After Noah, with his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives came out of the ark…

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar (v20)

At first glance this looks like a thanksgiving sacrifice – a costly thank you to God for remembering them and bringing them safely through the water.

But when you read the next verses you see that there is more to it:

When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done (v21-22)

The heart of man hadn’t changed, but the heart of God had.

Why?

Answer: When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, “I will never again …

It was a substitutionary sacrifice.

Nothing else will bring us through judgment than the cross of Christ.

He’s our greater Noah – the perfect man with the ark and he’s offered the perfect substitutionary sacrifice to which God the Father says “Never again…”