Good Morning!

Let’s return to that question regarding people who have never heard of Jesus. To recap, we went through an exercise to determine which worldview would be best, if any, and whether Christianity would make the cut. It turns out that it does, and, in fact, is the only logical explanation of the beginning of creation and the best representation of the human condition. We also examined that the basic problem with all of mankind is that we know the truth that God exists and created everything, yet we turn our back to Him and refuse to thank and honor him. Instead, we turn to every thing else under the sun to worship, including the sun itself.

Romans 3 drives home the point that it isn’t some people who do this, it is all people down to the very last person. There is a reason for this.

Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

Romans 11:32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

We’ll get back to the last part of 11:32. For now, let us really let the point that everyone, EVERY SINGLE PERSON, is disobedient and in open rebellion to our Creator.

Everyone.

That’s our starting point. Yeah, but we don’t start out like that! What about little kids and babies? Yes, little kids and babies, too. We covered this the other day, and we can come back to that. Yeah, but what about Abraham? God said he was righteous! Yes, he was, but we also know that he was a sinner, too. In fact, he was a liar to cover up his cowardliness. That’s enough to send him to the lake of fire, is it not?

Revelation 21:8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolators, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

Sooooo, that means sinners can get into heaven, right? Not so fast. There is (and always has been) a plan.

Romans 3:21-26 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it – the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For their is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just as the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

We’re going to look at Romans 4 tomorrow when we talk about Abraham. You see, God counted Abraham as righteous, even though he sinned. You may wonder where all this going, because Abraham died before Jesus was born. How could he possibly have had faith in Jesus? Doesn’t that negate the passage above? What about those who have never heard of Jesus?

Stay tuned!

Father, this is so mysterious and seemingly contradictory. Please untangle all this. Amen.

Copyright © 2017 Scott Powers