In I Corinthians 10, verse 13, we read this dogmatic statement: “There has no temptation (or trial) taken you (or, overtaken you), but such as is common to man (many others have faced and conquered what you now face), but God is faithful, who will not suffer (allow) you to be tempted above that (which) you are able (to bear), but will with the temptation (at that exact moment in time) also make a (God-made) way of escape (hence, a perfect escape route), that you may be able to bear (any trial, any temptation, any problem of life).” {Please note that all words of statements contained in parentheses are comments added by the author hopefully to make clearer what is being said in some scripture}. But that promise of deliverance is made only to those who have a vital, ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ. Unless and until one is submitted to Jesus Christ as the Lord of their lives they are pretty much on their own in this old world. They have no help available from on high.
Suicide is NOT the unpardonable sin. Many think it is, reasoning, “How can one ask forgiveness for committing the act of suicide? They can’t ask for forgiveness after they die – they’re dead. And if they were really sincere in asking for forgiveness before taking their own life, then they would stop and not commit suicide!” Right? Wrong! Millions of Christians die suddenly, having no warning whatsoever that their life is about to end. Most of those who so die have committed many sins, sins for which they have not asked forgiveness prior to their death! Does that mean they die lost? Unforgiven? Of course not. If that were the case, many dedicated Christians would die unforgiven and without hope.
One suicide wrote of how he saw life as a dirty trick pulled on mankind by some malevolent god. Another forty-seven year old suicide wrote of how there wasn’t forty-seven days of his life he would wish to live over again. One divorced sixty-one year old female wrote that she had lived sixty-one years too long, “The breaks were against me to the last.”
Suicides can be any age. Sometimes even children commit suicide. Often many suicides are teenagers. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people aged twelve to nineteen years in the United States. According to the CDC (the Center for Disease Control and Prevention) in 2021 there were 48,183 suicides in the United States!
The taking of one’s life – suicide – is self murder. Make no mistake, it is a sin and it is a crime. About the only way a suicide could be punished in this life was to refuse them burial in what was viewed as sacred ground, at least this was the view in Roman Catholic societies. Relatives of the deceased had to find somewhere else to bury them. Gradually that ban was lifted and those who died by their own hand were permitted burial among the rest of societies dead.
If one accepts the scriptures as authoritative in such matters, then a passage in Genesis Chapter 9 seems to clearly give God’s mind on the matter of taking one’s own life: “And surely (the shedding of) your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man…..” (See verse 5). God will require that justice be satisfied in the taking of one’s life even if one takes his own life. But do not read into that text more than it says. It does not say such an unfortunate is forever lost and consigned to hell fire. Just what God will require of the suicide is actually left unsaid.
When life becomes unbearable one needs to seek another avenue of escape other than ending one’s life. There is a burden bearer – Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Come unto me ALL ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I WILL give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Notice that the summons is extended to all – all without exception. And the promise is that Jesus Christ WILL give such rest from the burden of depression, loneliness, fear, anxiety, a bad marriage – whatever!
Other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest sufferer in all the Bible was a man called Job. Job’s sufferings are proverbial. In the 10th verse of Job 23, Job cried out, “He knows the way that I take…” There is not a sparrow that falls to the ground without our heavenly Father taking note of the same. (See Matthew 10:29). And, of course, some cynic might add, ‘Yes, but it falls to the ground nonetheless.” But the Holy Spirit left the scenario incomplete. Perhaps the tiny sparrow fell into some soft grass where the mother sparrow immediately went to its rescue. But whatever the completed scenario might have been, the passage is actually directed toward God’s interest and care for human beings, not sparrows. The next two verses read: “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows” (verses 30-31).
Some years ago the Holy Spirit opened to my mind the profound truth that Jesus uttered when He said, “the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Look at your comb, or hairbrush, or pillow. The hairs of your head are continuously changing in number from one moment to the next. When Jesus said “the very hairs of your head are all numbered,” He was actually saying God’s attention on us is continuous, undeviating, unwavering. Satan would have the would-be suicide think, “God doesn’t care about me.” Yet scripture states quite clearly that “God is not willing that ANY should perish” (See 2 Peter 3:9).
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I have heard many a preacher say, “If you had been the only human on earth that needed saving, Jesus Christ would have still come to earth and would have died for you.” In that assessment they are right. You alone and all by yourself are intensely loved by God and valuable to His kingdom plans.
Barry Manilow wrote a song he entitled “One Voice” and, in the lyrics of that song, he speaks of “one voice singing in the darkness.” Troubled one, will you not listen to that one voice softly speaking, even singing, in your darkness. That voice is the voice of your Creator, if you will but listen. And that voice cries out in your anguish, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Turn a deaf ear to any and all voices that speak to the contrary. God loves you and assures you – it’s a promise – “You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart” (See Jeremiah 29:13). Seek the Lord and find Him for He is not far from every one of us. (See Acts 17:22-31).
I repeat, the taking of one’s life is NOT the unpardonable sin. I assure you those poor innocents who threw themselves off of the Twin Trade Towers as they were burning and in danger of collapse, did NOT commit the unpardonable sin. The horror of a slow death by fire compelled them to end their lives as swiftly as possible. Jesus Himself said, “the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). Our Lord walked in our shoes, so to speak, for thirty-three years. He knows how difficult life can be. The taking of one’s life is an offense against God, but not the unpardonable sin. But most of us members of the human family offend our Creator in some manner, large or small, every day. So we dare not judge or condemn one who has committed an offense different from our own. The person who ends their life by their own hand is saying something quite clearly and as loudly as possible. They are saying, “I cannot go on any longer. I cannot bear this burden one more hour.” To the survivors, it is the final slamming down of the phone. We cannot answer. We cannot reply. We cannot repair the connection. Thank God our Creator’s understanding is unfathomable, His mercy limitless, His compassion all-encompassing. It is difficult at best to fully know one’s own mind. We cannot truly know the mind of another. Only God knows the real WHY when one terminates their fleshly walk for oblivion. The One who said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” has quite often heard the words, “Into thy hand I commit my spirit.” Yes, even from the lips and heart of one moments before they stop their own heart from beating.
There are two great truths that every would-be suicide would do well to keep in mind: 1) One never knows what is around the corner of time. Perhaps the most fulfilling, happy, joyous days of one’s existence lies yet ahead, and 2) One can always hold out a little longer. Even those who say they cannot endure one more day or one more hour, if they would put down the gun, step back from the river’s edge, or take the noose from around their neck, they would find that they can indeed hold out a little longer.
There is a Christian song that says, “tears are a language God understands.” And that is true. God’s promise is to wipe away all tears from our eyes. We are not to stop the tears from flowing by killing ourselves. That really is no solution at all, for the suicide is then faced with the terrible sin of murder – self murder – and there will be a day of reckoning. “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ…every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (See Romans 14:10,12).
The would-be suicide has perhaps tried everything else. Why not try God? Why not surrender your life to the guidance and control of the Holy Spirit and enjoy that peace that surpasses all understanding? “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3). The would-be suicide’s mind is fixed on self, one’s own problems and hardships. Fix your mind on God and on His goodness and eagerness to help, to bless and console.
Fear God and keep His commandments. One of those commandments is “Thou shalt not kill.” “Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are but dust….But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him” (See Psalm 103:13-14, 17). God knows what you are made of, friend. He knows your emotions, your personality, your physical and mental strengths and weaknesses and all your disabilities, and, therefore, He says, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” Take Him up on His gracious offer and live!
Know that the Great God of Glory is the One of whom it has been said, “God IS love!” I truly do not believe that the one who ends their own life prematurely will then come face-to-face with an angry God. They will come face to face with One who loves them enough to die for them and whose mercy has no bounds. But they will come face to face with One who must judge them for the terrible act of self murder. Please believe these things for they are true. And they will come face to face, following a resurrection, with One of whom the apostle Paul said, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out..” (See Romans 11:33)
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley