The account in Genesis 6–8 is about a staggering judgment on the world. Everyone who is not on the ark perishes. The flow of the account works like this:
In Genesis 6, Noah is told to build an ark.
In Genesis 7, the promised flood comes upon the earth.
In Genesis 8, the flood waters subside.
Genesis 7 is about the death of the world. We’re told, “The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died” (Gen 7:20–22).
When we imagine the world covered by water, we can recall the state of creation in Genesis 1. “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen 1:2). It was from this condition that God brought forth land (1:9–10). Then God made creatures for the land, including people made in his image (1:20–31).
If Genesis 1 is a picture of land coming from the waters and then creatures filling that land, the flood account in Genesis 7 is a reversal of creation, a de-creation. The flood waters cover the creatures and also the land, leaving the world in a state reminiscent of Genesis 1. The flood was the death of the world.
But then God brings life through death. Noah and his family survive on the ark, along with all the creatures on board. Genesis 1 spoke about land from waters and then creatures filling the land, and that is the order of things in Genesis 8.
We’re told in Genesis 8:1, “God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.” The word “wind” is the same word for “Spirit” in Genesis 1:2. In Genesis 8, the Spirit of God is once again hovering over the waters and will cause land to emerge as the waters subside.
Land appears (Gen 8:1–14), and then the animals and the image-bearers emerge from the ark to fill the land (8:15–19). Life followed death. The arc of the story in Genesis 6–8 is the death and resurrection of the world.
The world’s death and figurative resurrection supplies the imagery that the apostle Peter connected to the administration of baptism. Peter wrote that in the days of Noah, “a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 3:20–21).
Baptism corresponds to the ark story because the arc of that story was death and life. Baptism is the Christian’s public declaration that God has brought us through the waters of judgment. Through union with Christ, we have been brought safely into everlasting life. The Lord Jesus, the true and greater ark, is our refuge. And in Christ, we are delivered and not condemned.