VERSE 22 of Genesis chapter 8 commences with the action of Noah as soon as he came out of the ark. Before anything else was attempted Noah built an altar to the Lord. From this we can appreciate that Noah's relationship with God was of first importance, and until his relationship was established and right, Noah could not go on with the other important things of life. This is why he built an altar to the Lord as soon as he came out of the ark.

Because of the importance of this action of Noah we must dwell on it and meditate on it with complete attention. The first thing we need to realise is the fact of what an altar is for. An altar is for the offering of sacrifices to God. Then we need to notice the sort of sacrifice that Noah made to God. We are told that it was the sacrifice of some of the clean animals which had been saved from the flood. These animals and birds were offered as burnt offerings to the Lord.

Immediately, surely, our minds make enquiry as to why life which had been saved from the judgement of God in such a careful way should now lose their lives, which had been preserved from the flood, to make a burnt offering to God. There is only one answer, which is made plain throughout the Bible, and it is that these animals and birds were offered as a sacrifice for the atonement of sin. By offering these sacrifices Noah was acknowledging that he was a sinner in the sight of God; that such sin deserved the just punishment of death on account of his falling short of God's holy requirements, which is the true nature of sin; that he deserved such punishment of death, because God had made clear to Adam and Eve, and since, that the soul that sins must die; and that he sought salvation from the just deserving of his sin in the way God had made clear from the very beginning, that without the shedding of blood by the death of a substitute, there could be no remission of the punishment of death for sin. So to escape death for his sin, by the clear direction of God, Noah took clean animals, representing purity, and killed them on the altar to suffer the punishment for his sin, in his place, before God.

In the heart and mind of Noah was burnt the truth that God cannot remit sin at the expense of his holiness and justice. He had learnt that God's holy justice must be upheld completely before human sin and sinfulness can find forgiveness. He knew that God must uphold his holiness if he were to remain faithful to his character and nature. For God, the perfectly holy one, all that falls short of his holiness must be purged by death. So a clean animal, representing life which was pure, had to die to satisfy the holiness of God, and enable forgiveness to be poured out on Noah the sinner.

These sacrifices were repeated again and again because they could never truly atone for sin, but God accepted them as a stop-gap until the promised sacrifice, promised in Genesis 3, should make the one and only, true and complete, sacrifice for sin, even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave his life a ransom for sinners when he died on the cross at Calvary. We who believe on Jesus as our Saviour as sacrifice for our sins, receive through him forgiveness, and the covering of his righteousness, so that we can approach God without fear.

The efficacy of the sacrifices Noah offer to God is declared in verse 21. We read in this verse that "The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart 'Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.'"

The wondrous gift of grace from God is revealed here. God's grace is his undeserved favour poured out on those who do not deserve such favour. Notice how God speaks of mankind. He tells us that every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. This was true of Noah even though he was a preacher of righteousness, and even though God graciously saved him from the devastating judgement against sinful human beings by the flood. He was saved from the flood because he believed God's way of salvation, and entered the ark when told to by God. He was still someone whose heart inclined to evil, and needed the grace of God in forgiveness, made possible by some other life being substituted for his, and suffering the death he deserved in his place. All the Old Testament sacrifices pointed to Jesus as the one and only complete sacrifice for sin when he suffered the death we deserve on the cross in our place. Noah's sacrifice was only of temporary benefit, and had to be repeated. Christ's sacrifice was and is all-sufficient to pay the just deserving of the sin of the world for those who, like Noah, believe God and put their trust in Jesus.

Let us worship and adore God and our Lord Jesus for such abundant grace. In grace, while evil still reigned in fallen sinful human beings, and knowing that human beings would not stop sinning, God promised never to destroy the earth by a devastating all-embracing flood again. God promised that, even though sinful mankind would continue to sin and turn away from him, He would still graciously cause summer and winter, spring and autumn, to continue and never be altered. God has kept his word even though sin has reigned in the world since Noah's time, and even though the aggravation of human sin has been monumental.