Turning the page…
Turning the page…
Glory · Who We Are
God judges by truth, without partiality, and everyone has already been given real revelation: creation speaks, conscience testifies, and no one is neutral before God. Scripture insists that no one is saved except through Christ, and that faith comes by hearing, so the gospel must be carried. We can trust the Judge to be perfectly just, and we can let His justice drive us to the one work He has given: making the name that saves heard.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/how-does-god-judge-people-who-never-heard-of-jesus · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
Romans 1:18-32
As you read: God's visible revelation in creation, and the human response that leaves no one without excuse.
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them.
20For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse.
21Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.
22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.
24Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves,
25who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature.
27Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.
28Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
29being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers,
30backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful;
32who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 2:11-16
As you read: God's impartial judgment, and the law written on hearts, with conscience accusing or excusing.
11For there is no partiality with God.
12For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
13For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified
14(for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves,
15in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them)
16in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.
Acts 17:22-31
As you read: A nation that did not know God: its poets, its altar, and the call to repent because a day of judgment is fixed.
22Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.
23For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.
24The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands,
25neither is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.
26He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
28‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’
29Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.
30The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,
31because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”
Psalms 19:1-6
As you read: The speech that has gone out through all the earth, before any missionary ever arrives.
1The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork.
2Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge.
3There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
4Their voice has gone out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,
5which is as a bridegroom coming out of his room, like a strong man rejoicing to run his course.
6His going out is from the end of the heavens, his circuit to its ends; There is nothing hidden from its heat.
Paul states the judge's character first: 'there is no partiality with God,' and He will judge the secrets of men 'according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.' Abraham's question stands over every version of this worry: 'Shouldn't the Judge of all the earth do right?' We can ask how God judges because we already know who He is: perfectly just, perfectly merciful, and incapable of wronging anyone.
“For there is no partiality with God.”Romans 2:11
“in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.”Romans 2:16
“who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:””Romans 2:6
“Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?””Genesis 18:25
Paul's answer to the question begins with what everyone has heard: 'the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made... that they may be without excuse.' The heavens 'pour out speech' with a voice that has gone out 'through all the earth,' and God did not leave Himself without witness, giving rains and fruitful seasons and filling hearts with food and gladness. No one starts from zero; every person has stood under the open sky of the Creator's glory and chosen what to do with it.
“because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them. For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse.”Romans 1:19-20
“The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork. Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their voice has gone out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,”Psalm 19:1-4
“who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.””Acts 14:16-17
Paul adds the inner witness: when Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature the things of the law, 'they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them.' God judges the secrets of men by Christ on that day. Conscience is not salvation, but it is real knowledge, and it prepares the verdict that every human heart already knows about God's right.
“For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified (for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.”Romans 2:12-16
“in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them)”Romans 2:15
“in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.”Romans 2:16
Revelation does not provide a second way for the unevangelized; it names one: 'There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved.' Jesus said, 'No one comes to the Father, except through me,' and John adds that whoever does not believe in the name of the only Son 'has been judged already.' The wonder of Scripture is not that God found a back door; it is that the only door was flung open for the whole world, and that 'whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.'
“There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved!””Acts 4:12
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.”John 14:6
“He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.”John 3:18
“For, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.””Romans 10:13
Paul's logic runs from God's justice to the gospel's necessity: 'How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? ... So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.' God has appointed a day and a Judge and 'commands that all people everywhere should repent,' as Paul declared to people who genuinely had never heard. We cannot calculate the verdicts of the final day, and we do not need to: we can trust the Judge, and we can obey the mission, because the answer to the question is the same as the answer to the world's need: proclaim Christ.
“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!””Romans 10:14-15
“So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”Romans 10:17
“The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.””Acts 17:30-31
“who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.”1 Timothy 2:4