What happens to people who die without Jesus?

Roughly 31 percent, or 2.38 billion people in the world, lay claim to being a Christian. That means that nearly a third of the world celebrate Jesus, and his gospel, as good news.

So what does the Christian story say about the fate of those who haven’t responded to the gospel?

There are untold billions of people throughout history who, through no fault of their own, have been born in parts of the world where they could live their whole lives without ever encountering a single Christian. It’s understandable to assume that they are bound to a separation from God in the next life. But what the Christian story offers isn’t as cut and dry on this issue as we might think.

The first thing to note is I don’t know. Two of the great theologians from the last century, J.I Packer and John Stott, agreed that the answer to this question was agnosticism. And while ultimately the answer to this question is completely in the hands of God - to decide who is in or out of His new creation - there are a few things from the Bible that I do know which help me to think about this question.

Firstly, everyone needs Jesus. There is not a single person alive today who can lay claim to being good enough for God. The Bible is clear that we all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and are therefore destined for judgment (Romans 2:23).

And in some way, the Bible suggests we all know this deep down. The early chapters of Romans argue that through creation and conscience God bears witness to the reality that all of us have to give an account to our Creator, and that all of us are guilty, and so in need of a Saviour.

Having diagnosed that our hearts are damaged by evil, only Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross, and his defeat of death through the resurrection, are the means by which we can be saved. Only Jesus can offer us the cure to the human condition: forgiveness of sins, freedom from evil, and a future with God forever in the new creation. There is no other name that can save.

So the Christian story is consistently clear on the fact that everyone needs Jesus. But what do we need to know about Jesus to be saved by Jesus?

This is something of a different question.

After all, God could save people who have never heard about Jesus. For example, all of the Old Testament saints.

Here are millions of people who lived and died long before God ever became incarnate in Jesus, so to make accepting propositional statements about Jesus a hard pre-requisite for salvation would inadvertently banish all of these Old Testament saints to Hell. But how were these old-timers saved? Through faith.

Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. That was always the pattern: Abel, Noah, Rahab. Enabled by the Holy Spirit, each one responded in faith to whatever God had revealed to them from their unique vantage point in history, and through their faith, the atoning death of Jesus, which would come hundreds of years later, was retroactively applied to save them.

A response of faith towards God has always been the mechanism for salvation.

So who are we to tell God whom He can save and how He can save them?

If God, by the Holy Spirit’s quickening, wants to use the general revelation of creation and conscience to lead Amazonian tribespeople to respond in faith, or if he wants to use vague dreams and visions of a heavenly man to reach people who live in countries closed to the gospel, or if He wants to meet people who have slipped into a coma on their death bed personally, then that is God’s prerogative. He is personal and can reveal Himself in ways deeper than mere propositional statements of doctrine.

Christians have long held that God can save unborn babies, buoyed by John the Baptiser’s joyful recognition of Jesus when both babies were still kicking in their mother’s wombs. So we should never put boxes around God’s salvific reach when His stated will is that none would be lost, nor should we presume to know where a person was with God when in their final moments, like with thief on the cross, the hound of heaven would have been right on their trail.

But while God could save people who seemingly die without explicitly accepting Jesus, the Christian story makes clear that we shouldn’t leave it at could.

In fact, the New Testament is clear on the onus of believers engaging non-believers.

In Romans 10 the Apostle Paul puts it this was:

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

This is why Christianity is a missionary religion. Every Christian is charged with the task of spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. To tell all people everywhere of the depths of God’s love for us, despite our sin, and to proclaim how through the death and resurrection of Jesus we can all be reconciled to God. The only confidence we can have that a person is saved comes from them placing their faith in Jesus, and going on to bear the fruits of faith with their lives.

So what happens to those who die without Jesus?

I don’t know. But I do know what God is like.

It makes sense to me, at least, that in his infinite wisdom and foreknowledge, God already knows who would and would not respond to Him in faith, whatever the circumstances, and so, given the depths of His love for all people, I have no doubt that God will order the world in such a way that everyone gets the right amount of light needed to make plain their answer to his invitation. No one will be lost because of historical happenstance.

Now you may be asking this question because you lost someone you love, and you are worried about what will happen to them at the judgment. I feel that concern deeply.

But given how Jesus reveals the lengths God will go to save us, in the absence of knowing all the answers, why not entrust them to judge of all the earth: the one who would rather be lifted up on a cross than see those he loves be lost. 

You can trust Jesus to do what is right.

And since we do know about Jesus, since we have heard the gospel, perhaps now is the time to reconsider where you stand with Jesus, as you might just be the one through whom God wants to make Himself known to those you love.