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Commentary By Cassy Benefield | FāVS News
Do Christians who die by suicide go to heaven?
What a challenging and heartfelt question. I will do my best to answer it from my own personal evangelical perspective. Coming from a baptistic background, I believe in a doctrine called “once saved, always saved” otherwise known as Eternal Security. Not all Christians within the evangelical umbrella do, and I believe God loves us wherever we reside on this issue.
What Eternal Security means is that after someone is saved by the grace of God, by accepting Jesus’ salvation, they are saved forever. They can never lose it or give it back. Salvation is a gift of God, by grace not of our own works. Jesus and his work on the cross for our sin must be received — like one accepts a gift — in order to be applied (Romans 10:9-13).
When it’s applied to our lives, our sins (from our hearts to our actions) before him in the heavenly tabernacle are remembered no more. This includes sins past, present and future (Hebrews 10:1-18). Verse 14 in this Hebrews section is a great summation: “For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
When Jesus comes again, those who have received and accepted him as their sin substitute, will not have to account for their sins because that’s already been done. They only have to receive their complete eternal life in him.
I believe this is what is meant in Hebrews 9:27-28: “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”
Finally, once eternal life is received, it’s eternal, which means forever. And no one can remove that person out of God’s hands, which I would say includes the believer. They are sealed forever into Christ by the Holy Spirit, with the Spirit given to them as a down payment to promise believers their future inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Does this mean Christians never sin again? Absolutely not! This is where the words justification, sanctification and glorification come in. What I described above is what is known as the doctrine of justification. Think of it as the core of who a person is — the heart, soul, breath or spirit. The Bible refers to this as our inner person. This part of us is forever justified when one trusts Jesus as their savior.
Sanctification describes the life we live here on Earth in the flesh — our outer person that still sins — along with our inner person. These two are at odds against one another. We hurt our relationships with God and others because of this all the time. So, we still need to seek forgiveness from others and God. This is not for our salvation, but for our nearness to him and others—for restoration of relationships. Restoration may include offering restitution to someone we’ve sinned against and facing the just consequences of our actions when we’ve broken human laws.
Then, glorification is the believer’s future glory with Jesus when they will be as he is: sinless. In this stage of our salvation, we will be perfect in both body and spirit, in our inner and outer persons. We will be perfect in love, grace, belief, action, etc. Our flesh will no longer struggle with our spirit.
With all this in mind, now is the time to answer the question: Does a Christian who dies by suicide go to heaven? In my belief system, which I sprinkled above with several verses, I say yes. They absolutely do. When they wake up from their death, they find themselves in the arms of their savior.
The Christian likely leaves behind loss and grief in the hearts of their loved ones, and the Bible says God will be close to those who are brokenhearted. Additionally, the hopelessness and despair that brought the Christian to die by suicide has received perfect healing, with Jesus wiping every tear from their eyes.
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If you or someone you know are struggling with thoughts of suicide, please reach out to the Suicide and Crisis Hotline by calling or texting 988 or by visiting 988lifeline.org.
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Thanks, Cassy, for these beautiful, gracious comments on such a troubling issue. As you know, in the old days those who committed suicide were not allowed a Christian burial While as a Lutheran I don’t share all of your beliefs, I do share the belief in an ever-gracious God.
Just saw your comment Walter after submitting my own and I’m curious. Would one of the beliefs you don’t share with Cassy be “Salvation is a gift of God, by grace not of our own works.”?