The thief on the cross believed that Jesus was the Messiah, and was counted righteous for that faith. At that time, the Gospel in its fullness had not been revealed, there was no New testament, thus any who were "saved" were done so on the basis of their faith. Christ said that this faith was God given-
Matthew 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, [b]Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.[/b]
Matthew 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, [b]Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.[/b]
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
I am sure you are familiar with this verse-
Act 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Sadly many rest on the fact that God will reveal Himself to whom he will, but the problem with this thinking is that man will corrupt that revelation. Look at the first two chapters of Romans, and see how the revelation in creation is perverted by men who seek to create their own gods, and their own righteousness before God.
Natural revelation is not enough to save man, as it can only make him aware of a Creator. But then man intuitively knows that his life is wrong, he lies, he steals etc. then he tries to please his idea of god by the Law, which we know that no flesh can be justified by. So here is where Paul comes to front of the matter, and says-
Romans 10:14 [b]How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?[/b] and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
Romans 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
See men know they are not right with their Creator, but they also have no means to be right apart from the work of Christ. So I would say that sadly, a man who had never heard the Gospel would not be in Heaven regardless of all his effort to be right before God, and this should create a burden for us to share the Gospel with all.
Now since I am of the Reformed thought, I would also suggest that God's elect will never perish, thus if a man in the middle of nowhere is one of the elect, he will be saved. God will move Heaven and Earth to save that man because He has loved him with an everlasting love.
Consider this verse-
Hebrews 4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
What was the Gospel that was preached to them? Look back at genesis 3:15
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Of course the seed of the woman would be Christ, then God would through the history of Israel unfold more and more about this "seed" or the Christ, through the sacrifical system, through the mouths of the Prophets etc.
I am sure the Jews were keenly aware of Isaiah 53
Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Isa 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
The Jewish people knew that they needed righteousness before God, but they went about it in the strength of their flesh, and through the Law, thus we can understand the shock when christ told the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector, and of the two went away justified(Luke 18:10-13).
In all of this, we must remember that when Christ walked the Earth, there was no NT, the Gospel waas still shadowy, and not until the Epistles do we begin to see the unfolding of the grandeur of the Gospel, and its effects upon God's people.
Good topic by the way, blessings to you all:-D
