Suicide

Pastor, if a person commits suicide, will they be lost?
Let’s read a classic verse on suicide:
2 Samuel 17:23  And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.
Have you ever read this verse and said to yourself, “Now there is a man with a bad temper. He didn’t get his way and so he kills himself?” What would cause a man to do something as irrational as this? 
It almost seems like a made-up story - something along the lines of Romeo and Juliet. I am in no way excusing the sin of suicide, but you can kind of understand in Romeo and Juliet’s case. They were in love and could not be together in life.
But simply because someone doesn’t do what you want them to do? Suicide seems a bit harsh! But this is a real story about real people who make real bad choices. There are reasons why people commit suicide but it basically comes down to a feeling of hopelessness - no way out.
There are seven suicides recorded in the Bible:

• In Judges 9:54, Abimelech killed himself because he had been wounded in a battle and saw no hope.
• In Judges 16:30, Samson was blind, enslaved, and humiliated and saw death as the only way to preserve any honor at all. There was no future for him and no hope of escape.
• In 1 Samuel 31:4, King Saul committed suicide because he was mortally wounded and saw no hope of living.
• Then, in 1 Samuel 31:5, Saul’s armor bearer, either saddened by Saul’s death, or seeing no future for himself, kills himself too.  
• In 2 Samuel 17:23, our text that we read earlier, Ahithophel killed himself because His advice was no longer followed. He had been exposed as a phony. He had no future. So he killed himself.
• In 1 Kings 16:18, Zimri burned the palace down around himself because he knew that he was about to be killed in a coup. He saw no hope of escape so he killed himself.
• The last suicide is Judas Iscariot. He betrayed Christ and when he saw the utter despicability of his actions, he could not live with himself. He truly had no hope.

By now, surely you have noticed a pattern. When a person feels that there is no future, when they lose hope, they are prime candidates for suicide.
Now, as to our question, if a Christian commits suicide, will they lose their salvation. The answer is no.
But how can we know this, you ask? By simply applying biblical truths to the situation.
First of all, God offers forgiveness of sins even while we are sinners. We didn’t have to clean up first in order to be saved.
Romans 5:6-8  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  7  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.  8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
And that’s good news because we are all sinners and even if we wanted to clean ourselves up, we couldn’t do it. And God, knowing that we are totally incapable of saving ourselves, or even helping Him to save us,  has taken care of the whole thing!
Titus 3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
God’s forgiveness, and consequently, our eternal salvation, is totally dependent upon God’s mercy. The offer of mercy is from God, not from man. In fact, the offer of mercy is from God exactly because we are sinners.
The best person you know is still a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness. And no matter who a person may think they are, without Christ, they have only an eternal hell to look forward to. 
And you deserve it because God has gone so far as to sacrifice his own son so that you can be saved and you rejected the offer.
But the good news is that if we ask for forgiveness, God will forgive us and save us eternally.
1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If you have ever done this, you are eternally saved. And just as you were saved by God’s grace, so you will continue to be saved by God’s grace. You couldn’t earn salvation by your works and you can’t keep it by your works either.
Philippians 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
1 Peter 1:3-5  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  4  To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,  5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
John 10:27-30  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:  28  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.  29  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.  30  I and my Father are one.
1 John 5:13  These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
So my salvation, and the keeping therefore, is in the hands of God and he has promised to keep me. The confidence I have in my salvation is not in my self but in Christ’s promises.
Now, suicide is a sin. It is self-murder. But there are many other sins that can cause our deaths which would not be deemed suicide. Why do we look at this one and rate it differently? I don’t know.
The fact is, suicide only proves what we already know from the Bible to be true. We are sinners. But salvation is a gift from God in spite of who we are, not because of who we are. We are saved because of who Jesus is! And the fact that God has given us the promises that he will keep us forever more ought to be answer enough to the question.
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