Part 6: The Exclusivity of Christ - Those Who Never Heard

(Renjith Krishnan - FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

One of the primary concerns for people when it comes to the exclusivity of Christ is about those who never heard the Gospel message.  Of course, this issue brings to mind many sub-topics that need to be addressed: the justice of God, the love of God, and the list goes on.  However, the Scriptures do speak to this issue.  In Romans Chapter 1, Paul writes that there are characteristics of God that are knowable because of the created world.  The two that Paul lists are God's eternal power and His divine nature (v. 20).  We go on to read in Chapter 2 of Romans how Paul might respond to the question of those who never knew about Christ.   In verses 12-16, Paul essentially states the following - keeping the law is what matters, not just reading about it.  And thus there are people who have never read or heard what God's standards are and yet they sense/know that there is a standard and that apart from God's mercy and grace they cannot keep that standard.  Thus, Paul seems to be writing that there are people who have never "heard the message of Christ" but by seeing the created world and understanding (through conscience) who they are (fallen/broken people), they grasp that they are to live rightly and ask for forgiveness and help from God when they fail to do so. 

That being said, Paul ends this passage by saying that one day, Christ will judge all people's secrets (the intents and beliefs of their soul), and thus, we leave it up to Him to know the true state of a person's soul before his or her Creator.  That being said, the argument can be made that it is possible to live in such an isolated world that one cannot or did not likely hear the Gospel message and yet he or she could still be in a relationship with God. 

Let me close this post by sharing a short story shared with me by a friend in graduate school.  She told me of a missionary who for years had desired to go to a certain people group hidden in an isolated jungle.  After quite some time, this missionary finally arrived to meet this group and the leader of this people group approached him and eventually communicated, "You are the man who The God told me would come.  He told me you would come with a book from Him."  Oftentimes our westernized version of faith eliminates the possibility for the miraculous and in doing so, we fail to remember that no one in unreachable by God - He has all means at His disposal and sometimes He chooses to use humans while other times He makes a more spectacular visit.

-tC