If nothing else, read the last paragraph.
Doug Moo (NIV Application Commentary on Romans, 82-83):
We do not think these verses give any grounds for thinking that salvation can be gained apart from the gospel. Paul’s argument in 1:18-3:20 is intended to establish the reason why God has unleashed his saving power in the gospel. Human beings are locked in sin and need to be rescued. For Paul to introduce at this point the possibility of salvation apart from the gospel would undercut his own argument.
What, then, do we say about people who have never had a chance to hear the gospel and either accept or reject it? Are they automatically excluded from salvation because they do not have a chance to hear? This very question was one of my key objections to the gospel when friends of mine in college first confronted me with the claims of Christ. The contemporary pluralistic environment has sharpened the question even further. Influential theologians—some within the evangelical movement—are arguing that people of genuine moral commitment can be saved apart from explicit faith in Christ. Karl Rahner, an influential Roman Catholic theologian, has coined the term “anonymous Christians” to describe such people.
While attractive for many reasons, this view simply does not square with the claims of Scripture. Paul’s argument in this part of Romans is straight-forward: All people are under sin’s power and can escape the wrath that sin brings only by responding in faith to the gospel of God’s righteousness in Christ (See Romans 3:9, Romans 3:20, Romans 3:21-22). To be sure, we cannot always know just how God may reveal his gospel to people. As Paul’s own example powerfully demonstrates, the preaching of the gospel by missionaries and others is God’s normal means of making his gospel known to people. But we must allow that God may have other ways of revealing his gospel to people that we do not know or even understand. So, while insisting that only faith in the gospel can save, we perhaps need to be open to different ways by which people may come to know the gospel.
One final point should be made. The problem of those have not heard takes on a slightly different complexion depending on whether one is a Calvinist or an Arminian. The Arminian, in a sense, has the bigger problem here. For Arminians believe that God’s prevenient grace puts all people in the position of being able to respond to the gospel. There response is, therefore, the crucial factor. Calvinists, by contrast, while insisting on the need for response, also claim that the ultimate cause of salvation lies in God’s election, his specific choice of certain persons for salvation. The Calvinist can therefore argue that God will, in his sovereignty, see that every person he has chosen will also be exposed, in one way or another, to the gospel. Having determined the end, God will also enact the means.
I must confess that I am little closer to a compelling answer to my question about those who have not heard than I was when I was first converted. I think Scripture requires that we insist on faith in Christ as the necessary means of salvation. And I trust utterly in the absolute fairness of the God who has revealed himself to me in Jesus Christ. I am content to leave my questions in his hands and hope for clearer resolution in heaven.
Thanks for posting this. I recently read that Moo’s commentary on Romans is the best available (Carson said this IIRC) and there is nothing here to convince me otherwise. As a recently converted Calvinist I agree with his point that it’s no longer a question that bothers me.
As I recall, it was Augustine who once said something like “Where Scripture is silent, so must we be.” I so appreciate Moo’s objectivity here as we cannot know, with even modest biblical certaintly, the fate of those who have never heard the Gospel. But, as Moo captures (and the reciprocal of Augustine’s dictum suggests) where Scripture is clear, viz., that God is good and just, we must shout it from the rooftops. At the end of the day, we can rest in the truth that “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecc. 3:11). Someday all the mysteries will be clear but now we see in a mirror dimly.