Your Question: “Does suicide guarantee Hell?”
Today I am going to give you a 100% absolute answer to this question. First we’ll talk just a little about suicide in today’s world, then we’ll explore some suicides that the Bible talks about and reasons for suicide, then we’ll dive into that question along with a few others, and finally we’ll talk about the hope that you can have whenever you feel hopeless.
Have you ever felt like this… “I don’t want to die but it’s like the only thing I feel will work. I have so much pressure at home and school. I have so much pressure with friends. No one expects me to have problems because I am always happy. But I’m also hurting inside. I hate my life. I think about suicide. I just know tomorrow brings more pain. I just don’t want to go on anymore”
If you haven’t felt like that than I can tell you that we all know people who have. There are people in this room that have felt like that. Those thoughts can happen to even the most unlikely people, even those that seem to have it all together.
People everyday consider suicide. In fact, Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15-24 year olds. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 10 teenagers per day kill themselves in the United States. Every 2 ½ hours another teenager commits suicide. Seventy teens per week, and the total comes to a staggering 3,600 lives lost. Not only that, but over 1000 teens per day attempt to take their own lives. That’s almost 1 teen per minute. 60% of kids admit having thought about suicide. The statistics show that at least 90% of us know someone who has attempted it.
Every suicide or suicide attempt screams these three words… “I NEED HELP.”
Suicide is not a new idea. The Bible records seven suicides.
Abimelech in Judges 9
Abimelech was pushed off the roof by a woman and so people wouldn’t think he was killed by a woman he ordered his armor bearer to thrust him with his sword. (Humiliation, embarrassment, pride)
Saul in 1 Samuel 31
Saul was stressed out, unable to live up to certain expectations; felt rejected and a failure (fell on own sword)
Saul’s armor-bearer in 1 Samuel 31
Impulse, he wanted to die with his boss. He fell on own sword. Think how many suicides are just impulse!
Ahithophel in 2 Samuel 17
Ahithophel was bitter because his advice was not followed. So after arranging his worldly affairs, he hanged himself. (Neglected, rejected)
Zimri in 1 Kings 16
Rebellion; Zimri had a problem with authority. Set fire to the palace and died
Judas in Matthew 27
Depressed, Judas felt trapped by materialism, greed, and guilt. Hanged himself.
Samson in Judges 16
Samson died for a cause he believed in and for revenge.
Did those people go to Hell? Did that father, and that grandfather go to Hell? So the question is, “Does suicide guarantee Hell?
The answer is yes, just like lying guarantees Hell. Just like disobeying your parents guarantees Hell. Just like stealing, murdering, lusting, idolatry, and any other sin. They all guarantee Hell. “The wages of sin is death… but the gift of God is eternal life.” Romans 3:23. So yes, any sin we commit guarantees us an eternity separated from God in Hell after we die because of God’s law… but the real question is have you accepted that eternal life gift of God? The gift, which is Christ undergoing that death for us, forgives every sin; even suicide.
So the person that commits suicide and has never turned to Christ and therefore rejected his gift of salvation is going to Hell, but not because they committed suicide, because they have never surrendered their life to Christ and followed Him.
The person that commits suicide who had put their faith in Christ and had a relationship with Him, no matter how fractured that relationship might have been, that person is going to Heaven.
We don’t gain salvation based on what we have done, Doesn’t that make you glad! We gain salvation based on what Christ
And once we’ve been saved nothing we do can ever change that.
Galatians 4:4-5 says “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Once adopted we will always be a child of God. The term, adoption in Gal 4:5 is a legal term. You could actually disown your own kids for any reason, but you could never cut off or deny a child you adopted in the law of Paul’s times. If you’ve been saved through Christ nothing you do will ever change the fact that you are God’s child and He has reserved a place for you in Heaven.
How could a child of God continue to sin, or commit suicide?
We are subject to all the same temptations as lost people (I Cor 10:13-“You are tempted in the same way that everyone else is tempted.”). I John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
We still have our sin nature and Satan still attacks Christ followers, maybe even more, which is why we still sin
If sin guarantees Hell, what can guarantee Heaven?
We’ve all sinned, so what hope is there?
People that have to decided to end it all have lost hope. They may have many specific reasons, but they all come back to the root of no hope. I can tell you that there is great reason for hope.
Let me tell you what the Bible says about our lives?
1. God has a great plan for your life. God has created us in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). He created us for a purpose. God has a specific plan in mind for everyone.
Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”
2. Jesus wants us to have life. He said: John 10:10 – “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.”.
3. Because of God’s salvation through the death of Jesus on the cross, we can have assurance of eternal life with God.
John 5:24 – I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life already and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
Romans 10 says: For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
If you want to go to heaven, you need Jesus. It’s that simple.
The issue isn’t suicide, or murder or alcoholism, or addiction, or hatred or any of the sins of this world. The issue is Jesus.
There is hope!
