Here are some further reflections on Genesis 5, after preaching on this passage last Sunday. If you weren't there on Sunday, or are unfamiliar with Enoch, he was the seventh from Adam through Seth. Unlike almost everybody else that has ever lived , Enoch never died. Instead, we read that "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him" (Genesis 5:24). Only Elijah had a similar experience (2 Kings 2:11, 12).
One of the commentators, John Sailhamer, makes the observation that, Noah and Abraham were also men in Genesis that the Scripture praises for their faith and righteousness. Noah also "walked with God" (6:9), and Abraham "believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness" (15:6). Sailhamer points out that all three of these saints were noted for their faith and righteousness, yet lived before the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai. Therefore, the author of Genesis (Moses, I believe) is telling us that true righteousness is not had through adherence to the law, but through another way, namely faith (or, another way to put it, "walking with God"). Here we have already a righteousness "apart from the law" (Romans 3:21).
Whether before or after the giving of the 10 commandments, God never intended the law to serve as a means of attaining eternal life. Enoch believed God (Hebrews 11:3), walked with him, and was transported to his heavenly home (at the "tender" age of 365!). Resurrection life comes by faith, faith in Jesus Christ. For he said: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die" (John 11:25, 26).
Posted by Pastor Scott at January 3, 2006 10:27 PM
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