You sensed God calling you to share the gospel with this specific person. Perhaps it’s someone you love or a complete stranger. Either way, you know in your soul that God wants you to tell this person about Jesus.
As you explain the gospel, you look in their eyes to see if anything might be stirring in their spirit. You end your presentation, expecting the person’s life to be turned upside down. Instead, their heart is unchanged, and they reject the gospel.
Encounters like these can be at best disappointing and at worst heart-wrenching. You may ask God, “What was the point? Why did you send me to someone whose heart was hardened?”
You are not the first person to ask this question. God called Moses to confront Pharaoh, even though the Egyptian king’s heart was hard. When Pharaoh refused Moses’ request and took his anger out on the Israelites, God’s prophet cried out, “‘O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me (Exodus 5:22, ESV)?’”
God sent others—including Isaiah (Isaiah 6:9–10), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:27), and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 3:7)—to those who wouldn’t listen. Today, believers invest countless hours pouring into friends who refuse to repent. Missionaries may spend years serving among people who deny Jesus is Lord. As exhaustion and frustration mount, many have similarly questioned, “God, why did you send me?”
Thankfully, Scripture offers answers, revealing God’s mysterious omniscience and compassion toward hardened hearts.
God’s Hidden Purposes
God has a purpose for everything He calls his people to do, even if He doesn’t immediately reveal it.
After 40 years of intimately talking face-to-face with the Lord in the wilderness, Moses realized that God does not lay out all of His plans.
“‘The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.’” –Deuteronomy 29:29, ESV
When the Lord calls believers to preach the truth to the unrepentant, we must remember the intricate and invisible tapestry He is weaving. We don’t know how God is working in the lives of those who resist His words. Perhaps He is planting a seed that will eventually grow into a full-fledged faith, or perhaps He is working in ways that are beyond our comprehension (Isaiah 55:8).
The Lord builds trust, humility, and obedience in His children by mysteriously withholding His plans. Faith cannot mature unless we follow God into the unknown.
We’d like to think that we would confidently step into any task God laid before us if we could see how it would all work out in the end. But if God allowed us to glimpse into the grand story He is writing, would we truly grasp its magnitude? And would it be at the expense of a deeper trust in Him?
Knowing that some things will remain hidden may feel unsatisfyingly disappointing, especially when our hearts break for the loved ones who run from God. Yet where God does not satisfy the soul with knowledge, He reassures with comfort and grace.
God’s Compassionate Pursuit of Scoffers
With all God has left unknown, one thing He makes clear is his compassion toward sinners. He demonstrates his love through Jesus’ death (Romans 5:8) and desires all to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4).
Because of this love, He pursues those He knows won’t listen.
“The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets … .” –2 Chronicles 36:15, ESV
People will refuse God and mock Him, and yet He reaches out, again and again, to remind all of His love and mercy. He extends an invitation of grace, knowing His hand will be swatted away.
God’s messengers may feel they receive the brunt of rejection when others won’t listen, but their pain pales in comparison to the rejection the Lord experiences. After all, it was Jesus who was beaten, marred beyond human semblance, and murdered by those He loved. The Savior knew the torture that awaited Him at the cross, that His own would not receive him (John 1:11). Yet He still came to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37).
God’s faithfulness to communicate the truth to those who won’t receive it displays His unfathomable compassion to a hard-hearted world. He won’t force anyone to follow Him, but He will ensure they are without excuse (Romans 1:18–20).
God’s Call to Go
These truths may bring comfort, but the pain of knowing a loved one continues living in rebellion remains. In the moments of deepest lament, turn your mind to God’s mystery and compassion for hope that the story might not be over.
Ezekiel was one of the prophets God sent to those who had “‘a hard forehead and a stubborn heart (Ezekiel 3:7, ESV).’” Though they had profaned the Lord’s name, God promised to transform their stubborn hearts for His glory.
“‘And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.’” –Ezekiel 11:19, ESV
God does not guarantee to save everyone we love and pray for; He will have mercy and compassion on whom he wills (Romans 9:15-16). Yet he may choose to soften some of the hardest hearts.
If God calls you to a seemingly doomed task—including sharing the gospel with someone who will reject it—continue to follow Him anyway. As long as God calls you to preach, do not grow weary in doing good. As long as God places you among the lost and unreached, do not tire of proclaiming His name.
And when you face rejection, do not lose hope. Remember that the Lord—who can turn hearts of stone into hearts of flesh—is with you always (Matthew 28:20).
When Someone Rejects the Gospel
Seeing someone reject the gospel, the only hope for salvation, is never easy. Jesus tells His followers what to do when someone decides to follow Him (Matthew 28:19-20), but what should believers do when someone rejects the gospel?
