What about the person who never hears?

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. What happens if someone never hears the gospel? Are they then responsible to believe in Jesus? And if they die, do they go automatically to heaven because they didn't have an opportunity to believe?

Or are they simply consigned to hell, even though they were never given that opportunity to believe in Jesus? This is actually a pretty important question and one that many people ask. It's the question of the innocent native.

What about the innocent native who lives in a place that never hears the gospel? What about him? Is he responsible in the same way that a person who's heard the gospel all their lives for believing in Jesus and thereby will he go to hell or will he have some other avenue for heaven?

And this is a question that has been asked many times. I've heard this question asked in conferences that I've been to and I've had this question asked of me by several people over the years in my ministry.

Romans 1 and the Universal Knowledge of God

Well today we're going to be looking at Romans chapter 2 and I think Romans chapter 2 actually speaks to this particular question. In Romans chapter 1, the Apostle Paul explains that men are sinful because God has demonstrated his nature, his divine characteristics through creation.

That men can look at creation and know that God exists. And anyone who says God does not exist is actually suppressing a divine truth that is within them. And so no man will have an excuse on judgment day.

That's what Romans 1 says. It says every man will be unapologetus or without an apology or without a defense. When he faces God, no man will be able to say, God you just didn't give me enough information.

You just didn't give me enough light to believe in you. So that leads us into Romans chapter 2. In Romans chapter 2, the Apostle Paul continues the argument about the universal nature of sin because that was what he began in Romans 1 verse 18.

He says that the righteousness of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. And then throughout the rest of Romans 1, he explains how unrighteous people suppress the truth.

And many scholars have recognized that in Romans 1, Paul seems to be dealing primarily with the Gentiles, those who are not people who have been given the law. But in chapter 2, he focuses his attention on the Jews, the people who had been given the divine law of God.

Why No One Is Justified by the Law

And basically his point is to show that whether they have the law in the written code or whether they didn't have the law in written code, every man is sinful. And that's what we find out when we get to chapter 3, and we'll look at that tomorrow, that in chapter 3, Paul says that Jews and Gentiles both are all under sin and that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But in chapter 2, he's focusing primarily on the desperation of those who have the law and believe that because they have the law, they are somehow justified by the law. He tells us in chapter 2, no one is justified by the law.

And we see this beginning at verse 12. He says, for all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

And the point of those passages is basically this. When it comes to the law, it's an all or nothing situation. You've either kept the law or you haven't. And none of us have. Even the people who have the law, even the Jewish people have not truly kept the law perfectly.

That's why we desperately need a savior. And that's why we're all accounted as sinners, because everyone has broken the law. But somebody might say, well, what about the person who's never heard the law?

How can he be a lawbreaker? Well, that's what is explained in verse 14. And this is the point that I wanted to make today. In verse 14, he says, for when Gentiles who do not have the law, that is the written law of God, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.

Verse 15, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. Verse 16, on that day, when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

The Law Written on the Heart and the Witness of Conscience

So what is Paul saying here? He's saying that when we look at all men of all cultures and all nations, whether they've heard about God's written law or not, whether they've ever read the written law or not, we can see that the law of God is written on their hearts by the very virtue of the fact that they live lawfully.

Men live lawfully with other men. In every culture around the world, there are certain transcendent laws that seem to be enacted in every society. Things like stealing and lying and murder are all wrong, no matter what culture you go to.

And so these things are a part of the general revelation of God that he has put into the hearts of every man. Every man has enough law in their heart to know that they are a lawbreaker. And even if a person has never heard of the written law of God, even if a person has never heard of the Ten Commandments, even if a person's never heard of the great commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, even if they've never heard those things, they are still accountable to the light that they have in their conscience.

And every person, every man and woman knows that they have violated the law that God has placed in their heart. The way that he has demonstrated himself is that he has shown himself in nature, and he has also shown himself in our consciences.

The Myth of the Innocent Native

So when somebody asks me about the innocent native, and they say, well, what about the innocent native? I like to repeat Dr. R .C. Sproul, because someone asked him, what about the innocent native in a faraway land who doesn't hear the gospel?

What will happen? And Dr. Sproul says, well, an innocent native would go to heaven. The problem is there is no innocent native, because there's no one who is truly innocent in the eyes of God. Every person has enough knowledge in their heart to know that they are sinners, desperate sinners, and that they need something that they don't have.

They need a savior. So the question is not what is going to happen to the innocent native. The question is, shouldn't we be seeking these people out to bring them the gospel? We should be sending missionaries to these places.

And we do. We support missionaries, because we want to take them the only thing that will save them. I recently had a conversation where a guy said, well, if a person never hears the gospel, then he gets to go to heaven because he's ignorant.

And I said, well, if that's true, then we need to bring all the missionaries home. Because if a person goes to heaven simply by ignorance, then the worst thing that we could do is tell them the truth.

The worst thing that we could do would be to share Jesus with them, because then they become responsible. The problem is they're responsible whether they hear it or not. They're responsible for the sin that is in their hearts.

Why Missions and Gospel Preaching Still Matter

And so what we're doing by sending missionaries, what we're doing by preaching the gospel is giving them the only way that they can have any hope. If a person never hears the gospel, they have no hope.

So we want to send missionaries. We want to send men and women to these far away lands to reach these people who've never heard that they might hear the gospel, that they might be saved, and that they might come to a knowledge of the truth.

And we've seen it happen. And by God's grace, it will continue to happen until the Lord comes again. I hope this was a helpful lesson for you today. I hope it was an encouragement to you. And if these videos continue to be an encouragement to you, please take a moment and subscribe to our channel, like this video, give it a thumbs up.

And if you're watching us on Facebook, please share it so that other people can watch it and we can reach a wider audience. Again, I thank you for being with me today. I'm Keith Foskey, and I've been your Calvinist.

May God bless you.