What About the Innocent Person That Never Heard About Jesus?
By
John Orlando
Once Christian’s begin to assert the truth that salvation is found only in the person and work of Jesus Christ, they will almost be immediately confronted with the question about those that have never even heard the name Jesus. Are those people doomed just for merely not hearing about Jesus? This was the precise objection Oprah raised with a Christian woman in her audience who claimed that Jesus was the only way to the Father: http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/oprah-fool.htm
To answer this question, it must be realized that not getting to heaven is something distinct from getting to heaven. Let me elaborate:
a. The ultimate reason a person does not go to Heaven is because they are a sinner, not because they never heard of Jesus. The apostle Paul tells us in Rom 1:20:
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse…”
Here we see that God has revealed Himself in creation, and Scripture also teaches that God has placed with our conscience a sense that God must exist and a sense of absolute moral values (Eccl. 3:11; Rom 2:15), and it is because of this revelation that Paul says that human beings are without excuse. The problem, according to Scripture, is that we suppress that truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18), and we go about doing things our own way and developing our own roads to get to God, but all of those ways and roads are not right.
Not only this, but we discover that our plight is dire indeed when we consider both the nature of original sin, and our actual sin. With reference to original sin, the Westminster Confession of Faith, Article 6:1-4 states:
By
this sin they [Adam and Eve] fell from their original righteousness and
communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the
parts and faculties of soul and body. They being the root of all mankind, the
guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature,
conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.
From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and
made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all
actual transgressions."
Wikipedia also states:
“…that
humans inherit Adamic guilt and are in a state of sin from the moment of
conception. This inherently sinful nature results
in a complete alienation from God and the total inability of humans to achieve
reconciliation with God based on their own abilities.”
Adam was our representative in the Garden of Eden, and when he sinned, the guilt of his sin was imputed or credited to all of his descendant’s accounts as well. Not only is the guilt credited to us, but so is the corruption of our whole nature, so that all human beings are conceived in sin, and come into the world separated and alienated from God (Psalm 51:5; Col 1:21; Rom 8:7). This is what is known as original sin.
It doesn’t stop there though. Not only are we guilty in Adam, but we are also condemned for our own actual transgressions as well. We are all sinners that fall short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23), and because of our own willful rebellion and sin, we are storing up for ourselves wrath for the day of judgment (Rom 2:5).
Given
all of these facts, it becomes quite clear that from God’s perspective, there
is no such thing as an “innocent” person; all human beings that ever have or
will live justly deserve one thing: condemnation
(Rom 5:16). We
are condemned both because of the imputed guilt incurred as a result of original
sin, and because of our actual sins; not solely because we never
heard of Jesus. However, with that
stated, we also must recognize that:
b. The only reason a person ever gets to Heaven is because of the work of Jesus Christ on their behalf. The only road that gets to Heaven is Jesus Christ alone. As Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6).
Jesus does all of the work to get us up the mountain. Please note, that the work to get us up the mountain is something objectively done apart from the individual. That is, the person has not done anything to get himself to heaven, because he is in fact a sinner and totally unable to remedy his condition. He needs to be rescued from his desperate condition, and this is what God does by sending His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, took upon Himself a human nature, and being fully God and fully man, He then perfectly obeyed God’s law (He succeeded where mankind has failed since the fall of Adam and Eve), and He then died the shameful death of crucifixion on the cross to pay the penalty for sin and rose from the dead to secure and guarantee the salvation of a multitude of people from all over the world.
That is the objective part; Christ has done all of the work to get us to Heaven. But, there is a subjective part to the equation as well. People, if they are to get heaven, must appropriate to themselves and receive that objective work. The way people do this is by repenting (i.e., turning from their way of doing things to God’s way of doing things), and receiving and resting upon the work of Jesus Christ alone as the only hope of their getting to Heaven.
Sounds easy enough, right? But here’s the catch: Man is incapable in and of himself of even doing that much because of the sin that has blinded him. Thus, it’s not that God has done His part, and then leaves it up to man to do his part by obeying the command to repent and receive Christ as Lord and Savior. Rather, part of the objective work of Christ is that He ensured and guaranteed the subjective work of the individual. As Pastor and theologian John Piper says, “What God requires, Christ provides.” God requires perfect obedience to law. Christ has provided that. God requires condemnation to those that break His law. Christ has borne the condemnation that was due to sinners. God requires that people repent and believe. Christ has provided for that as well, by securing all things needed for our salvation; to include the gifts of faith and repentance. The fact that Christ did all of this, to include purchasing the very faith that believer’s possess, sometimes surprises people…is the atonement of Christ that powerful that it would secure every aspect of our salvation so that Christ alone is the only cause of a person’s salvation? Yes! John Hendryx states:
What
does Christ do for us on the cross? Does He only take us halfway to salvation
and leave our fallen will to do the rest? No, on the cross He purchased our
redemption (from first to last) which will be applied to His people by the Holy
Spirit in a time of His sovereign determination. This redemption includes
everything necessary for us to be saved. God has personally set His affection on
us from eternity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit work in harmony together to bring
about the plan worked out in the eternal counsels of the Trinity (Eph 1:5).
http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/redemption100603.html
Hendryx goes on to quote the 19th century theologian R.L. Dabney:
Christ's sacrifice has purchased and provided for the effectual calling of the elect, with all the graces which insure their faith, repentance, justification, perseverance, and glorification…
So we see that salvation is all the work of the One true and living God, and what He requires of us He has graciously secured and bestowed upon us by the work of His Son and the Holy Spirit. As Hendryx noted above: “Father, Son and Holy Spirit work in harmony together to bring about the plan worked out in the eternal counsels of the Trinity.” With reference to the Holy Spirit, the perfect work of Christ is perfectly applied to those that will inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14) by the Holy Spirit through the primary means of God’s Word being preached. Christ’s work over 2,000 years ago is applied by the Holy Spirit to all people of all generations that have been given to Christ by the Father from the foundation of the world (John 6:37; Eph 1:3-11).
In conclusion, the reason a person does not go to heaven is because we he or she is a sinner. We justly deserve to be condemned for our sins (not because we never heard of Jesus). Yet, the only way a sinner can ever have any hope of getting to heaven is by reason of the work of Jesus Christ alone on their behalf, and that work must be applied to, and appropriated by sinners in order for him or her to get to Heaven (note: if the work is applied to the sinner, the sinner will necessarily appropriate the work, for it is the application that results in the appropriation). This is why Christians are tasked with preaching the Gospel to every creature. As the Apostle Paul tells us:
Rom 10:14-15
How
then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a
preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who
bring glad tidings of good things!"