Nobody starts out as a Christian. Contrary to what some people teach, newborns don’t come into the world in a saved state. If they do, then they must lose their salvation in order to be saved again by accepting Christ’s message later in life. This ‘saved, lost, saved’ senario isn’t supported by the Bible. To be saved at any time in one’s life is to be sealed by the Holy Spirit and that seal can’t be broken (Ephesians 4:30). Furthermore, once a person has accepted God’s plan of redemption for sin, it is impossible to accept it a second time (Hebrews 6:4-6). Those who believe a baby is born sinless would rebut these verses by pointing out that babies are unable to understand the gospel so their first salvation isn’t by Christ’s message. The counterpoint to this argument is that after the incarnation of Jesus, nobody is saved unless it is through his message (John 14:6-7). He said so himself.
So, accepting the opening premise as true, nobody begins their life as a Christian. This means all Christians have experienced two different attitudes toward the Savior. One of them is that of a genuine believer and its precursor is the focus of this essay, an unbeliever who doubts Christ’s message.
There is a basis for doubting the gospel news. In the world at large, people quickly learn they don’t get something from strangers in exchange for nothing. Offers of anything that is free are immediately received with suspicion or rejected outright. This attitude is derived from their understanding of their own self and its application to others, namely vested self-interest. It is appropriate to say ‘vested’ because men and women with no spiritual conviction usually hide their selfish tendencies by outward displays of charitable works. If they can afford to be generous, giving gifts helps them to feel better about themselves. But their inner thoughts say otherwise. Most of the time they are unhappy.
The Christian’s understanding of their dilemma is derived from Romans 1:18-21, which says unredeemed man suppresses knowledge about his accountability to God even though the evidence of God’s world around him speaks to the contrary. So if he can’t use ignorance as an excuse for sinful behavior, what defense can he give? It is common for nonbelievers to argue there is no such thing as sin, which makes their definition of ‘right versus wrong’ on shaky ground. They will also say the world evolved and there is no God, knowing that logically, a creator is more likely. These defenses are necessary for them to maintain their doubt about the gospel message.
For a moment, put yourself in their place. If you were to read a story about a benevolent alien who came to earth to rule mankind, but was killed by rulers who didn’t want to lose their power, wouldn’t you call that story a fantasy? And then, in the last chapter, he really isn’t dead but is miraculously alive again by some process we don’t understand. Wouldn’t the story become unbelievable, beyond the realm of possibility? Compared to this story, the odds predicting evolution are starting to look better.
You see, as believers, Christians need to understand there is a basis for doubting the gospel message. They should try to remember their prior attitude as a nonbeliever and what it took in their life to accept Christ’s message as true. Instead of claiming all nonbelievers reject the gospel because they love sin more, we need to recognize that some of them want to believe it but can’t. They need empirical evidence to have faith in the message but the only empirical evidence they are given proves there is a creator God, not that his son’s message is true. To believe his son’s message, God must do something else for an individual who desires genuine faith. He must enable them to believe without facts based on experiment and observation. How this ‘leap of faith’ is administered is a bone of contention among believers. Some think God is unwilling to give it to everyone but only his chosen few, negating the word ‘whoever’ in John 3:16. Others say he enables everyone but only those who ask for more help will be saved. Yet all agree that God’s help to make the leap of faith is required to truly believe the gospel message. And is that really surprising?
After all, according to the Bible, God’s help is free. It is a gift without conditions, requiring nothing from you except taking it. But you know how people think about free things, that there must be a hook in them to snare us or the gift is not worth having. To accept the gospel, an individual must overcome his suspicious nature and realize the gift of enablement is given in the name of love, by definition, that abstract feeling of one individual for another based on no merit in the recipient. God is the giver, who loves every living soul. He will sustain them all, regardless of their handling of his gift. He will give the doubters what they want, eternal life without interaction with him, but he will not give them empirical evidence to substantiate Christ’s message. If he did that, faith would be impossible because it would be based on fact. Since faith is what God has chosen to separate the saved from the unsaved, if it became impossible, nobody from that point on could be saved. This is exactly what will happen when Christ returns again and every eye will see him (Revelation 1:7). Nonbelievers will mourn because they will have missed their opportunity to have faith in his return. Faith in his return will no longer exist, only certainty. The doubters will no longer have a basis for doubt but the gift of salvation, that is, living with God, will no longer be offered to them.
