18 Sep When There Is No Gospel
Sometimes when you are talking about Jesus, people raise an objection to God’s perceived fairness.
‘What about all those people in the Congo jungle who never heard the gospel? Surely God isn’t going to send them to Hell for not believing when they never had the chance to know about Jesus?’
There is actually an answer for this….
ABRAHAM
Abraham was someone who never heard the name Jesus. He never heard the ‘gospel’ in terms that we understand it. He never attended church, nor even a synagogue. He lived about 700 years before the temple was built, and about 1700 years before Jesus went to the cross. And yet, he is the friend of God and was declared righteous because of his faith.
‘Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.’ Genesis 15:6/Romans 4:3
Imagine that… Abraham was saved by faith even without hearing the gospel.
How?
Paul tell us. ‘For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.’ Romans 1:20
People instinctively know that God is there. Even those who claim atheism must suppress an inner awareness to come to that place. Self aware atheists know this and admit it, but many others deny what their inner sense (ie their conscience) tells them. God has placed a ‘witness’ inside of each person.
Very occasionally someone like Abraham will pay attention to that inner witness, and find God through faith, in what seems an entirely miraculous outcome. Indeed anytime someone finds God it miraculous. The truth is that Christ’s work is a completed work, and makes such faith in God possible. His death was a death that atoned from all those before and after him in time. So that even those looking forward in faith, such as Abraham, not even understanding how God saves, are in fact still saved.
Elsewhere in the scriptures it says, ‘the righteous shall live by faith.’ Habakkuk 2:4 This latter scripture was also written prior to Christ, but works because of Christ.
So by faith Abraham was made righteous. Christ made it possible, but Abraham trusted in God.
However we must still preach.
The Lord Jesus knew that most people are hard of heart, and unwilling to allow the inner voice to speak. And so there is a command from God. ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ Matthew 28:19-20
The command to go and witness is needed because God is more than fair. Not only does each person have an inner voice that speaks, he aims to provide an outer voice as well. Some people never hear that outer voice, but knowing that God is fair, we trust His judgement in deciding the eternal welfare in each case, or each and every individual.
So we see two things. First God is fair. Second we must do our part to be an outer witness that agrees with someone else’s inner witness. Let us care for others as God does too.
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