Question: What about those who have never heard the Gospel?
Answer: This is a great question. God's Word tells us that no one is exempt from God's judgment because He has made Himself visible through creation and our ability to reason. He also only judges based on what we know. That means someone who has never heard of the Law of God will not be judged by the Law of God. But that is not usually satisfying for most people. So, let's get into it.
A few years ago, after a Sunday service, a college student hung around the lobby until most people had gone home. He finally walked up and said, "Can I ask you something that's been bugging me?" I told him sure. He said, "What about the guy in the middle of the jungle who never heard about Jesus? He never saw a Bible. Nobody ever came to his village. Is God really going to send him to hell for something he didn't know? Because if that's true, I'm not sure I can trust a God like that."
I love that question. I love it because it's honest, and because it tells me he was taking God seriously enough to wrestle with Him.
Skeptics bring it up as an objection all the time. The argument usually goes something like this:
If God judges people for rejecting a law or a gospel they never received, then God is unfair. And if God is unfair, He isn't good. And if He isn't good, why would anyone worship Him?
That's a serious charge and deserves a serious answer. And the good news is that the Apostle Paul already took it on, almost two thousand years ago, in Romans 2.
As of this writing, our church is currently walking through Romans in a series called The Mission. We are watching as Scripture reveals the greatest rescue story ever told. But a rescue only makes sense when you understand the danger. Romans 2 is where Paul shows us that every single person on the planet is standing in that danger, and that God is perfectly just in how He deals with all of them.
Start With Who God Is
Before we get into Romans, go back with me to Genesis 18. God tells Abraham that He is about to bring judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham starts to negotiate. Would You destroy the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people there? Forty-five? Thirty? Then Abraham asks the question that sits underneath every conversation about God's fairness:
"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?" (Genesis 18:25, ESV)
Notice something here. Abraham doesn't ask that question because he doubts God. He asks it because he knows the answer. Of course the Judge of all the earth will do what is right. Everything Abraham knows about God tells him so.
Moses says the same thing in his final song to Israel:
"The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he." (Deuteronomy 32:4)
Here is where I want us to begin. When we ask whether God is fair, we are asking the question as creatures who have a sense of fairness. Where did that sense come from? We didn't invent it. It was stamped into us by the One who made us in His image. So the very instinct that makes us want to accuse God of unfairness is a gift He gave us, and it points back to Him. The standard we are trying to hold God to is His own standard.
C.S. Lewis made a version of this point in Mere Christianity when he talked about his own days as an atheist. He argued against God because the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. Then he stopped and asked himself where he got the idea of just and unjust in the first place. A man doesn't call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. That realization was one of the cracks in his unbelief.
So let's go into Romans 2 trusting that the Judge of all the earth will do right, and let's see how He does it.
Principle: God Judges by the Light You Have
Here is the main point of the passage:
"For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus." (Romans 2:12-16)
Verse 12 answers the objection almost head on.
People who sinned without the law will perish without the law. God does not pull out the Ten Commandments and hold them up in front of a man who never heard of Moses and say, "You broke tablet number two, line four." Paul says that man will be judged apart from the written law.
And people who sinned under the law will be judged by the law. The Jew who grew up with the Torah, memorized it, heard it read every Sabbath, will be measured against it.
In other words, God judges people according to the light they actually received. More light means more accountability. Less light means less accountability. But no one gets zero light, and we will come back to that in a minute.
This principle shows up all over the Bible. Jesus said,
"And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more." (Luke 12:47-48)
Jesus is teaching that there are degrees of accountability based on what a person knew. He says the same kind of thing about the cities that watched His miracles and still refused to repent:
"But I tell you, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you." (Matthew 11:24)
Why would it be more bearable for Sodom? Because Sodom never saw Jesus heal the blind and raise the dead. Capernaum did. Capernaum had more light, so Capernaum carries more responsibility.
And in John 15:22 Jesus says, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin." Knowledge increases accountability.
So when the skeptic says, "God is going to judge a man for a law he never heard," the Bible says, "Actually, no. That's exactly what God promises He will not do." God is not holding anybody accountable for what they never had. He is holding every person accountable for what they did with what they were given.
Nobody Is Completely in the Dark
This is where the objection starts to unravel. The skeptic imagines a man who has received no light at all. Paul says that man doesn't exist.
Look again at verses 14 and 15. Gentiles who never had the Law of Moses still "by nature do what the law requires." They have "the work of the law written on their hearts." Their "conscience also bears witness."
Paul is saying that every human being carries around an internal moral law. You don't have to teach a kid in the Amazon or a kid in Bowling Green that it's wrong when somebody steals his toy. He knows. He will stand there and cry "That's not fair!" before he can spell the word fair.
Theologians have called this the natural law, and Christians have been talking about it for a long time. Thomas Aquinas taught that the natural law is the way rational creatures participate in God's eternal law. John Calvin, commenting on this very passage, argued that there is no people so cut off from civilization that they don't have some sense of right and wrong, some awareness of justice.
C.S. Lewis opened Mere Christianity with two observations about the human race that line up almost perfectly with Romans 2:
"First, that human beings, all over the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it. Secondly, that they do not in fact behave in that way."
That's Romans 2:15 in plain English. The law is written on the heart. And the conscience, Paul says, is constantly putting on a little courtroom drama inside of us, with thoughts that "accuse or even excuse" us. You know exactly what that feels like. You say something harsh to your spouse, and before you even walk out of the room, there's a voice in you prosecuting the case. Then another voice jumps up for the defense. "Well, she started it." That internal trial is proof that the law is there.
And the conscience is only one witness. Just one chapter earlier, Paul told us about the witness of creation:
"For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." (Romans 1:19-20)
David sang about the same thing:
"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." (Psalm 19:1-4)
Did you catch that? Through all the earth. To the end of the world. There's no village so remote that the stars don't shine over it. Paul told the crowd in Lystra that God "did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17). Solomon said God "has put eternity into man's heart" (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
John Calvin called this the sensus divinitatis, the sense of the divine. In the opening pages of his Institutes, he wrote:
"There is within the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, an awareness of divinity."
Augustine put it more personally in the first lines of his Confessions:
"You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."
So here is the picture. Every human being has creation shouting at him from the outside, conscience testifying on the inside, and a restless longing for eternity built into his soul. That's a lot of light. Theologians call it general revelation, and it's the reason Paul can say that everyone is "without excuse."
The Real Problem Is What We Do With What We Know
Now we come to the part of Romans 2 that gets uncomfortable for all of us.
Paul says in verse 13 that God will justify the doers of the law, and in verse 14 that Gentiles sometimes "do what the law requires." Some people read those verses and say, "See! A person who never hears the gospel can be saved by being a good person and following his conscience."
But Paul has already slammed that door shut, and he is about to slam it even harder. The question is never whether people have a moral law. The question is whether anyone actually keeps the moral law they have. And the answer is no.
Let's try a little experiment. Imagine that every time you ever said "You ought to..." or "That's not right" about somebody else, it got recorded. Every judgment you ever made about somebody else's behavior. Now imagine that on the last day, God simply plays that recording back and says, "Fine. I'll judge you by your own standard. Did you keep it?"
Francis Schaeffer used an illustration very much like that one, picturing an invisible tape recorder hanging around each person's neck. And that's essentially what Paul says in the first verse of this chapter:
"Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things." (Romans 2:1)
The man in the jungle who never heard of Moses still knows that lying is wrong. He still lies. He knows that betraying his friend is wrong. He still does it. He knows he should be grateful for rain and food and life. He still takes the credit for himself or gives it to an idol. He isn't condemned for failing a test he never took. He is condemned for failing the test he wrote for himself.
Then Paul turns to the religious person, the one who had more light:
"But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness... you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?... You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law." (Romans 2:17-19, 21-23)
Pay attention to where Paul lands this. The person who had the most information about God was not in better shape. If anything, his situation was more serious, because he knew more and still fell short. Paul goes on in verses 25 and 26 to say that even circumcision, the great physical sign of belonging to God's people, can't cover a heart that breaks God's law.
So the Jew with the Scriptures and the Gentile with only his conscience end up in the same place. Paul spells it out a chapter later:
"None is righteous, no, not one... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:10, 23)
This is what makes the "unfairness" objection fall apart. The objection assumes that the person who has never heard is innocent, a blank slate. But Scripture says no innocent people are waiting around for information. There are only sinners who have suppressed the truth they already had (Romans 1:18). Douglas Moo, in his major commentary on Romans, makes the point that Paul's argument in chapter 2 is building toward the conclusion that no one, Jew or Gentile, can stand before God based on their own obedience. Chapter 2 doesn't open a back door to salvation by works. It closes every door except one.
A Word to Those Who Worry About "Fair"
For those who are interested in the word "fair," it is usually because there is a person attached to it. Maybe it's a grandparent who died without faith.
If God gave each of us exactly what is "fair," none of us would be in heaven. Fairness is the thing we should be most afraid of. R.C. Sproul used to point out that the great mystery of the Bible is how a holy God can show mercy to anyone at all, when we so often act as if the real mystery is why He doesn't save everyone.
What the gospel offers us goes way beyond fairness. It offers grace. And grace is God giving us what we could never deserve.
"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
Think about how unfair that is. The only innocent person who ever lived took the punishment for the guilty. If you want to talk about unfairness, the cross is the most lopsided transaction in history, and it tilts in our favor.
And here's what Scripture tells us about the heart of the God who judges:
"The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)
"As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live." (Ezekiel 33:11)
God is not up in heaven hoping to find reasons to shut people out. He is a Father running down the road toward prodigals.
Paul told the philosophers in Athens that God arranged the times and places where people live "that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:27). And God promised through Jeremiah, "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13).
Look at how God acts in the book of Acts. An Ethiopian official was riding home in a chariot, reading Isaiah and confused about what it meant. God sent Philip running down a desert road to explain it to him (Acts 8). There was a Roman centurion named Cornelius who prayed and gave to the poor, responding to the light he had. God sent an angel to tell him to go get Peter, and then He sent Peter a vision to make sure Peter would go (Acts 10). Over and over, when people respond to the light they have, God sends more light.
So can we trust God with the man in the jungle? Absolutely. The Judge of all the earth will do right. He will judge that man with perfect knowledge of every opportunity he had and every choice he made. No one will stand before God on that day and be able to say, "You weren't fair to me." Every mouth will be stopped (Romans 3:19), because every heart will know the verdict is true.
C.S. Lewis put it this way in The Great Divorce:
"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'"
The Question Turns Around on Us
So, when people ask, "What about the ones who have never heard?" they usually mean it as a question about God. But in Romans, Paul turns it into a question about us. Just a few chapters later, he writes:
"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'" (Romans 10:14-15)
The rescue plan of God has always included people like you and me. General revelation is enough to show every person that they need God. It isn't enough to tell them how to be saved. That news has to be carried. By missionaries. By church planters. By a coworker in the breakroom. By a mom at the ballfield. By you.
This is why we call our walk through Romans The Mission. God's mission is to rescue people from every tribe and tongue and nation, and He has chosen to carry out that mission through His people. Revelation 7:9 gives us a glimpse of how the story ends, with a crowd no one can count, from every nation, standing before the throne. Somebody told every single one of them.
Charles Spurgeon, preaching to his congregation in London in 1860, said:
"If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees."
That's the right response to Romans 2. The fact that God is perfectly just should never make us cold toward the lost. It should make us urgent. Every person around you already has the law written on their heart. They already feel the weight of their conscience. Many of them are lying awake at night with that restlessness Augustine described. What they don't have yet is the news that Jesus has taken the verdict for them.
Bottom Line.
"What about the person who never heard?" Here are some main takeaways:
- God judges every person according to the light they received, and He never holds anyone accountable for what they didn't have.
- Every person has received real light through creation and conscience, and every person has failed to live up to it.
- God's heart is to save, and He goes to remarkable lengths to reach people who seek Him.
- The best answer to that question is to go and tell somebody.
And then maybe ask them a question back: "You've heard. What are you going to do with it?"
The Judge of all the earth will do right. Of that I have no doubt. The real question left for each of us is what we will do with the light He has given.
