Is it 'fair' for a loving God to punish an innocent person because he or she has never heard about Jesus?

My commentary on Lifeway's Bible Studies For Life Sunday School lesson this week. This is also a follow up from last week's lesson and commentary as well. (A weekly email I send out to all of my teachers)

Romans 1:16-25

Ponder the question on pg 94 in the Personal Study Guide of Lifeway's Bible Studies For Life:

"Is it 'fair' for a loving God to punish an innocent person because he or she has never heard about Jesus?"

Another way this question might be asked: "What about the innocent guy who was born on a desert island and never reached with the Gospel? Can he be saved without ever hearing the good news of Jesus? Would it be fair for God to send him to hell?"

Really, these questions are deficient in three ways:

1. There is no such thing as an innocent person. Romans 1 and the entire Bible make this abundantly clear. I cringe when I hear people use the words “innocent” or “basically good” when describing others (even children). The biblical reality is that we are all guilty of sin (breaking God's law) and basically bad. It is important that we recover a biblical doctrine of sin in our teaching. WE CANNOT TALK ABOUT THE BENEFIT OF THE CROSS, WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT THE NECESSITY OF THE CROSS. We are shepherding the hearts of the people in our small groups to see their need for the Savior, not just to modify their behavior to be "Christian."
2. In our American society, we have a deficient understanding of fairness. We ask questions like the ones above with a sense of entitlement. The truth is God does not owe us anything. We have sinned before a God who is perfectly holy, perfectly righteous, and perfectly good. Our God cannot tolerate even a hint of the presence of evil because it is absolutely contrary to His nature. If He was able to tolerate sin, He would cease to be holy and good. Because we have sinned against this God, what we deserve is death. What we deserve is Hell. However, God gives us (even the lost) common grace in that He does not immediately destroy us and bar us from eternity with Him when we sin. In light of this, we should be ask, "Is it fair that God would allow a sinner into His presence?" Remember, the definition of grace is unmerited favor!
3. I personally believe God is not sending anyone to hell, because we're already going. Rather, what you see in the character of God is a grace and mercy, a loving Father intervening by sending His only Son and rescuing His lost people.

So what does this mean for us?

The reality is that people will never call on whom they have not heard about (JESUS…Rom 10:13-17). Since we know that God has chosen to use His people as His means to spread the good news of the Gospel throughout the world, we need to get busy and serious about this MISSION. Christ has not saved us to sideline us. He's saved us to send us out into the city, the state, the country, and around the world to proclaim the good news of the Gospel. Therefore, when someone perishes without hearing the gospel, it's not God's fault. It's our fault! It's our fault for being ingrown and consumer driven in our approach to Christianity. EVERYTHING we do as a church must be fueled by this reality. Let’s let these deep, thought provoking questions drive us to be more committed in our Great Commission efforts to get the message of Jesus to as many people as possible. Their eternity depends on it.

“The root cause of our lack of engagement in God’s mission is not a missions problem but a gospel problem. We demonstrate by our inaction that we no longer marvel at grace. We are unaffected by the beauty of what God has done for us in Christ.” - Trevin Wax in Gospel-Centered Teaching: Showing Christ in All the Scripture