Predestination 6: What about people who never hear about Jesus?

15 Oct

Romans 1:18–25; 2:12–16; 10:13–17

You’re reading the sixth instalment in a series on predestination. These began as notes for our youth leaders, but gradually evolved into something the internet might accept. Start here for the series introduction.

What if you’d been born somewhere you never heard about Jesus? A remote part of the Amazon, a village in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, or a small Pacific island. Imagine growing up without anyone ever explaining the gospel to you.

How could you trust someone you’d never heard of? And would it be fair for God to judge you? It can sound as though someone’s eternal future comes down to where they happened to be born.

Of course, being born in one of those places doesn’t mean you’ll never hear about Jesus. The question is what happens to someone who doesn’t.

To work through that, we need to ask what people do know about God, what he holds them accountable for, and why they need Jesus. Romans 1:18–25, 2:12–16 and 10:13–17 help us see that God judges everyone fairly, but everyone needs Jesus to be saved.

Some context

In these passages, we follow two parts of Paul’s argument in Romans. Chapters 1–3 explain what God has made known about himself, how humanity has responded and why everyone needs saving. Chapter 10 explains how people hear, believe and call on Jesus. Together, these readings help us think about God’s justice and why sharing the gospel matters.

1. God has made himself known (Romans 1:19–20)

What about someone who has never read the Bible or even heard the name of Jesus? Paul says they aren't completely without knowledge of God. We call this general revelation: God makes something of himself known through the world he's made and through our awareness of right and wrong. Romans 1:19–20 says God's eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen in what he has made. Creation shows us that there is a powerful Creator who deserves our honour and thanks. But general revelation doesn't reveal the gospel. You can't look at the stars and work out that Jesus died and rose again. Christians call that special revelation: God making himself known by speaking to us, particularly through the Bible, and revealing the good news of Jesus. General revelation gives us real knowledge of God, but not the message of how Jesus saves sinners.

2. Everyone is accountable to God (Romans 1:21–25; 2:12–16)

But knowing that God exists isn't the same as honouring him. Lots of people believe in a creator or some kind of higher power. Paul is getting at more than whether people believe God exists. We don't respond rightly to the true God. Instead of honouring and thanking him, we exchange the truth about God for a lie and worship created things rather than the Creator (vv. 21–25). And that's true of humanity generally, including us. We ought to honour God, thank him and worship him as our Creator. We've failed to do that.

But is it fair to judge people who haven't received God's special revelation? Romans 2:12–16 is about those without the law given through Moses. Even without that written law, they still have a conscience—an internal awareness of right and wrong. That moral awareness is part of general revelation too. Their thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes defend them. And here's the thing: we don't even live up to our own standards, let alone God's. We do things we know are wrong. So even people who've never heard the gospel are accountable to God. Not having the Bible doesn't make someone innocent. God knows what each person has done, even the things nobody else sees, and he judges justly. As Paul goes on to say in Romans 3, we have all sinned.

3. Everyone needs Jesus to be saved (Romans 10:13–17)

Everyone knows something of God, and we're all accountable to him. But knowing God exists doesn't save us. We need someone to rescue us from our sin. That's where Jesus comes in. Jesus died for sinners and rose again, so that everyone who trusts him can be forgiven and have life with God. Romans 10:13 says:

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Romans 10:13

Paul then asks a chain of questions: how can people call on someone they haven't believed in? How can they believe if they haven't heard? And how will they hear unless someone tells them (vv. 14–15)? Faith comes from hearing the message about Christ (v. 17).

General revelation shows us there is a Creator, but it doesn't tell us how to be saved. We need the good news of Jesus. That’s why we pray for people to hear the gospel and help take it to them.

Pushback questions

Isn't it unfair to judge people who've never even heard of Jesus?

Being 'without excuse' doesn't mean people already know the gospel. It means they have failed to honour the God who has revealed himself to them. Someone who has never heard about Jesus hasn't knowingly rejected the message of his death and resurrection. But they are still accountable for their response to what God has shown them. Romans 2 says God judges according to truth; he knows what each person has known and done. And Romans 3 says none of us is innocent. We can't explain exactly how God will deal with every individual case. He won't get it wrong. Nobody will be condemned because God made a mistake or treated them unfairly.

But what if someone who hasn't heard about Jesus tries to be a good person and follows their conscience?

We might imagine someone who always does the right thing with whatever knowledge they've been given. But that's not Paul's picture of humanity. Our consciences sometimes tell us we're doing wrong, and we still do it. Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned. Being more decent than someone else isn't the same as being without sin before God. And a conscience can't forgive us or take away guilt. Better information and harder effort can't take away our guilt. We need Jesus. Salvation is God's gift, not a prize for being good enough.

What about babies or people with profound intellectual disabilities who cannot understand the gospel?

So far, we’ve been discussing people who can recognise and respond to what God has revealed. Babies and people who cannot understand the gospel raise a different question. Three things help here. First, salvation is God's work, not an intellectual achievement. Someone doesn't earn salvation by being clever enough to understand or explain the gospel. Calvin put it this way: “the work of God, though beyond the reach of our capacity, is not therefore null” (Institutes 4.16.17). He believed God can save infants by his Spirit, even when they cannot consciously express faith. That gives us reason to hope for people with profound intellectual disabilities too.

Second, being unable to understand the gospel is different from hearing it and rejecting it. These aren't the same situation. Romans 1–2 doesn't directly settle how God deals with every person who lacks the capacity to understand.

Third, we shouldn't claim to know the eternal destiny of every infant or person with a profound disability. Scripture doesn't give us that information. But God knows each person fully, is perfectly just and merciful, and saves only through Jesus. We can entrust them to him (Genesis 18:25).

So is it possible for someone who's never heard about Jesus to be saved?

The pattern Scripture gives us begins with God’s grace. Before time began, he chose people to save through Jesus. In time, he brings them to faith through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:9; Romans 10:13–17): they hear the good news, believe in Jesus and call on him to be saved. Their response doesn’t earn his grace; it flows from his gracious work. That’s why telling people about Jesus matters so much.

But we should be careful about turning that pattern into a claim that God cannot save someone who is unable to understand the message. As we’ve seen, infants who die and people with profound intellectual disabilities raise questions that these passages don’t directly answer. Salvation is God’s work, not a test of intellectual ability.

That doesn’t mean ignorance saves anyone, or that another religion provides another way to God. Anyone who is saved is saved through Jesus and his death and resurrection. We aren’t given enough information to explain what happens in every individual case, but we can entrust people to the God who knows them completely and always does what is right.

Our responsibility is clear: tell people the good news so that they can hear, believe and call on Jesus.

So what?

Trust God’s justice — and tell people about Jesus.

We don't know the story of every person who's never heard about Jesus. But we do know what God has told us to do. Romans 10 asks how people can believe unless they hear, and how they can hear unless someone tells them. If we really care about people who've never heard, we'll pray for them, support people who take the gospel to them, and speak about Jesus ourselves. And when we're troubled by the hard questions, we can trust that God will judge every person fairly. He cares about justice far more than we do.

Study 6. What about people who never hear about Jesus?

Pray and get going

Q1. How did you first hear about Jesus? Who helped you understand more about him?

Read Romans 1:18–25

Q2. According to verses 19–20, what has God made known about himself? How has he made it known?

Q3. How do people respond to what God has shown them (vv. 21–25)? Why does Paul describe them as “without excuse”?

Read Romans 2:12–16

Q4. What do people without God’s written law still have (vv. 14–15)? What do these verses show about their awareness of right and wrong, and God’s judgment?

Read Romans 10:13–17

Q5. Work backwards through Paul’s questions in verses 14–15. What needs to happen for someone to call on Jesus? Where does faith come from (v. 17)?

Q6. Compare Romans 1:19–20 with Romans 10:14–17. What can people learn about God from creation, and what do they need someone to tell them about Jesus?

Q7. Someone asks, “How can God judge people who’ve never heard about Jesus?” What can we say from these passages? What questions do they leave unanswered?

Q8. Think of someone who knows very little about Jesus. What’s one thing you could do this week to help them hear the gospel? What might stop you, and who could help you take that step?

Pray and give thanks

Father, thank you that you have made yourself known and that you judge fairly. Forgive us for turning away from you. Thank you for the people who told us about Jesus. Please send people to share the gospel where it hasn’t been heard, and help us tell the people we know. Amen.