“Even them I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer” (Isaiah 56:7 NKJV).

In the Law of Moses there were certain classes of people who were not to be admitted to “the assembly of Israel” or be allowed to participate in its worship in the tabernacle and temple (Leviticus 21:16-23). Isaiah prophesied concerning some of those classes (probably intended to be understood as representing all those previously banned) that, at some point in his future, “even they” would receive God’s blessings and be included as part of his chosen people.

God has never forgotten or rejected the masses of humanity with whom he did not establish a covenant relationship, either through Moses or through Christ. The Bible is filled with references to his being the creator of the entire world, including all of humanity, and of his love and compassion for all of mankind. So the prophet Isaiah proclaimed, “The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, ‘Yet I will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him'” (Isaiah 56:8).

It is this conviction, that all mankind lives within the scope of the love of God, that drives mission activity. And not only that, but all of mankind also lives within accountability to God’s laws and will (Romans 3:9, 23). This was the basis for the Great Commission given by Jesus to his apostles (and all Christians) just before his ascension (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16).

No land is too remote for the Gospel to reach. No peoples are so poor, or immoral, or idolatrous that it is useless to attempt to proclaim the good news of salvation to them. “God so loved the world” (John 3:16) speaks just as clearly today as it did in the first century.

The greatest barrier to fulfillment of Jesus’ command is not expense or governmental anti-evangelistic interference. Neither is it persecution, though there is much more persecution of Christians today than most American Christians imagine. The greatest barrier to evangelism is the indifference of far too many to the plight of the lost — especially those lost who are not just like us.

John wrote, “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2). We are not the sole object of God’s love, nor of Jesus’ sacrifice. John is not teaching universal salvation, but rather universal potential. Jesus’ blood is available to anyone, anywhere, and anytime, who will turn to him in obedient trust.

But they can turn only when they know of Jesus. Paul reminds us,

“For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent . . . So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:13-15a, 16).

Billions of people whom God brought to life and whom he loves live today without knowledge of Jesus. It is both the burden and the privilege of the Church to reach out to them with God’s saving message. Let us never be indifferent to their plight or blind to our opportunities to help them.