Could It Ever Be Too Late to Respond to the Gospel?

I often leave outreach conversations with great hope that although the person I talked with wasn’t even close to repentance and faith In Jesus, God isn’t through with them yet, and their story isn’t over. My hope is that my efforts might be just one part of the means of grace God might use to draw them to Jesus and a right relationship with Himself.

But what if their story is, indeed, over? What if the times they heard and rejected the Gospel earlier in life were, in fact, the end of the story? Does God really owe anyone continued opportunities throughout life to respond to the Gospel, or is it possible some people have had their chance?

I got to thinking about this while talking with Aditia (spelling?), who had grown up in India, and had heard aspects of the Gospel both in India and here in the states. Now he adamantly rejects anything to do with it. Normally, I would still have faith that “his story isn’t over yet.”

So what made this conversation different?

About halfway through the conversation, Aditia looked past me while talking and noticed that a parked car near us had caught fire. Once we and others had made sure that the fire department was on its way, we tried to resume our conversation. But we pretty much lost our train of thought, and the circumstances were just too distracting to continue our line of thinking.

At this point Aditia seemed to put up defenses of apathy toward the conversation and expressed certainty that he would never be interested in anything I might have to say about it or to give him to read for future reference.

It would be a mistake to think that Aditia in particular is beyond the hope of salvation. But the incident gave me a fresh reminder that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, that life is full of unexpected turns, that we are just one heartbeat away from eternity. I doubt Aditia often has conversations like ours with random strangers on the street, so it seemed like a valuable opportunity was lost because of the car fire.

I take great comfort in knowing that I am just one small part of God’s work in the lives of people I talk to, and that their story probably isn’t over just yet. But it just might be. The rich farmer in Luke 12, who found security in the great storehouses of grain he had built, heard some disturbing words: “Fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you!”

How many people around us have rejected every opportunity they’ve had to respond to the Gospel, and will never have that opportunity again? Fortunately, in my opinion, that’s not for us to know. We need to live with the hope that the story is not yet over, but the realization that there is no guarantee that it isn’t.