As some of you may know already, actor and MMA fighter Jason David Frank recently committed suicide. His departure was as controversial as it was tragic. The reason it's so controversial is that Jason was a professing believer in Jesus Christ and many Christians are divided on whether or not he was truly saved. I would like to say that we should be very careful about pronouncing judgment on someone we do not even personally know, but also this dispute is indicative of a larger controversy within Christendom. That controversy is over the topic of whether or not suicide is an unforgivable sin. Regardless of where you fall on this debate, we should be concerned with what the Bible says if it says anything at all. Unfortunately, the Bible is silent concerning this topic so we can only infer based on what some texts say. However, one can build a pretty strong case based on Scripture that suicide is not unforgivable and the people who say that it is unforgivable have more in line with Roman Catholicism than with the Bible. That fact alone should bother any devout Protestant Christian! In this blog, I shall attempt to give a pretty strong case for why suicide is not unforgivable based on the text in Romans 8:37-39. If you are not familiar with that text it says,
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord"
In this text, the Apostle Paul is clearly talking about how nothing in all of creation will be able to separate us from God's love. This means that no circumstance, health problem, spiritual force, or anything else in all creation will ever keep us from the love of God. We cannot even keep ourselves from His love. And notice how Paul says, "neither death nor life" in this text and he did not specify that he only meant natural death either. So, we can only assume that he was speaking about all death in general. This would include suicide as a form of death and so we can say that the Apostle Paul would conclude that not even the sin of suicide can separate us from God's love. But, you may now ask, "So, what? Aren't we all loved by God?" Hold on a second because that is not what Scripture teaches and this text is specifically about believers. However, if we turn to Psalm 11:5 we read,
"The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence"
Did you catch that? God hates the wicked. So if God literally hates the wicked and yet in Romans 8:37-39 Paul tells us that believers cannot be separated from God's love, then it is safe to say that God only loves those whom He is saving. In other words, only those who call on the name of the Lord are loved by God and are hence not going to ever be separated from Him.
You may now ask me, how can one repent after he has already committed suicide? However, for everyone who puts their faith in Christ all our sins in the past, present, and future have already been forgiven! Furthermore, by that logic, if you needed to ask for forgiveness for every sin you ever committed otherwise your salvation would be in jeopardy then we would all be doomed because we all sin every day in our thoughts, words, and deeds. If you ever gave some one the bird who cut you off on the freeway, you would be in trouble if in the next second someone ran you down and killed you. The good news is that according to Ephesians 1:3-6 we believers were predestined for salvation before the foundations of the world. If you are not familiar with that text, it says,
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he blessed us in the Beloved"
God predestined us for salvation and this means that He even predestined how we would die too. Some people were predestined to die by suicide while others by other means, but this does not mean that our salvation is predicated by the specific way that we died. No, our salvation is determined by God alone who predestines us for salvation by the grace of Christ alone.
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord"
In this text, the Apostle Paul is clearly talking about how nothing in all of creation will be able to separate us from God's love. This means that no circumstance, health problem, spiritual force, or anything else in all creation will ever keep us from the love of God. We cannot even keep ourselves from His love. And notice how Paul says, "neither death nor life" in this text and he did not specify that he only meant natural death either. So, we can only assume that he was speaking about all death in general. This would include suicide as a form of death and so we can say that the Apostle Paul would conclude that not even the sin of suicide can separate us from God's love. But, you may now ask, "So, what? Aren't we all loved by God?" Hold on a second because that is not what Scripture teaches and this text is specifically about believers. However, if we turn to Psalm 11:5 we read,
"The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence"
Did you catch that? God hates the wicked. So if God literally hates the wicked and yet in Romans 8:37-39 Paul tells us that believers cannot be separated from God's love, then it is safe to say that God only loves those whom He is saving. In other words, only those who call on the name of the Lord are loved by God and are hence not going to ever be separated from Him.
You may now ask me, how can one repent after he has already committed suicide? However, for everyone who puts their faith in Christ all our sins in the past, present, and future have already been forgiven! Furthermore, by that logic, if you needed to ask for forgiveness for every sin you ever committed otherwise your salvation would be in jeopardy then we would all be doomed because we all sin every day in our thoughts, words, and deeds. If you ever gave some one the bird who cut you off on the freeway, you would be in trouble if in the next second someone ran you down and killed you. The good news is that according to Ephesians 1:3-6 we believers were predestined for salvation before the foundations of the world. If you are not familiar with that text, it says,
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he blessed us in the Beloved"
God predestined us for salvation and this means that He even predestined how we would die too. Some people were predestined to die by suicide while others by other means, but this does not mean that our salvation is predicated by the specific way that we died. No, our salvation is determined by God alone who predestines us for salvation by the grace of Christ alone.
As tragic as Jason's death was, if he was truly a believer then he is with the Lord right now. My heart goes out to his family because I cannot even imagine how they must be feeling. We should be in prayer for his wife and children whom he left behind but we should not condemn him for what he did. Suicide and Depression are serious business and the last thing these people need is for crazy fundamentalists to breathe condemnation down their throats. This is an opportunity for those of us who truly know Christ to share the love of Christ with these people or with anyone we know who is hurting. We need to uplift the brokenhearted because that is what Christ was truly about in the business of doing. If you know someone who is depressed please do not heap more guilt and shame on them because that is not what they need. What they need is to know that you care and you are there for them. Do not be like Job's "miserable counselors" who were of use as a friend and ultimately were rebuked by God.
-David Lee Chu Sarchet
Christian Mental Health Advocate
Check out the Christ-Centered Mental Health Ministry Website
Check out the other CCMH Ministry Website
-David Lee Chu Sarchet
Christian Mental Health Advocate
Check out the Christ-Centered Mental Health Ministry Website
Check out the other CCMH Ministry Website
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