I received the following inquiry in response to my blog posted December 18, 2025, Obedience of Faith or Law? The inquiry starts by quoting one paragraph from that blog:

“Paul is describing reality, that the design laws of God are built into the operations of reality, and if no one ever teaches you about them in school, if you never read about them in a book, but you recognize them in nature and live in harmony with them because you value them and choose them, then you are choosing to trust in the Creator, and the Holy Spirit works in your heart to write His law upon you. Via the victory of Christ, the Holy Spirit brings the life of Christ, of truth, love, freedom—the design laws of God—and reproduces them upon your mind, your heart, and that is the new covenant experience. Even if one has not yet heard the name of Jesus, they are still saved by Him because He is the Creator and sustainer of nature. This healing, transformation, restoration of heart and mind cannot be done through external legal means.”

From the emailer:

It is the last sentence that impressed me most: “Even if one has not yet heard the name of Jesus, they are still saved by Him because He is the Creator and sustainer of nature. This healing, transformation, restoration of heart and mind cannot be done through external legal means.”

Here’s a question: What does “hearing the name of Jesus” mean? Literally hearing the name, or having the gospel presented to them with an opportunity to accept the atoning work on the cross by Jesus? We know that although we cannot be saved by our works, and if someone were to live by God’s Laws, as described in the blog, does that mean they would be saved? And though saying to oneself “I believe I should live like this”, despite their unbelief, because they obeyed God’s Laws does that mean God would forgive their sins, just like He promised if we did have faith in Him? Certainly, anyone who said in their heart that they specifically did NOT believe, would have their outcome sealed with the death of their soul when their time on earth ended. I think of an atheist who consciously disputes the existence of God, yet lived in a way that was according to the Laws God put in place. Or, is that a foregone impossibility?

Personally, I continue to maintain, those who have not rejected God, yet also have not accepted Christ will not be raised with the Saints. The blood of Christ is the covering that allows God to forgive. It is the acceptance of that work, and only the acceptance of that work on the Cross that allows God, according to His own Law, to forgive the sins of us who live in this world. We can all cite the verses that claim ‘… there is none who is righteous, no not one…’ , etc..

This question is significant to me because of the amount of funerals I have done in my life as a Veteran Chaplain and a Pastor. There have been so many cases where those who remain after a death are believers, and they want some assurance that their loved one will be “waiting for them” when they get to heaven. And though that whole idea of the “unknowable now truth” of the what, where, and how of heaven, (albeit a fruitless conclusion until we no longer see through a glass darkly), needs exploration, the question remains. Is our skewed, limited human vision not big enough to truly reflect God’s desire to bring us all back from whence we came?

My response:

Thanks for your email and your honest questions.

I wonder if your struggle is related to residual elements of human law concepts in understanding God’s law, sin, and the work of Jesus for our salvation.

Is there anything in the kingdom of God that functions like human law? Is God required by some law to use His power to inflict punishment upon sinners? Does being saved from sin require some legal work in heaven, an adjustment in a legal registry? Does God require a legal payment be made to Him in order to get Him to forgive our sins?

Could it be that God forgives all sinners of their sins, but forgiving sinners’ sins doesn’t actually save them any more than, say, a son dying of liver failure from years of alcoholism is saved after receiving forgiveness for his disobedient drinking from his pastor father? God’s forgiveness doesn’t remove sin from the heart and mind.

Of course, no one could be saved if God did not forgive; that is certainly a requirement, so I am not suggesting God’s forgiveness is unnecessary, only that it was never the problem, obstacle, or obstruction to our salvation, because God is love and He forgave us even before we sinned—Jesus is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8); God so loved the world He gave His only Son (John 3:16); God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19), etc.

And Isaiah wrote:

Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:7–9 NIV84, emphasis mine).

God pardons freely! It is we sinners who demand legal punishment and payment for crimes.

But God’s pardon, forgiveness, freely extended from His person, does not heal the damage in our hearts and minds. Jesus forgave those who crucified Him, but they remained His enemy, were not reconciled, were not reborn, were not repentant, were not saved (Luke 23:34).

My understanding is straightforward. God created Adam out of dirt, breathed into Him the “breath of life,” and Adam became a living being. The first human. The Hebrew and Greek words for “breath of life” are both translated into English as “spirit.”

Adam was created with the breath of life, or spirit of life, that was in perfect unity, harmony, accord with God—sinless love and trust based on truth. Every other human is an extension of that one life. Eve was taken from Adam’s living rib and formed into a unique individual by God, also sinless, but she did not get a new breath of life—she shared Adam’s. As Adam said, she was “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23).

Adam and Eve believed lies that broke trust in and with God, and their spirit, the animating motiving breath of life, was corrupted with fear and selfishness, and they ran and hid because they no longer trusted God and were motivated by fear (Genesis 3:10).

Every human since is born descended from these two, who only had a corrupt, fearful, self-centered spirit, or life, to pass along. We are born in sin, conceived in iniquity (Psalm 51:5). We are all born with a terminal sin condition that we did not choose—dead in trespass and sin (Ephesians 2:1). We are born terminal, not legally guilty. Like a baby of two HIV-positive parents being born HIV-positive. The baby is not guilty, but it has a terminal condition that, without remedy, causes symptoms and death.

This is the state of humanity after Adam and Eve’s sin, and this is what the apostle Paul is describing in Romans, that sin came from one man and passed to all men.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—for before the law was given, sin was in the world (Romans 5:12, 13 NIV84).

The law Paul references here as not having been yet given is the written laws given later at Sinai, but the design laws of God, upon which life is based, truth, love, and trust, were already in existence, and Adam and Eve’s breach of those caused their terminal condition. This is why death was being passed down, because it is an actual state of being, laws of health violation, not a legal violation requiring inflicted punishment.

So God is forgiving, but we are still terminal, so what is needed to save? A new sinless life, spirit, breath of life, that is perfectly in harmony with God, love, and trust.

What human descended from Adam and Eve could provide this sinless life, as we are all born with the same terminal spirit or life? None, so God sent His Son, born of Mary, and through her partaking of the very same breath of life breathed into Adam and corrupted by him (Romans 1:3; Galatians 4:4). But the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and she conceived (Matthew 1:18–20). Thus, in the person of Jesus Christ, a new breath of life was introduced into the human species, a sinless animating energy of perfect love and trust.

Jesus is part of this very creation through Mary, but because the Holy Spirit is His Father to His humanity (Jesus is fully God in His own right; I’m referring here only to His humanity), Jesus could be tempted in all points like we are yet be without sin (Hebrews 4:15). And at the cross, Jesus purged, destroyed, eliminated, the spirit of fear and selfishness from the humanity He partook and rose in a cleansed, purified, perfected humanity, becoming the second Adam, the new head of humanity (Romans 5:15–19). And Jesus took humanity purified and perfected back to heaven to present this one lost sheep to His Father!

Now Jesus sends His Holy Spirit, who takes what Jesus procured and gives it to us when we are won to trust. When we trust Him, we open the heart and receive a new life, a new spirit, the spirit of Christ. It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20); we become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

God did not give us a spirit of fear (no, that came from Adam), but power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7); that new spirit was put into humanity at the incarnation of Christ. It was the only way to save humanity—the humanity God created in Eden. Yes, God could have taken more dirt, formed a new body, breathed a new breath of life into that new body, and made a new human being, but that person would not be related to Adam and not part of the creation that fell in Eden.

Salvation is simply this: being won to trust in God so that we open the heart and receive the life of Christ, as Jesus told Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). This is receiving the new spirit, the new life, the life of Christ, and then we live in daily trust with God growing and maturing in godliness.

Those in Romans 2 Paul refers to as never having heard the Torah, but have learned of God through nature (Romans 1:20) and are won to trust and open their hearts to God as they are able to comprehend Him, they receive the indwelling Holy Spirit, who brings them the new life, the new spirit, the life of Christ—thus, everyone who is saved is saved only by Jesus, whether they have heard of Him yet or not. And nothing penal/legal is going on.

I hope this helps answer your questions