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Those who have never heard
Some Christians suffer untold grief over the fate of
their loved ones who died before making a profession of faith in Jesus
Christ. Even brave heroes, such as the firefighters and police officers who
died trying to rescue others in the collapse of the World Trade Center on
September 11, 2001, are thought by some to have gone straight to hell unless
they happened to be believing Christians at the moment they died.
It is as though we think God is helpless to reach
people at any other time or in any other way than that of which we’re aware.
There is much we don’t know about how and when God
moves in the hearts of people to bring them to faith. But there is also much
we do know, and what we do know gives us plenty of
reason not to fear for our loved ones who might not have professed faith
before they died.
First and foremost, we know the heart of God toward
them. “He is patient with you,” Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:9,
“not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
God is not limited by human death. Jesus conquered
death. And Jesus paid for all human sin long before any of us were born. In
1 John 2:2, John wrote, speaking of Jesus, “He is the atoning sacrifice
for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole
world.”
We might not know how or when God moves in
everyone’s hearts, but we do know that Jesus said in John 12:32, “But I,
when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."
And we know that in John 3:17, Jesus said,
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to
save the world through him.”
God is in the business of saving sinners, not
condemning them, so much so that the Son, who is the perfect revelation of
the Father, became one of us and took all human sin on himself in order to
save us.
We can trust such a God to love our loved ones
infinitely more than we can, and to reach them for repentance and salvation
in ways we are not aware and may not be able to imagine.
God is love, the Bible tells us, and as Paul said in 1
Corinthians 13, the love chapter, “love works no ill.”
Paul tells us in Colossians 1:19-20, “For God was
pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile
to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
Hell is not for sinners, or we’d all be there. Hell is
the preferred choice of incorrigible sinners, those who willfully,
deliberately and permanently refuse the unrelenting love of God that
forgives and reconciles sinners.
Never forget that God is on our side. He is for us,
not against us, and he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Trust
your loved ones to him. They’re in good hands.
I’m Joseph Tkach, speaking of LIFE.
Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do you say that I
am?" We have a free booklet, The God Revealed in Jesus Christ,
to help you answer that question. In the United States, to request your free
copy, see http://www.gci.org/god/revealed Or call us
toll-free at 1-800-423-4444.
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