Yes. Recognizing these people, I might add, is rather easy. Most of them have two eyes, two ears, a nose and a mouth. That is to say, we are all by nature children of wrath. We begin our existence at enmity with God. We have, in ourselves, nothing good in us. As such, left to our own devices, we don’t even have the capacity to repent. God commands that we do so, but we hate Him and all that He stands for. We are rebels.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, while we were yet sinners, made us alive in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-5). All things, after all, are possible with God (Matthew 19:26). He who raised Jesus from the dead is surely able to give life to spiritual corpses such as we all once were.
I have a friend who was sent to plant a church in a hostile city, in a neighborhood dominated by sexual perversion. While making the rounds, introducing himself to pastors already serving in the city one pastor warned him that so many others had sought to minister to that demographic, but, the pastor reasoned, they just weren’t reachable. My friend, though he had served in the special forces, and could well be Chuck Norris’s younger brother, broke down in tears. He explained to the pastor, “If the gospel has no power to save them, it has no power to save me.”
There are, of course, those whom God has determined that He would never give new life to. Those who have committed the unpardonable sin, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31), will not be regenerated. Those who have trampled under foot the blood of Christ (Hebrews 10:29), will not be regenerated. Those who have committed the sin unto death (I John 5:15-16) will not be regenerated. I do not pretend to know whether this is one, two or three distinct groups. I do know this- that whose who fall under these texts do not come equipped with a signed affidavit letting us know for certain that they are guilty of this sin. As such, I don’t believe we can single out real flesh and blood people and determine- “That one is beyond redemption.”
We ought not be surprised when God gives life even to the most notorious of sinners. He saved Saul of Tarsus after all, and even managed to make him useful for the kingdom. Neither ought we be surprised when God humbles believers through the most notorious of sins. King David not only committed adultery, but committed murder to cover it up. Yet he was still a man after God’s own heart. Sin is powerful, even for those who have been reborn. Grace, however, is more powerful still. This is a true and trustworthy saying, that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of which I am the chief (I Timothy 1:15). To diminish the power of grace is to diminish the scope of our own sin. Jesus, after all, didn’t come to save the polite, well-behave people. He came to save His own, and gave them first repentant hearts.