 24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
• Luke 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
• Luke 17:27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
• Heb 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

James regarded Genesis as History

Jas 2:21-23  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?  (22)  Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?  (23)  And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” And he was called the friend of God.

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Jas 3:8-9  But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.  (9)  With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.

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Jesus regarded Genesis as History

• Matthew 19:4-6 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,  (5) And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?  (6) Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. (Also Mark 10:5-9)

ÂThe Apostolic Church Regarded Genesis as History

• Jesus Christ
• Peter
• Paul
• Jude
• Matthew
• Mark
• Luke
• John
• Author of Hebrews

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Both Christ and every apostolic witness who contributed to the compilation of the New Testament affirms Genesis as history. To deny that Genesis is history is to say that Jesus and the Apostles of Christ are in error

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The Second is that Baptism destroys sin like the Flood destroyed sinners.

We see a distinct parallel between the Noahic Flood and Baptism into Christ. In the Noahic Flood. Sinners were destroyed by submersion into the medium of wrath. Christ’s body was that medium of wrath. Sin was baptized into Christ for the purpose of destroying it.

Gen 7:11-24  In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.  (12)  And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.  (13)  On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark—  (14)  they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.  (15)  And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life.  (16)  So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in… Â

…(17)  Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.  (18)  The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters.  (19)  And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered.  (20)  The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.  (21)  And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.  (22)  All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died.  (23)  So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.  (24)  And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.

While the waters of the Great Flood are a type of Christ’s body where sin was destroyed by Baptism, the ark was also a type of Christ’s body. The Ark was, however, a shelter to protect those baptized therein from destruction. While the sinful nature, and its sins were baptized into Christ so that they might die, believers identify with Christ in baptism are not destroyed. When a believers undergo baptism, they find that the body of Christ is an ark – a shelter from God’s wrath.

Rom 6:1-10  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  (2)  Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?  (3)  Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  (4)  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life… Â

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…(5)  For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,  (6)  knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.  (7)  For he who has died has been freed from sin.  (8)  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,  (9)  knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.  (10)  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

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Believers are protected by entering into Christ in the same way that entering the ark saved those who survived.

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If we are entangled with Christ as our Ark, then His resurrection implies OUR resurrection – resurrection of a human nature freed from sin. The inner spirit man becomes instantly free from sin. The outer layers of soul and flesh as these become increasingly entangled worth Christ via progressive sanctification as we live the Christian life in this mortal body. When the general resurrection of saints happens (1 Cor 15), the whole man becomes permanently free from sin as sin has no place in our incorruptible immortal bodies.

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Rom 8:18-23  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.  (19)  For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.  (20)  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;  (21)  because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  (22)  For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.  (23)  Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

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1Co 15:35-44  But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?”  (36)  Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.  (37)  And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain.  (38)  But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.  (39)  All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.  (40)  There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.  (41)  There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.  (42)  So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.  (43)  It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.  (44)  It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

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Baptism places us into the Covenant Community BY FAITH

Baptism is not merely individualistic, but places us into a Covenant community. We are instructed that the Israelites of old were baptized into Moses. They passed through the sea under the cloud in the same process that destroyed the Egyptian army – showing the same pattern seen with Noah’s Ark.

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1Co 10:1-12  Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea,  (2)Âall were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,  (3)  all ate the same spiritual food,  (4)  and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.  (5)  But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.  (6)  Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.  (7)  And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND ROSE UP TO PLAY.”  (8)  Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell;  (9)  nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents;  (10)  nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.  (11)  Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.  (12)  Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

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Paul begins this chapter by pointing out that there was a Baptism of Moses that separates them from Egypt and brings them to the place of Covenant. They became entangled in Moses and recipients of the Covenant. Most of the chapter, however, points out the failure of Israel. Israel failed to keep that Covenant and fell into idolatry