What about those that never hear of Jesus?

I came across an article the other day by John Piper that was dealing with the question of how God deals with those that have not heard of Jesus. Pastor John received a letter from a 12-year-old girl on the subject. He states her question this way:

"You asked what happens to people who live far away from the gospel and have never heard about Jesus and die without faith in him."

The question is one that I have dealt with briefly in a previous post where I quote Greg Koukl in showing how we are all guilty of committing moral wrongs–or sin. The point that Mr. Koukl was making is that God is not sending innocent people to hell. We all do things that are wrong and doing those wrong things is what condemns us to hell. Hell is our punishment for our wrong doing. However God has also provided a means of being saved from the punishment. That salvation comes from God through our faith in Jesus Christ.

So that leaves us with this young girl's question. What about those that never have the chance to hear about Jesus? Do they miss out on this chance for salvation simply because of circumstances beyond their control?

Pastor John answers the question this way:

God always punishes people because of what they know and fail to believe. In other words, no one will be condemned for not believing in Jesus who has never heard of Jesus.

Does that mean that people will be saved and go to heaven if they have never heard of Jesus? No, that is not what God tells us in the Bible.

He then references Romans 1:18-23 and makes the following four points:

1. All people "know God," even if they have never heard the Bible. "What can be known about God is plain to them" (verse 19). "Although they knew God..." (verse 21).
   
2. The way they know God is by the way God has made the world and their own consciences (verses 19–20).
3. Even though they know God, no one who knows God anywhere in the world "honors God as God or gives him thanks" (verse 21). Instead, they "suppress the truth" (verse 18). That is, they resist the truth deep in their hearts and "exchange it" for other things that they would rather have (verse 23).
4. Therefore, they are "without excuse" (verse 20). That is, they are guilty and deserved to be punished.

Pastor John goes on to point out that these facts are why it is so important for us as Christians to pray for and support missionaries. The simple answer to the question is that whenever and wherever people die apart from Christ that there is no hope of salvation. This is a difficult topic for for a 12-year-old. It can be an equally difficult topic for me too.

Is this really fair? How do we reconcile this with the claim that God is also a God of mercy and justice?

Romans 8:29-30 gives us a bit of a glimpse at the answer. In these verses Paul states:

"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."

Even before creating the world God knew all of those that will have faith in Jesus Christ in order to be saved. God also predestined those that will have faith in Jesus Christ. A part of this predestining means that God makes sure that those who will respond positively to the message of Jesus will hear the message of Jesus. This means that there are no people out there that might have been saved if they only had the chance. God will always provide the opportunity for those people to hear that will respond. And one big way that he provides is through the work of those missionaries that are working tirelessly to bring the Word of God to far away places.

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.


 

What if I make a bad decision?

I came across this video last week and it fits well with the topic of God's Plan for my life. It tackles the question regarding our decision-making and how that fits into God's Plan. What happens if I make a bad decision and screw up God's plan for my life?

Previous Posts:

Does God have a specific plan for our lives? Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3

Freedom in Christ

Source: Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology via Tim Challies

 

 

Freedom in Christ

Just as I was planning to write on the notion of being free in Christ I came across an article on the Art of Manliness website explaining two different types of freedom. I wanted to cover the topic of freedom in Christ as a follow-up to the posts that I just wrote concerning God's plan for our lives. That series concluded with me saying:

"[W]hen we are abiding in God and his Words are abiding in us, we can rest assured that we will be making solid decisions that have good eternal consequences."

Which means that we have a freedom to make decisions as long as we are in Christ. So I wanted to explore the what it mean to have freedom in Christ and that is when I read the article "Freedom From...Freedom To." The article does a good job of covering the difference between being free from something which is negative freedom and being free to do something which is positive freedom. The terms negative and positive freedom do not speak to the relative goodness of something as we might assume. Rather the terms speak to how the freedom relates to us.

Negative freedom means that external controls on what we might want to do are absent. So for example if there was a law against owning purple dinosaurs then we would not be free from the law. However if no such law exists then we are free from the restriction of owning purple dinosaurs.

Positive freedom means that we are in control of doing those things that we want to do. So when there is no law restricting the ownership of purple dinosaurs we are free to own a purple dinosaur if we want to. We are not required to own a purple dinosaur but rather have the choice of owning one or not.

The article sums up the differences like this:

"The concept of negative freedom can be summed up as: 'I am a slave to no man.'"

And

"The concept of positive freedom can be summed up as: 'I am my own master.'"

This understanding of freedom is essential to understanding the freedom that we have in Christ.

The concept that needs to be understood from the positive/negative freedom discussion is that freedom must always be viewed in relational terms. This remains true with our freedom in Christ. We do not have some sort of nebulous freedom rather we have been freed from something and to something else. Paul makes it pretty clear in Romans 6 that we have been set free from sin through the work of Christ but that this freedom from sin has a second side. We have been set free from sin and to obedience to God. Every freedom has two sides to it; every freedom has a consequence.

As human beings we have two choices. The first is to reject God and the second is to be obedient to God. The first option is what we call sinfulness. We decide to be free from being obedient to God but there is a second side to choosing this freedom. We must then live with the consequence of living a sinful life which leads to eternal judgment. The second option is to choose to be obedient to God's commands. The second side to this is that we are not free to do what ever we want. Rather we are free to only do those things that fall within the will of God.

This is the controlling factor when it comes to making decisions and trying to follow God's will. We have to deal with both negative freedom aspects as well as positive freedom aspects. We can freely choose to do what ever we want to do but we are not free from the restrictions of God's commands. This is why it is essential for us to be reading the Bible in order to make good decisions.

 

Does God have a specific plan for our lives? Part 3

Over the past two days I have been looking at whether or not God has a specific plan for our lives. I started by examining how Jeremiah 29:11 does not teach that God has specific plans to prosper us and then moved on to how Romans 8:18-30 teaches us that God does have specific plans that have an eternal scope. But that still leaves us with the question of whether or not God has a specific plan for us in regards to our making everyday choices. Does God have a specific plan that we need to figure out when it comes to marrying the right person, going to the right college, choosing the right job or our church choosing the right direction to go? So far my answer to that has been:

"At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I don't think that God really cares what we do in these situations unless there is a Biblical or moral reason involved."

Now that I have laid the foundation that God has specific plans for us that are eternal in scope I need to start to nuance what I mean by my statement.

First and foremost I need to start with what may seem like a contradictory statement. God does care about what we do in every situation. He cares intimately about us and what happens to us. Matthew 10:26-31 tells us that Jesus said this about God's concern for us:

"So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."

God cannot care that much for us without caring about the decisions that we make. Whenever we are faced with decisions we should always look to make the best possible choice. Sometimes we are faced with decisions that contain good, bad and better choices. Sometimes we are faced with decisions that only seem to contain bad ones. So how do we know what to do?

Do we need to listen to God's voice in order to make the right choices?

It is absolutely essential that we listen to God in order to make right choices. But what does that look like? Should we expect God to speak to us through an audible voice like he did with Moses at the Burning Bush or Samuel in the middle of the night? Is he going to speak to us in the still, small voice like he did with Elijah?

It is essential that we do not confuse examples of how God has worked in the Bible with the Bible teaching us how to expect God to usually work. We understand this almost reflexively because most of us would be appalled by a church teaching that we should expect God to speak to us through witches or donkeys. So in order to gain a better understanding we turn to the Bible which, incidentally, is the Word of God. What better place to turn to hear God speak than the place where God's speech has been recorded?

Jesus tells us all that we really need to know about hearing God's voice in John 14 & 15. It would be too long to quote both chapters here so I would encourage you to read them before continuing with what I am going to say next.

Done?

Really?

Ok. Both Thomas and Phillip ask Jesus some very good questions in John 14 that are very similar to what I am looking at here. Thomas asks:

"Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"

To which Jesus replies:

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

Phillip follows up by asking Jesus to reveal the Father. Jesus goes on to state that his words are the words of the Father and that the Holy Spirit will come to remind them of all that Jesus said and taught. We have the words of God in written form and we have the Holy Spirit to remind us of those words. If we want to know the will of the Father we need to be obedient to God's Word. Jesus then says in John 15:

"If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

This isn't a magic formula verse rather it means that if we are consistently within God's will as spelled out in the Bible then our prayer requests will be answered. The hard part is consistently abiding in God and allowing God's words to abide in us. So when we are listening to God's words as found in the Bible we will make right decisions. We don't need God to speak to us through burning bushes, donkeys, or even in a whisper when we have God speaking to us through his written Word.

This doesn't mean that God does not speak to people in these ways today but it does mean that we shouldn't expect God to speak to us in these ways. We don't need to sit down and try and figure out God's specific (and hidden) plan for our lives. He has already spelled his plan out for us. He wants us to acknowledge the salvation provided by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, trust in him and to be obedient to his Word. This doesn't mean that we won't face very difficult decisions that we might need to wrestle with for a long time. But when we are abiding in God and his Words are abiding in us, we can rest assured that we will be making solid decisions that have good eternal consequences.

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

Does God have a specific plan for our lives? Part 2

Yesterday I started to give a further explanation of a comment that I made in my sermon on Sunday. The crux of the matter lies with a statement that I made in regards to our making decisions and trying to discern the right path for our lives. Does God care about which person we marry, which college we attend, what job we take and so on? On Sunday I essentially said:

"At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I don't think that God really cares what we do in these situations unless there is a Biblical or moral reason involved."

Yesterday I looked at what I think is a poor understanding of Jeremiah 29:11. It is my contention that to use this verse to justify that God has good plans for us today is a false way to understand the verse. However that does not really get at the question of whether or not God has plans for us. It is my understanding that he does have a plan for us and for the whole world. But to say that is different than saying that God has a specific plan for our lives and that we need to listen to him in order to figure the plan out.

Let me start off today's discussion with explaining what I mean when I say that God has a plan for us.

The first thing that needs to be said is that God is sovereign–or in other words–God is ultimately in control of everything. There is nothing that happens in this world that is outside of his permissive will. He has either caused everything to happen or he has allowed it to happen. Paul tackles this notion of God's sovereignty in the book of Romans. Paul states in Romans 8:28-30:

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."

Paul is saying that God has chosen those that would become followers of Christ and that all things would work towards his future purposes. There is no way that this could happen without God having a plan–and a specific one at that–for us and the world. Paul is also saying that God's plan is that we will be glorified. But these verses come in a section where Paul starts off by clarifying when we will see the end result of this plan:

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

Notice that the "all things work together for good" are working together for a good that will come in a time that Paul considers to follow "this present time." Paul is referring to the glory that we will see in heaven. So God does have a specific plan for us that will come to completion in the future. God also uses all of the things that happen to further that future plan.

There is also no way that those specific plans or the future cannot happen without specific plans in this present time. God does have specific plans for us today. Plans that are working towards our future good. Paul goes on to tell us that these plans bring us hope:

"For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

These are the specific plans that God has for us. These are the plans that bring us to a saving knowledge of Christ. He has these plans so that we can have the hope that they bring. These plans don't require us to do any special work to try and figure them out. We just need to trust that God is working them out. I find a great freedom in the fact that I don't have to rely on my own smarts or abilities to work these plans out.

So God does have specific plans for us but what does that say about our making choices in regards to our lives? Does this mean that we need to listen to his voice in order to make the right choices? Yes we do need to listen to God in order to make right choices and I will tackle that topic tomorrow.

 

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

Does God have a specific plan for our lives? Part 1

I wanted to take a few moments and give a fuller explanation of something that I mentioned in passing on Sunday. Here is what I wrote in my manuscript but it will be slightly different on the video because I don't preach directly from the manuscript:

"We are faced with decisions that we frame in terms of right and wrong. Is she the right girl to marry? Which college is the right college to attend? Should I take this job or should I quit my job? Should the church do this or do that? Should I have Wheaties or a donut for breakfast? (You laugh at that last one and I put it in there as a somewhat extreme example. But let's be honest, we do ask God these types of questions.) At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I don't think that God really cares what we do in these situations unless there is a Biblical or moral reason involved. That is not to say that some of these decisions may or may not contain good and poor choices. When you are trying to lose weight consistently choosing to eat donuts for breakfast might not be your best option."

What I was getting at is that we may have this expectation that God has a specific plan for our lives that is planned out to the very last detail. It is what we could call the Jeremiah 29:11 doctrine:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (NIV)

From that I have heard a number of people go in this direction: "This passage is telling us that God has a good plan for your life. This means that you need to pray and ask for guidance so you can determine what that plan is." The idea is that God has a specific plan for your life and we just need to figure it all out. Then we start to pray and ask God to lead us to the right girl to marry. We ask God to tell us which is the right college to go to. Then we ask God to show us the perfect job for us. And so on and so on and taken to the extreme we are asking God if we should have Wheaties or a donut for breakfast. This Jeremiah 29:11 plan might sound familiar if you have worked through Henry Blackaby's Experiencing God book.

But is this the way that God actually works?

There are a number of things that I would like to cover in answering this question and it will need to happen over a number of postings. This means that my view of this topic will not be completely revealed until the end. The first thing that needs to be examined is whether or not Jeremiah 29:11 actually teaches us that God has a plan for us. No, it does not. "But it says so right there. Didn't you just read the verse you posted in your own blog?" you protest. Yes I did just read the verse but I read much more than just the verse. I read the whole passage. In fact I have read the chapter and the whole book of Jeremiah. The book of Jeremiah was not written to us. God was not speaking through Jeremiah to us. This does not mean that we cannot learn certain truths about God from this book but it does mean that we need to be very careful about how we are applying this book to our lives. This verse is part of a letter that God had Jeremiah send to the captives in Babylon. The whole letter runs from Jeremiah 29:10-23. So why is it that we pick just verse 11 and apply that to our lives? Why not verse 10:

"For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place."

If we did then we must also say that God is planning on having us sent to Babylon for seventy years before bringing us back to this place. But which place is this place? We start to get that from verse 14:

"...I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile."

So if we are going to claim this passage as speaking directly to us we must also say that God will send us into exile in Babylon for seventy years and then bring us back to the place from which he sent us. And as we read further into the letter we see that God will send the "sword, famine and pestilence" on the king who sits on David's throne and all our fellow kinsmen that did not go with us into exile (vv. 16-17).

Then we get to verse 20 which says:

"Hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon..."

Obviously this passage is not speaking directly to us. It is speaking to a particular group of Israelites at a particular point in time. There are promises and curses in the book of Jeremiah that are not made directly to us and to claim them as ours is not the right way to interpret the Bible.

This doesn't mean that we cannot learn something from this. We can learn that while it might seem like it at times, God does not forget his people. We can learn that God will fulfill all of his promises but in his own time. We can also learn that God does have an ultimate plan and that plan is meant for the good of his people. But this particular verse does not teach us that God has a particular plan to prosper us in this lifetime. This verse does not teach us that God has a plan that we need to figure out.

But just because this verse does not teach us that God has a plan for us does that mean that God doesn't have a plan for us? I will cover that in the next installment.

 

Scripture quotations (unless otherwise noted) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.