What does it mean that Noah was perfect in his generations (Genesis 6:9)?

Viewed in his relationship and its peculiar obligations, Noah, as we have already observed, "found favour in the eyes of Jehovah." This has its importance. But it is not all. And here we are told of him on the broader ground of the faithful Creator toward all mankind. Noah's piety was recognised as real, but he is also as a righteous man among his fellows. Assuredly so it ought to be always; for the working of the divine nature, of which all born of God partake, is not only upward in dependence and thanksgiving, but vigilantly obedient, escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. Yet we know too well that failure creeps in too often through lack of prayer and watchfulness. In both respects the record of Noah is excellent.

"These [are] the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect among his generations; with God walked Noah." So it had been said, in Gen. 5:22-24, of that singularly honoured saint Enoch, and with the emphasis of a repeated mention in a list of others where not one but himself was so described. Here it is applied to Noah, already distinguished by his father's prophetic expectation of comfort through him (Gen. 5:29). It is of deep moral interest to note, that the Holy Spirit records the grace Noah found in Jehovah's eyes, before He tells us that Noah was a righteous man, perfect, etc., and walked with God. This is really and emphatically the true order. Even the manner in which scripture presents the account ought to have guarded (Matthew Henry, for instance) from the thought that Noah's character in ver. 9 comes in here as the reason of God's favour to him. Reason of grace! What an idea and expression! Had he forgotten the real truth of grace? Had he not before him the pointed negation of any such thought in the apostle's words in Rom. 11:6? "If it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace" (R.V.). His alternative (but how strange for a pious commentator to waver between oppositions!) is alone right: Noah's righteous ways, his walk with God, flowed (as always) from God's favour. O. or N.T. makes no difference as to this, save that the N.T. is most explicit. See 1 Cor. 15:10 expressly; but is it not really so everywhere?

Further, it is not correct to say that he was a just man, that is justified before God. The confusion is similar to what we have already noticed. The grace that justified him wrought in and by him practical righteousness before man. So in the N.T. the doctrine of St. James is no less true than the apostle Paul's. They are not the same; and when mixed together, instead of being distinguished, the result is darkness and error. But apply the latter to what the soul wants before God when arrested about its sins, and "to him that works not but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:4-5). Whereas in James 2:14-26, where baptised Jews were making Christianity a merely new law and school of dogma, instead of living faith in Christ, the word is "Show me thy faith apart from works, and I by my works will show thee my faith" (ver. 18). The one (in Rom. 4) is justification before God, the root of all; the other is the resulting fruit "shown" before man. Each is indispensable in its place; both united in their season in every true believer. Practical righteousness is the effect, in no way the cause, of justification by faith. Here we are on the ground expressly of Noah in his generations, just, perfect, walking with God. But we know also from Heb. 11:7, that faith was the originating principle through grace of the conduct which distinguished him in that day, by which too he condemned the world as heir of the righteousness that is according to faith.

"Perfect" here simply means as in Job 1:1, 8, Job 2:3, etc., one of integrity or blameless. The evaporation of the old man, or absorption into the new, even with the richest N.T. privileges, is a dream, and a dangerous one.

"Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations" (Gen.6:9). It was a day of mixture and corruption, the sons of God were connected with the daughters of men. There are those who believe that this was a peculiar corruption where the angels left their first estate and were connected with the daughters of men upon earth. This apostasy of the angels is referred to in Jude (v.6). This is a difficult thing to understand. Many brethren have written dissertations to show that the heroes of Greek and Roman mythology are descended from this intermingling, this is where they got their origin "there were giants in the land in those days" (v.4). This progeny of this evil association was a serious and wicked thing. It resulted in God's judgment of the flood, God removing them all. But in the midst of all this there was one man that God could look down upon, a man who was just and pure in all his generation. What an evil day it was.

Enoch by faith was translated that he should not see death. Noah by faith prepared an ark for the saving of himself and of his house. Each believed the testimony for his day, and found in believing it deliverance as God had promised. Enoch walked well. Noah acted aright. Enoch had testimony that he pleased God before he was translated. A word surely this is of admonition for Christians to walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing (Col. 1:10), and to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called (Eph. 4:1). Noah by building the ark condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. It centred in him. For "Noah," we read, "was a righteous man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." Such is the description of this patriarch when first he appeared prominently in the pages of history at a ripe age, being five hundred years old. He then made the ark as divinely directed, and God said to him, "Thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation" (Gen. 7:1). He proved that he was righteous. He illustrated the obedience of faith. Believing the flood would come, moved by godly fear he prepared the ark, and was saved through the flood with all his family.

Noah is an example of the separate saint bearing testimony to the world. We read that “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). Peter tells us that he bore witness for God as a “preacher of righteousness”. Lot is a picture of that large class of believers who, without faith for the separate path, settle down in the world and, though ultimately saved, are no testimony to God while passing through it. The Apostle Peter tells us indeed that Lot was a “righteous man”, yet, through “dwelling among” the wicked, he “vexed his righteous soul from day to day” hearing their filthy conversation and seeing their unlawful deeds. He knew nothing of a walk in peace and nearness to God.

In the next chapter we have the testimony to Noah. "Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." In the preceding verse we have, I believe, the secret of this blessed testimony, "he found grace in the eyes of the Lord." In Heb. 11 we find the principle of his walk; it was faith, not sight, as we see in the apostasy, Gen. 6:2, and also Gen. 3:6; it was faith working holy obedience - "Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he." How simple, how blessed, and how opposite to the walk by sense and sight, leading us in wilfulness to do the very thing that God commanded not to be done.