COV LIFE BLOG

This One Life – To The Nations

Let’s not forget what’s at stake…. More than 4.5 billion people in the world today are without Christ. As if this were not serious enough, more than a billion of these people have never even heard the gospel. So what happens to them when they die? I am convinced that this is one of the most important questions facing Christianity in America today. If people will go to heaven simply based on their native religious preferences, then there is no urgency for any of us to go to them. But if they will not go to heaven because they have never heard of Christ, then there is indescribable urgency for all of us to go them. If people are dying and going to hell without ever even knowing there is a gospel, then we clearly have no time to waste our lives on an American dream. So what does the Bible say about people who have never heard of Jesus?

This, then, is the answer to our question of what happens to people who never hear about Jesus. All people know God, all people reject God. All people are guilty before God, and all people are condemned for rejecting God. God has made a way of salvation for the lost, and people cannot come to God apart from faith in Christ. As a result, Christ commands the church to make the gospel known to all peoples.

If this is true, the implications for our lives are huge. If more than a billion people today are headed to a Christless eternity and have never even heard the gospel, then we don’t have time to waste….

This is a cause worth living for It is cause worth dying for. It is a cause worthy of moving urgently on. We have the gospel of Christ in us, and we do not have time to waste. Some wonder if it is unfair for God to allow so many to have no knowledge of the gospel. But there is no injustice in God. The injustice lies in Christians who possess the gospel and refuse to give their lives to making it known among those who haven’t heard. That is unfair.

With [so many people] who have never even heard the gospel, it makes little sense for us to sit over here asking, “What is the will of God?” The answer is clear. The will of God is for you and me to give our lives urgently and recklessly to making the gospel known among all peoples, particularly those who have never even heard of Jesus.

The question, therefore, is not “Can we find God’s will?” The question is, “Will we obey God’s will?”

David Platt

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Heart Preparation
Read Psalm 67 and consider this: What is God’s purpose for the nations? If this is his purpose then what does this look like in your life?