Elsewhere, we have written about trusting that your special needs child understands the gospel, but what about people with cognitive impairments so substantial that they cannot understand things at a level beyond a very young child?
Parents and loved ones might ask whether God saves people who lack the capacity—as far as any person can assess—to grasp the gospel. The apparent conundrum arises because, while God never conditions his offer of salvation on a person’s abilities, he does use faith in Jesus as a means of salvation. If someone cannot cognitively grasp the good news about Jesus, in some sense faith in Jesus cannot exist. To oversimplify, think of faith as trust. For trust to exist, a person must have an awareness of the thing in which they are trusting. This is why the Bible says “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.” Romans 10:17.
So, does God still save people with substantial cognitive impairment? The good news is that salvation for people with substantial cognitive impairment is found in Jesus Christ—which, incidentally, is the same good news for everyone.
To understand how this could be, one must (as always) look to what God has said in scripture and trust the goodness of God. When one prayerfully does so, it becomes clear that God does not reject people with substantial cognitive impairment. Far from it. God graciously gifts such people with his love through Christ.
A final note before moving on: nobody should avoid sharing the gospel based on beliefs about the hearer’s cognitive abilities. There are many reasons why this is so. Here are two big ones. First, just as one would not refuse to let a child with substantial cognitive impairment enjoy other wonderful things to the greatest possible extent, one should not refuse to let such a child bask in the light of the gospel to the utmost. Second, if a child can indeed grasp the gospel but someone mistakenly refuses to share it with them, then a grave injustice has been done.
Look to God’s Word
To understand that God graciously gifts people with substantial cognitive impairment his love through Christ, it is important to hear what God has said in scripture. There, God certainly speaks plainly enough on every important matter.
First, every person is created in the image of God. (Genesis 1:27). Therefore, every person has inherent beauty and dignity.
Second, every person is born sinful and deserves God’s judgment. (Romans 5:12). One biblical author explains: “Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.” Psalm 51:5. Because of sin, we are “by nature children under wrath . . . .” Ephesians 2:3.
Third, God graciously decided to reconcile sinners to himself through Christ. Probably the most well-known Bible verse states: “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.
Fourth, Jesus, God the Son, is the perfect revelation of God to humanity. (Hebrews 1:3). Among other things, this means that in Jesus we clearly see God’s character. As Jesus explained, “The one who has seen me has seen the Father.” John 14:9.
Fifth, Jesus is the one who came “to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10. Jesus had a mission, which was to find all those who are his own and to save them.
Sixth, Jesus is the one who said to Paul, amid the latter’s struggles with a tormenting, perhaps disabling condition, that, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:8.
Seventh, Jesus is the one who prayed in Matthew 11:25, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants.” God’s delight in choosing to reveal himself to people who are rejected or overlooked by the world is also found in 1 Corinthians 1:26–29:
Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence. It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption—in order that, as it is written: Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
To summarize, Scripture teaches that people with substantial cognitive impairment, like all people,
(1) have inherent worth and were created in God’s image;
(2) were born as sinners; and
(3) can come to God only through Christ and because of grace. We also know that
(4) Jesus reveals God to us;
(5) Jesus came to seek and save the lost;
(6) what we perceive as a person’s weakness is no barrier to Jesus’s goals and is instead an occasion for him to more clearly demonstrate his power and grace; and
(7) God delights in revealing his glory to people, like young children, that are humble and dependent.
Hopefully the answer to the original question is now obvious. While we cannot be dogmatic about details or mechanics, the Bible allows us to confidently say that God cares for people with substantial cognitive impairment, God will bring them to himself through Jesus Christ, and God will share with them the joy and love of God for eternity.
Trust the Goodness of God
We can trust God to do right by people with substantial cognitive impairment. God is good and righteous, and he always does what is good and righteous. (Deuteronomy 32:4).
For example, the patriarch Abraham talked with God about judgment that was soon to be meted out on Sodom. During that conversation, there was an important rhetorical question from Abraham and an important response from God recorded at Genesis 18:24–26:
What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people who are in it? You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of the whole earth do what is just?
The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Abraham knew the answer to his rhetorical question. The Judge of the whole earth would obviously do what is just! Because God is just, he perfectly and correctly accounts for every person’s circumstances and their awareness of his commands. Consider John 9:39–41:
Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind.”
Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and asked him, “We aren’t blind too, are we?”
“If you were blind,” Jesus told them, “you wouldn’t have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
Jesus was using a metaphor to explain that the Pharisees knew God’s commands and, therefore, were guilty for breaking the commands. Conversely, if the Pharisees had not known the commands, they would not have been specifically guilty for breaking them. A similar link between culpability and awareness is found in Romans 5:13: “In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law.”
The just God who perfectly considers a person’s circumstances and awareness certainly has not put people with substantial cognitive impairment into a no-win situation and excluded them from salvation because of their special needs. Instead, God often says that he is in some ways especially attentive to people who are most vulnerable.
- Psalm 68:5–6 declares “God in his holy dwelling is a father of the fatherless and a champion of widows. God provides homes for those who are deserted. He leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious live in a scorched land.”
- Exodus 22:22–24 announces the seriousness of God’s care for the defenseless. “You must not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, they will no doubt cry to me, and I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will burn, and I will kill you with the sword; then your wives will be widows and your children fatherless.”
- Leviticus 19:14 says a healthy respect and awe of God is the reason to not mistreat people with special needs. Specifically, God says, “Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you are to fear your God; I am the Lord.”
At bottom, God simply does not ignore or reject people because of their special needs. Scripture teaches that God loves and cares for people with substantial cognitive impairment and they have a steadfast and certain hope in Christ.
Check out More Special Needs Resources
How Can I Know God Saves People With Substantial Cognitive Impairment?
Depending on God in Trials as a Special Needs Parent
Supporting Neurotypical Siblings of Special Needs Children
What Does the Gospel Say About My Child with Special Needs?
How Can I Trust My Special Needs Child Understands the Gospel?
