The Romance of Romans-Part 7

Romans 2 cont'd

People who live in sin without being exposed to God's written law given through Moses, will be condemned without reference to it. However, those who live in sin having been exposed to the Mosaic law will be condemned on the basis of it. Possessing intellectual knowledge about the scriptures will never save anyone. Salvation is only found by personally embracing and submitting to whatever spiritual knowledge God has revealed to us. When Gentiles, who have never heard of the Mosaic law, live by the light of conscience within them, it proves that God has written his moral law on the hearts of all people. They instinctively know when they do right or wrong. God has specifically revealed to me that he has appointed a day when he will judge the secrets of men's hearts through the "grid" of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done. (Imagine some of the surprises we will have.) I assure you that after that day; no one will ever again point their finger at God and accuse him of being unjust!

Comments:
This little section of Romans 2 touches on the common stumbling block in people's minds regarding the spiritual fate of people who have never been exposed to the scriptures or the gospel. Naturally, we deeply question how God can judge someone in such circumstances. Sometimes people who hear the gospel of Jesus Christ pull back from putting their trust in him to become their Lord and Savior. I faced this question head on when I first became a follower of Jesus at age 18 and I have helped others face it along the way as a teacher and pastor. Here are the simple points that I landed on in those early days of my faith that have helped me, and then many others, come to peace on this issue.

1. God is God (not me!) and God is absolutely just and good. Our hearts can be totally trust in these realities and also that when all the facts of human existence are on the table in eternity's light, no one will be able to find one fault with God's ways or evaluations. I won't and neither will you. The anticipation of one day having this fuller light gives me peace to leave eternal judgment in the hands of the only One capable of such a thing.

2. We need to be first of all concerned with, when we are personally exposed to the Person and Work of Jesus, "who do we say that he is?", not "what about all those 'poor souls' who have never heard of Jesus?" I am the first "poor soul" that I can do something about! Coming to terms in my own heart with the compelling evidences that point to Jesus being who he said he was and is also gives me peace. I mustn't allow such a giant question about the possible fate of "people who have never heard" keep me from receiving the freedom from my guilt and shame (that I need so desperately) that is freely offered to me in Christ...and it hasn't.

3. We must make room in our theology for the largeness of God's grace and the mysterious and surprising works of the Holy Spirit in drawing people to faith in Jesus Christ. God's grace doesn't begin to work upon a person when they first hear about the good news of Jesus. It has already begun to work...witnessed by the simple fact that they have been allowed to hear it. Every believer that I have ever encountered can point back to how she/he now can see how the Holy Spirit was at work in their lives before they came to Christ. There are marvelous accounts of how the gospel of Jesus has come to people and whole people groups who didn't seem to have the opportunity to hear about him.
There is a prime example of this in the tenth chapter of the book of Acts where a Roman centurion named Cornelius (a classic pre-Christian) was powerfully encountering the grace of God before he was converted to Jesus. Even his prayers and acts of compassion were being "accepted" and "remembered" by the one true and living God! An amazing story unfolds of how Cornelius and his whole extended family came to faith in Jesus. It was "so outside the box" that it even shocked the apostles of Christ and messed with their theology. Let's be very careful about dictating exactly how God might lead a person to Jesus--some of his ways may surprise and stun us too.