In part one and two of the blogs answering, “What Happens to the People Who’ve Never Heard the Gospel” we explored scripture to find three main points: God is perfect, all humans have rejected God, and God made one way to restore relationship with him.

These three things can be tough to reconcile, because sometimes it doesn’t make sense how God could make the choices he does and still be loving. And sometimes when it doesn’t make sense, people try to add to God’s story. They say there are ways to get to God after death. However, Jesus tells a story in Luke 16 with a clear message: Trying to restore relationship with God after death is like trying to jump over a mile-wide chasm—its impossible.

This does not mean that God is pleased when people die without putting their faith in Him. In fact, God has preserved our world this long because He wants more people to know Him!

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

 

1 Timothy 2:3-4 “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

God wants everyone to repent and be saved! And He’s not just sitting on the sidelines hoping for it. God is in action today drawing us to Himself. One way we see this is among the Muslim community. Many Muslims are having dreams about a man in white (Jesus) and converting to Christianity as a result. In the dreams, Jesus has spoken scripture, instructed them to find someone or do something, or given them an understanding of the gospel.

In one encounter, a man had a dream where Jesus spoke scripture and told the man to follow Him. When the man shared his dream with a pastor, the pastor brought a Bible and read the verse Jesus spoke to him. This man had never seen a Bible, he didn’t even know what a Bible was. However, that didn’t stop God from revealing Himself in His perfect way! After learning the truth about Jesus, the man left and came back an hour later with ten more people who wanted Bibles for themselves, because he shared the gospel with them!

The evangelistic desire of this man points to a central way God is at work in drawing people to Himself—by using His disciples. God’s primary method of reaching the unreached is not dreams, it’s us! Just before Jesus ascended into heaven in Matthew 28, He left His disciples with a HUGE responsibility:

Matthew 28:18-20 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

This command wasn’t just for the disciples who knew Jesus. In Matthew 5, Jesus calls all Christians “the salt of the earth… the light of the world… [and] a town built on a hill” (Matthew 5:13,14). And He commands us all: “let your light shine before others” (5:16). God has given His followers a great commission to evangelize the lost!

Now ask yourself: who is really lacking love? Is God, who is telling us to go, convicting us to share His gospel, and sending dreams to the lost, the one who lacks love? Or is it us, the ones fearfully hiding our light, avoiding our command to share the good news, and choosing comfort over conviction?

God the Son gave up His seat of glory and comfort in heaven, to suffer as a slave, and die a humiliating and gruesome death. He did this with joy for our sake! Because of Jesus, we have the eternal cure for the deadliest disease. The wages of sin is death, and a person without the gospel will die in their sins. What better way to serve God, than to help in bringing more souls into a restored relationship with Him? Just as God desired to have a relationship with you, He desires that for all those who don’t yet love Him. Although sharing the gospel is scary and it is hard, it is such a wonderful way to show love to the God who loved us first, and to bring glory to His name!

 

 

Written by Abbey Harley