I know a man who died recently. He spent his whole life saying that he didn't want to accept Jesus because he would rather go to Hell and be with his friends than go to Heaven with a bunch of stodgy old saints. He was lying in the hospital bed (the one he never left) still saying this the day before he died. At this point, he wasn't doing great but wasn't doing terribly. By the next day though, he had crashed. Everything was failing, everything was beeping, tubes were getting put in and pulled out all over the place, and it was obvious to everyone - but most importantly, to him - that he wasn't going to leave this hospital. He was going to die, probably very soon.
It wasn't until this point that he started to get scared, and it was this fear - this final fear of finitude - that caused him to accept Jesus the day that he died.
I think a fear of death is one of God's final gifts to us.
I realize that I have no idea, but it seemed to me that this man never did really fall in love with Jesus, never did really thank Him for what He did on the cross, never wanted to be changed by His love. He was never even really humbled before glory of Jesus - only before the certainty of death.
And yet, I really believe, God's infinite mercy extends so far that He lets us come into His kingdom for a reason as (silly? selfish? I don't know) as being afraid of dying. I think this fear of death is God's last gift to us, because for Him, isn't that kind of a slap in the face? For us to get saved, not out of gratitude or love or passion towards God, not out of a longing for the change and the relationship that He offers, but simply out of a last fear of dying. Almost like God lets us stay selfish and self-sufficient as long as we'd like, and allows the doors of His kingdom to open to people who are willing to offer Him only the last few hours of their lives, and then only out of a fear of ending badly.
I don't say this to minimize or cast a bad light on a death-bed conversion, I only say this to highlight what I see as a last, final, truly selfless offering of grace on the part of God.
