It is a very sad reality of the Christian life that we will encounter professing Christians who tragically take their own life. Is it possible that such people can be in heaven, God’s presence and eternally saved when this happens?

I believe yes.

Though the taking of any life (including your own) is murder, and called sin by God (Ex. 20:13). And, “murderers” are consigned to a Christ-less eternally (Rev. 21:8). Yet we have the hope of forgiveness for all who have truly been born again (“no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again,” John 3:3), and thus are considered justified before the Father (even while still sinners) (“the one who trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness,” Rom. 4:5).

Consider:

  • “Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” (Mark 3:28-29). Note that all sins are able to be forgiven except the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This would, by nature, include the sin of murder–even suicide.
  • Similarly, God writes through Paul, that even when we are “faithless,” so long as we are believers, God stays faithful to the life He’s given inside of all who truly believe. Only don’t deny God, or He will deny you (which I take to be equivalent to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit mentioned above): “if we deny him, he also will deny us;
    if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
    for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Tim. 2:12-13)
  • The nature of the gospel, spelled out in Romans 1-8, is that we who were formerly under God’s wrath (Rom. 1:18) are no longer under God’s condemnation (Rom. 8:1). How? On the basis of faith in Christ and His saving work. But notice that right before the wonderful announcement of “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1), we read about a bitter internal struggle within the life of the believer: “I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members…Wretched man that I am!” (Rom. 7:23-24). This is the nature of sanctification. It is a bitter struggle. At snapshots along the way, we may look more or less like a true Christ-follower than other times. But at no point does the sin struggle of Romans 7 disqualify the Christian from the promise of Romans 8:1.
  • This is because justification (where God declares us truly just due to our repentance and faith in the gospel) is true of us the moment we believe the gospel. But sanctification is the process by which we–in experience–work out our own salvation, to conform more to Christ-likeness. I think Hebrews 10:14 sums this up beautifully: “For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are being made perfect”. “Perfected for all time” is what happens the moment we believe (i.e. justification). “being made perfect” is what we grow toward the rest of our life (i.e. sanctification). If we never grow overall in a trajectory that looks more like Christ / the fruit of the Holy Spirit, we were never justified to begin with. But the fact that we are growing is a sign we are considered righteous forever by God. It also means we won’t attain perfection this side of eternity.
  • This means that at any point on this journey, we could be found in sin, and yet still truly saved. These sins could be anything. And they could include suicide.
  • This is different than the condemnations of “murderers” (Rev. 21:8). “Murderers” suggests habituality. It is similar to what we’re told in 1 John 3:6 – “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning”. Earlier, John writes, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:10). Notice the difference? All Christians need to own that we have sinned. But true Christians don’t habitually live in unrepentant sin.
  • This new life of Christ could look like sinning the same sin 7 times in a day, but still repenting (Luke 17:4). 7 is really a stand-in for even more sins than 7. It’s a number of completion and finality. In other words, we could sin a lot, and still be forgiven. The question is, is there any repentance when that sin happens? What is our heart toward that sin struggle? The true Christian recognizes the “wretchedness” of the sinful self. The unsaved poser doesn’t see a problem with it.

In all of this, I hope you can see that we could be committing any number of sins when we die, and yet still be saved. And surely this would include suicide.

Finally, at first blush, some may say 1 Cor. 3:17 contradicts what I say above:

If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

But the temple, as said in this verse is referring to the collective body of Christ. And destroying the temple, by context, refers to those who aren’t building according to the true Christ and true gospel. They are promoting a false and divisive church. And there is no salvation for such people.