It wasn’t long ago that I had a conversation with a person who believed if a Christian commits suicide he/she is going to Hell. Salvation once held is lost. Is that true? Is this an unpardonable sin. Is it beyond the grace of God?
As a young pastor I had to preach the funeral of a young lady who committed suicide. It was difficult and sad; her mother was broken. She had two questions. Why did she do it? I had no answer for that, of course, and did not offer a guess. She had many problems – a combination of them and the feeling of desperation and hopelessness were probably root causes.
Then came the question I knew I would get. Is she in Hell? I had an answer to that question. As a child she had made a commitment to Christ. For the better part of her life, she had lived for Christ. I remember well taking out my Bible and reminding this grieving mother of John 10:27-30:
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.
There’s an important double negative in the Greek text – “I give them eternal life, and they shall not never perish.” The double negative is bad English, but it is good Greek. In the strongest possible terms, Jesus said if you have eternal life you will never never never never never (keep going) no not ever perish! A saved person is in the hands of both the Father and Son. Jesus said He and the Father were one. What is true of one is true of the other. They have not just the same essence but the same purpose – the same power. One’s place in the hands of the Father and the Son is the most secure one of all!! You cannot be snatched away (and you cannot snatch yourself away).
My brief sermon text at that funeral was Romans 8:35-39: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is a strong statement from Paul and full of hope. Nothing – not even death — can separate you from God’s love in Christ Jesus. There is no qualifier here. There is no addendum. Nothing means nothing. That includes the means of death.
There is nothing in the Bible about suicide as an unpardonable sin. My background is Baptist, so I’ll pick on them. It is too bad that so many Baptists I’ve known affirm salvation comes by grace, but it is kept by works. Works do not get you in; works do not keep you in. From start to finish salvation is God’s work of grace.
One of my favorite commentators is Leon Morris. He writes, “Our continuous in eternal life depends not on our feeble hold on Christ (and it is feeble indeed), but on his firm grip on us” (L. Morris, The Gospel according to John, NICNT [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995], 43). All I can add is a hearty, “Amen!”
There is an unpardonable sin. That might be the subject of an upcoming post.
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