From Genesis 3 forward, the Bible is the story of God working out his plan to redeem and restore his people to his land, a land made holy by his very presence, a renewed paradise where he will live forever with them. But this plan will not come about in one instantaneous act. Instead, God will accomplish his plan beginning with one small stretch of real estate in which he will do a special work of redemption that will serve as a launching pad for his gospel of grace for sinners to spread to every corner of his creation.
As mixed-motived and misguided as a "find-my-place-in-the-world" sentiment and search often is, it does not take away the fact that having “a place in the world” is a supremely biblical concern.
Increasingly, you will find that your unbelieving friends will not have a background rooted in a Judeo-Christian outlook. In fact, many of them are probably relatively oblivious to the claims and narrative of both the Old and New Testament. No, he doesn’t have to go to Bible College before you start sharing the Gospel with him. Instead, drive the conversation toward God as Creator of all things. What might a Creator require of his creation? What would be the obligations of a creature to his Creator? What do the common human experiences of provision, beauty and laughter say about God’s gratuitous goodness? How could a man be made right with a God who is so good and so just?
Is Noah’s ark a type of the cross? Is it a prophetic picture of what Christ did on Calvary? People often scoff at the idea, and perhaps even mock preachers who make typological connections by highlighting that just as the ark was made of wood, so the cross was made of wood. The critics are right to disdain such incidental and coincidental resemblances as evidence of typology. However, they are wrong to use such tenuous connections to trash any possibility of the ark being a type of Christ.
Jesus' death not only delivers from something, but, through it, He also delivers us unto something else. He saves us from self-righteousness and delivers us unto righteousness. He saves us from ungodliness and delivers us unto godliness. Godliness is not just an idea that remains impossible until the resurrection. It is a reality in the life of believers.
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