I have recently been in a discussion about the destiny of those who have never heard the Gospel.  The Bible states that Salvation is by grace through faith (Ephesians 8-9).  Knowledge of God is important (it leads to faith (Romans 10:17)) but salvation is not through knowledge.  It’s what a person does with the knowledge of Christ that saves that person.  In the course of the discussion, I wrote the following illustration.

I have a son named John.  Shortly after he was born, he was kidnapped and then abandoned by his kidnapper.  John was found and placed in an orphanage where he grew up wondering about the identity of his father. He knew he had to have a father:  nature alone taught him that much.  But he could never know me personally based on that alone, nor could he reap the benefits of being my son.

After a few years had passed, a really close friend crossed paths with John.  He  noticed that John looked a lot like me.  He asked John who his father was, to which John could only reply that he did not know.  My friend knew that I had never given up looking for my son.  I had asked all of my friends to carry a note that I had written that explained who I was and how my lost son could find me.  I wrote in that note how much I loved him, and how desperately I wanted to have a relationship with him.  I asked my friends to give it to whomever they might meet that looked like he could be my lost son.

My friend gave John the note and explained its contents.  He asked John if he believed what he had just read and heard were true.  John acknowledged that he had.  My friend then asked him if he would like him to take him to see me.  John said that he did.  So my friend brought John to me, and after all of those years, my son was finally home.

You see, John implicitly knew that he had a father, but it gained him nothing but knowledge.  However, once he was given my note to him and told about me, he then had explicit knowledge that I was indeed his father that loved him.  Yet, that alone did not allow him to reap the benefits of being my son.  He still needed to believe for himself that what he had heard and read was true; and based on that faith (he had not seen any physical proofs that I was his father), follow my friend to my home and claim his sonship.  Then and only then could he reap the benefits of being my son.

What if John would have stopped at knowledge and not come to my home?  What if he hadn’t believed what my friend told him and walked away?  What if my friend had not told John of me?  Or what if my friend had not even taken my note or even looked for John?  Would John have ever come home to reap the benefits of sonship?