Lost

A question that anyone who takes the Bible seriously sooner or later asks himself is, "Will those who never hear about Jesus be condemned to eternal punishment?"  If we truly take God at His Word, the answer, regrettably, is yes.  That is the short answer.  The full answer will take longer.

We need to remember that the condemnation for sin is universal.  "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God," Paul writes in Romans (3:23).  The same thought is found in his epistle to the Ephesians: "... we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others" (2:3).  All humanity are "children of wrath" not in the sense of "beings who express wrath" but as "beings under wrath."  Every person on the planet suffers the same disease, sin, and faces the same prognosis, death (Romans 6:23).  The only hope is to believe, the only way to believe is to hear, and the only way to hear is for someone to tell, and the only way for someone to tell is for them to be sent (Romans 10:14-15a).

All humanity is condemned, justly, for three reasons.  First, we are condemned because of our relation to Adam.  "Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men" (Romans 5:12).  The fall places us in the default position of condemnation.  We are born in the enemy camp.  This position is soon confirmed by our own choice to sin when we know what we ought to do but choose what we want to do.  We are sinners by nature.  We do not become sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners.  Just as birds fly and fish swim because it is their nature, so all people sin because it is our nature. Parents do not have to teach their children to be self-centered or to lie for self-advantage.  It comes naturally.  We are condemned in Adam to a life of sin with all its consequences.

Second, we are condemned because of our rebellion against God.  "All we like sheep have gone astray" (Isaiah 53:6).  Sheep are not known for having an unruly nature, but its appetite for grass will lead it off from where it is supposed to be.  Its perpetual tendency is to move away from the shepherd in seeking to satisfy its own desires.  Left to themselves, they get lost.  Like sheep, we may appear to be domesticated, but in reality, our selfish appetites lead us away from God.  We choose our way rather than God's way.  Quietly or defiantly, we rebel against the lawful Sovereign of the universe.

Third, we are condemned because of our rejection of Christ.  John writes, "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (3:18).  We can understand that a condemned prisoner who rejects a pardon from the governor will suffer his punishment.  A shipwreck victim who refuses to get in the offered lifeboat will drown.  What we find more difficult to accept is that John indicates that they are condemned "already."  It is not just rejection of Christ, but failure to accept Him that confirms us in the condemnation that is already ours.

Without a Savior, all are condemned, lost both now and for eternity.  If that fact bothers us, and it should, then we should pray, asking the Lord what He wants us to do about it.