Consider this scenario: Someone walks into a building, pulls out a gun, shoots several people (some of whom die), and finally shoots and kills himself. Or this scenario: A person loses her job, she can’t find another one, and then the bank forecloses on the house (making her family homeless), and finally she kills herself by purposely overdosing on sedatives.

Later on, you hear that both of the people described above were Christians and attended churches in your town.

How should a Christian view suicide? What kind of comfort can you give the family of a suicide victim? Do people who commit suicide go to hell?

Let’s deal with the last question first, because it is the most important. We’ll begin by asking other questions.

Why ask the question, “Do people who commit suicide go to hell?” in the first place? Why are we so concerned about this sin and not others? How is suicide different from any other death?

The answer usually given is that suicide is final. The person who dies this way has no opportunity to ask for forgiveness or to make amends.

The question and the answer both show a misunderstanding of the finality of the cross and the nature of salvation.

If a person is a truly saved, born-again child of God, upon death, regardless of how the death occurs, he or she will be absent from the body and present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). If a person is not saved, then he or she will go to hell. The person’s final destination has everything to do with her or his relationship with Jesus and nothing to do with behavior.

How is this possible? “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (1 Corinthians 5:19). “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit…” (1 Peter 3:18). “…so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:28). “I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name” (1 John 2:12).

As you can see by these verses our sins no longer separate us from God. Jesus provided forgiveness for the sins of the entire world one time at the cross, so there is no more forgiveness to be gotten. Even someone who commits suicide is forgiven.

The question is not about sin, but about salvation, and salvation is life. “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ ” (John 14:6). “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:10).

If a person has accepted Jesus’ life as her own, then she is saved, period. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). “…God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’ ” (Hebrews 13:5b). “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2).

Humanity needed complete forgiveness so that sins could no longer cause spiritual death. Jesus provided it!

Humanity needed eternal life so that we could be restored to a relationship with God. Jesus provided it!

Because Jesus has provided us everything we need, nothing we do can cause what He provided to fail.

Does this mean that suicide doesn’t matter? No. Suicide is a selfish act. The person who decides to commit suicide has decided that his suffering is more than he can stand, that God’s grace is no longer sufficient to make his life worth living. Although his decision will not condemn him, it does remove the chance for God to work through him into the lives of others. This is tragic, but it is not the unpardonable sin. The only sin that cannot be forgiven is a person’s refusal to believe in Jesus (see John 16:8-9), because forgiveness and eternal life are found only in Him.

So how do you comfort the family and friends of someone who commits suicide? Comfort them with truth. Help them fix their eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of their faith (Hebrews 12:2). Ignore the way death occurred. Dead is dead, whether it happened in an automobile accident or by swallowing a handful of pills. Death is the tragedy, so comfort them with the only answer to death – Jesus Christ and His saving life.