If a Christian Commits Suicide, Do They Lose Their Salvation?
What does the Bible tell us about suicide?
First of all… if you are reading this and considering suicide, please seek help now. Call 1-800-273-8255, the national hotline, go to a hospital if you can, call 911, or go alert someone in your home, apartment, or workplace, or wherever you are, and do whatever it takes to get help. For more go to www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
From 2000 to 2020, more than 800,000 people died by suicide in America. In 2022, about 49,500 people died by suicide... the highest number ever recorded. Surging rates from "deaths of despair”... suicide, drug overdoses, and alcoholism have contributed to a recent three-year decline in life expectancy in America. Source
According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 123 Americans die by suicide every day. That’s one death by suicide every 12 minutes. It is estimated there is one suicide for every 25 suicide attempts, with nearly one of a quarter-million people becoming suicide survivors each year. Women attempt suicide three times more often than men, but men succeed four times more often than women.
What Does the Bible Tell Us About Suicide?
As it turns out… not much. You won’t find the word “suicide” in the Bible, but it does record six people who took their own lives… Zimri, Abimelech, King Saul, Ahithophel, Saul’s armor-bearer, and of course Judas Iscariot who hung himself after betraying Jesus. All of these men are described in scripture as being wicked, except for Saul’s armor-bearer whose character is unknown to us.
There are several reasons why people might commit suicide, but these are not directly addressed in Scripture. For example, a chemical imbalance, a serious brain injury, chronic pain, severe depression, or other acute mental illness that may drive people to take their own lives. Satan, the father of lies, can and does sometimes plant destructive thoughts in people’s minds… who sadly choose to act on those lies and kill themselves.
There are devoted Christians who sincerely believe that anyone who commits suicide will not be saved but condemned for all eternity...
But is Suicide Really a One-Way Ticket to Hell?
The idea that committing suicide automatically condemns one to hell is not supported anywhere in Scripture. For all those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, all sins past, present, and future have been and for all time been forgiven by grace through faith by the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Anything else is a mockery of the cross...
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. (1 Peter 3:18)
One’s eternal destiny is set forever at the moment of repenting and receiving Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit. Consider this found in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians…
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation... having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, 14 who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Paul said it even more forcefully in Romans…
Therefore, there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 8:1-2)
Suicide is not what determines whether or not a person gains entrance into the kingdom of heaven. If an unsaved person commits suicide, they will surely go to hell. However, that person will end up in hell for rejecting salvation through Christ, NOT because he or she committed suicide. Take a look at one of the most well-known passages in all of the Bible, particularly verse 18…
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. 18 The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3:16-18)
Suicide is therefore NOT the unpardonable sin… that sin is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself described it this way…
“Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons and daughters of men, and whatever blasphemies they commit; 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” (Mark 3:28-29)
Blasphemy is defined as rebellious irreverence toward and disrespectful mockery of the Holy Spirit. It is the one and only sin that will never be forgiven. Again, in Jesus’ own words…
“And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” (Matthew 12:32).
and...
Jesus answered, “I told you that I am He; so if you are seeking Me, let these men go on their way.” 9 This took place so that the word which He spoke would be fulfilled: “Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one.” (John 18:8-10)
This is NOT to say it is ever okay to commit suicide, but those who are left behind can rest assured that a person who does take their own life will not lose their salvation if they were truly saved in the first place… and that is a matter only between the individual and God Himself.
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Mr. McCraigh, excellent piece, thank you. Suicide is a very difficult subject. I was saved as a child, broke with my Christian faith due to awful grief in youth, spent 35 years in sorrowful wandering and finally made my way back to the Household of God, face down in the mud and filthy from head to spiritual toes. God's mercy brought me back. I still deal with deep depression and CLING, CLING, AND CLING to God every single day. I repent quickly, I ask for His counsel and guidance and have a good and solid church where I live. I am an open book. Faith in Christ does not immediately confer "all things are great now and I am just fine." That is not true, as faith in God and His Son is a daily walk, step by step. I have made progress, for which I am grateful and much of my own Substack is a sharing of my journey through the chaos of the sexual revolution and how the devil lies so well and how he ensnared so many of my Boomer generation. I am just grateful I came back! Suicide has crossed my mind on multiple occasions but I resist, holding on by a fingertip at times but grateful for God's patience and mercy, for the ministry to the brokenhearted that He has given me through the gift of words. I LONG to go Home, though! God bless you for your writing, Sir.
Thank you, Jim. As always, you have parsed this difficult subject with biblical truth, and as always, it is spot on. God's promises are always true, no exceptions.