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Sometimes when we ask God a question, he does not give us an answer that satisfies our human curiosity. Job asked God, “Why have you allowed me to experience such intense suffering? I haven’t done anything to deserve this!” God’s answer to Job was, as one of my seminary professors summarized it, “I’m God. You’re Job. I love you. You need to trust me.” That answer was not intellectually satisfying to Job. Nor is it intellectually satisfying to us. But it is the correct answer from our good and gracious God, and it gives us all we need to know to cling to his loving promises.
Something similar happens when we ask God, “How can you condemn people if they’ve never heard the gospel?” To us, this seems like an entirely reasonable question. God clearly tells us in his Word that all people are born in sin and cannot be saved apart from faith in Jesus. He declares, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). Through the apostle Paul, he says, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (Romans 10:17). So, using our human logic, we wonder, What about those who, for whatever reason, never hear the gospel? It doesn’t seem fair that God should condemn them for something that doesn’t seem to be their fault.
Clear truths on which to cling
God’s answer to this question is much like his answer to Job. He does not answer the question directly. He does not invite us to explore the hidden recesses of his wisdom or give us latitude to speculate about his purposes. Instead, he directs our attention to clear truths he has revealed to us in his Word and gives us faith to trust his loving promises.
The first truth God wants us to know is that he wants all people to be saved. He says as much in 1 Timothy 2:4: “[God] wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” The Lord declared to Ezekiel, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live” (Ezekiel 33:11). Through the prophet Isaiah, God pleads, “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22). So if people have not heard the gospel, it is not because God does not want them saved. God’s greatest desire is to have all people spend eternity with him in the new heavens and new earth that he will create for his people.
God’s answer to this question is much like his answer to Job. He does not answer the question directly.
Because God wants all people to be saved, he sent his Son to save all people. Jesus himself told Nicodemus, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The apostle John writes, “[Jesus] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Paul told the Christians in Rome, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23,24). The God who wants all people to be saved accomplished salvation for all people through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son, Jesus.
God didn’t just desire and accomplish salvation for all people through the work of Jesus. He also provided the means by which all people could come to saving faith in him. He inspired prophets, apostles, and others to write down his Word, which points people to Jesus from beginning to end. Jesus told the Jewish religious leaders, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me” (John 5:39). This good news of who Jesus is and what he has done to accomplish our salvation is, as Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). In addition to this written and spoken Word, God gave us his Word connected with water in Baptism. Paul told Titus that Baptism is “the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Peter declares that Baptism “now saves you” (1 Peter 3:21).
Finally, the God who desired and accomplished salvation for all people in Jesus and provided the means by which all people can come to saving faith in him also sent people out into the world to proclaim this faith-creating message and to baptize. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he commanded his followers, “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” (Matthew 28:19,20). As God’s people carry out this command, Jesus assures us, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations” (Matthew 24:14).
An answer to believe
God has given us all these clear truths to hold on to. However, he has not directly answered our original question. Perhaps that is because our original question isn’t as reasonable as we first thought. Embedded in our original question is the assumption that we have the right to pass judgment on God. Asking God, “Isn’t it unfair of you to condemn someone who’s never heard the gospel?” assumes that we can hold God to our imperfect human standards of fairness. But God doesn’t need us to tell him what’s fair and unfair. God both understands and demonstrates justice and fairness far better than we can ever begin to imagine. As Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, “Who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?” (Romans 9:20).
We sinful human beings may not find God’s answer to our question intellectually satisfying. But our good and gracious God does know how best to answer our questions in ways that lead us to cling to his loving promises. So, strengthened by those promises, we give thanks that God so loved the entire world and demonstrated that love by saving us in his Son. We praise God that he has brought us to saving faith through the good news of Jesus, spoken to us, written for us, and connected with water in Baptism for us. In every way we can, we urgently carry out Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing . . . and teaching them” (Matthew 28:19,20). And we join the apostle Paul in his hymn of praise:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom
and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out! . . .
For from him and through him and for
him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
(Romans 11:33-36)
Author: Steven Lange
Volume 112, Number 02
Issue: February 2025
- Please explain: How was it right for Jesus to provide so much wine at the wedding at Cana?
- Please explain: Was John’s baptism the same as the baptism commanded by Jesus?
- Please explain: How can God condemn people if they’ve never heard the gospel?
- Please explain: What comfort does the Bible give grieving Christians?
- Please explain: What did Jesus mean about a camel going through the eye of a needle?