God’s Impartiality: How God takes care of the claims of atheism and of ignorance of the truth- Conclusion.

It is a great privilege to work for God. It is a privilege to partner with Him to see men turn to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. But we should make no mistake: God is not handicapped without human help. His purposes shall prevail and His will shall be done, with our without human co-operation (see Proverbs 19:21, Isaiah 46:10). It has been thought that without Christians going to preach the gospel, unbelievers can never get saved. But accounts in the Bible do not support this, and testimonies of other(s) who have come to Christ contradict such claims. Really, it will seem strange that God will ultimately trust the eternal salvation of others to other human beings, who have the will to choose to preach the gospel or not. This does not mean that the great commission given to all Christians to go make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:18-20) should be treated lightly or without urgency. If we choose to be disobedient and neglect Jesus’ call to go preach the gospel, we will be judged accordingly.  But the Scriptures make it clear that even without human intervention, God is able to reveal Jesus to those who will accept Him. Let us look at the conversion of Saul to Paul, the great apostle.

Paul, then Saul, had heard about Jesus but hated what He stood for. As he himself noted “I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 26:9). And so he did. It was on His way to Damascus to persecute Christians that Jesus encountered Him personally. Jesus didn’t go through Peter or James or any of the leading apostles at the time. He met personally with Paul, revealed Himself to him, and spoke to Paul, giving him instructions about his commission. In Acts 26, Paul gives a detailed account of the conversation that transpired between him and Jesus on his way to Damascus:

“On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me (Acts 26:12-18).’ Paul’s response to this encounter, as he himself noted, was: “So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven” (Acts 26:19). Also after this encounter, we see the Lord referring to Paul as a “chosen vessel unto Me” (see Acts 9:15), when He sent Ananias to him. This encounter shows one who got saved by encountering the Lord personally, not through any human agency.

 Acts 9:17 says, “Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit “(Acts 9:17). When Ananias got to Paul, then Saul, he called him “Brother”, signifying they were of the same faith. And this was not as a result of Ananias preaching Jesus to Paul, but Paul having met Jesus personally. Paul gave further details about his meeting with Ananias in the following verses: “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him. “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name (Acts 22:12-16).’ Here, we see that Ananias did not go and preach Jesus anew to Paul. He prayed for Saul to see and only iterated what Jesus had already told Paul about his calling. He then told him to get up and be baptized. As Jesus noted, it is those who have believed that are to be baptized (see Mark 16:16), as baptism does not remove the filth of the flesh but is the answer of a good conscience toward God (1 Peter 3:21). Ananias asking Paul to be baptized further shows that he believed Paul had believed in Jesus too.

If Jesus got Paul saved by a personal encounter with Himself, He will do so for those who would be reached by no one else. For God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). Even so, Paul had the option to be obedient or disobedient to the heavenly vision he had. And so will every human being have the choice to accept or reject the provision God has made for them to dwell with Him eternally.  For those who lived under the law, God will judge them by the law (Romans 2:12). Those who were without the law, God gave them a conscience that showed that the requirements of the law were written on their hearts and by their conscience they will be judged (Romans 2:14-16). And in our current dispensation, God calls everyone to repent and believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 17:30-31; Acts 4:10-12). If anyone is willing to respond to the revelation God has given of Himself to every human heart (Romans 1:18-20), God will make Jesus known to them. Whether through sending an angel to direct them to his servants who will preach Jesus to them (e.g. Acts 10), or sending his servants directly to them (e.g. Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 8:26-40), or Jesus Himself appearing to them to get them saved (Acts 9). No one will have any excuse before God (Romans 1:18-20).

-Kwadwo Omari, PhD
November, 2016