When one loses hope Part 2

Have you heard, “If someone commits suicide they go to hell”? Comments like this are lacking in Biblical knowledge, compassion and grace. 

Where the Bible does not condemn, we should not condemn. Where the Bible is gracious and merciful, we should be gracious and merciful. Grace saves, restores, rebuilds, and regenerates people. Condemnation adds more sorrow and loneliness. 

Scripture establishes the foundation we stand on to help those who lose hope and serve as encouragement to those who are dealing with the consequences or have questions about suicide.

God has not and will not create someone to go to hell. The Bible says, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

God did not create hell for humans, but for the devil and the angels who rebelled in heaven. However, the choice between heaven and hell is left to us to decide. It is by rejecting Jesus Christ and His forgiveness for our sin that we enter hell. 

God, because of His love for people, sent His Son Jesus to redeem us from the penalty of our sin (death and hell). We read, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God is about life not death. 

God knows the human heart. Each of us have inclinations for sin, pleasure, selfishness, and a desire to escape from our trouble, worry and fears. We often run away or try to escape from our trouble and like the prophet Elijah, we learn that our troubles are always with us. 

The door to suicide opens deceitfully easy when we are faced with troubles. Suicide is the perfect wrong answer to our troubles. 

God said, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds” (Jeremiah 17:9-10). God know us better than we know ourselves and God knows the tricks of the heart that deceive and misleads each one. 

King David prayed to God, “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well” (Psalms 139:13-14). God’s plan for each person is different in length and purpose but each person exists by the design of God and our purpose is to accomplish His Will in our lives. 

God’s grace is greater than our sin! We read, “…where sin abounds grace does abound much more” (Romans 5:20). Jesus said, “any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man (Jesus), it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matthew 12:31-32). 

It is important to hold our judgment and criticism of others. Jesus said, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1-2). 

We do not have the ability to “know” a person’s heart, so why do we think we can, should or could condemn someone for losing hope and committing suicide? Judging one who has lost hope and taken his or her life belongs exclusively to God. 

God tells the difference between how people judge and how He judges. We read, “But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). How much clearer can God be? God is the only one who knows the heart of anyone. 

Either God’s grace is greater than our sin or it isn’t. We read, “…where sin abounds, grace does much more abound” (Romans5:20). God’s grace is greater than our sin. God’s forgiveness is always available to those who lose hope. 

Do not to take my statements as tacit approval of suicide. Suicide is wrong but I also believe that God knows each person’s heart, mind, and soul. Those so overcome by hopelessness that if they take their own life, we can trust God for His righteousness for that one. 

We trust God for our salvation, we can trust Him for every person overtaken in despair. We can trust God to make a righteous judgment of a person’s soul because He is righteous, holy, perfect, we are not.  

God alone knows the human heart and His grace is greater than our sin – all our sin.