more grace?

"Here is another thing that used to puzzle me. Is it not frightfully unfair that this new life should be confined to people who have heard Christ and been able to believe in Him? But the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him."

-C.S. Lewis [mere christianity]

In our young adult meetings on sunday nights, we've been peering into Romans, trying to understand what Paul was saying to them and what it means to us. One of the big areas of discussion was in Romans 2. We continue to see this recurring thought that there is a finger of God's grace that reaches outside the walls of evangelical Christianity and into the areas where the picture of God that we see is unseen.

...a young man 12,13 years old growing up in the ghetto of L.A. transitions from elementary school into a gang. All he can see for himself is this gang. His older brother is in it, his parents are gone (or might as well be), and no one else cares about him. He has no knowledge of a better life, ways to get out of this hell, or Jesus. He doesn't want to hurt people, he doesn't want this life, he wants to do better. does God's grace reach him?

...a muslim mother of 3, living in Afghanistan. She's lived there for her entire life, grew up in the Islamic culture, reads her Koran everyday. According to her religion and culture, she's a good muslim woman, a picture of what to be. In her culture she is right, we are wrong. Just like we think we're right and she is wrong. does God's grace reach her?

...etc.

There's probably no way to know the answer to that question while we're here. Just a thought. I can't help but feel like Lewis did; that this gift that I've been given seems too good to be limited to only those who've seen a good picture of Jesus. I mean I don't get credit for growing up in a Christian country, or a Christian area, or living near a Christian that invites people to church, or for going to a church where people actually care about your relationship with Jesus. So why should it be their fault for growing up somewhere else?

"For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do the things required by the law, they are a law for themselves...)"

Paul [rom 2.13-14]

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."

Paul [eph 2.8-9]

I think that God let Paul in on a little bit of the secret that there's more grace going on than we think.

matthew 22.34-40

pete