A few weeks back I preached on the subject of “the unforgiveable sin”. Part of that sermon dealt with the question I received from a member of the congregation about suicide. I have heard in a number of places that suicide is an unforgiveable sin. After making a comment about suicide I stated that I would preach a series of sermons on the subject. I knew that the series would be soon but this became an immediate need in my opinion.
I received so many responses to the comments I made about suicide in a sermon that I had to respond quickly. I have never had as many deep conversations in response to a sermon as I had after mentioning suicide. I believe that this has something do to with the history of suicides or attempted suicides in our community. In the two years that I have been here, I have heard of or known of more suicides or attempts than anywhere else in my ministry. Part of that has to do with being a part of emergency response. And I am not saying that it is more than anywhere else. I have heard of more here than anywhere else I have served.
Maybe part of that is because suicide is a subject we don’t like to talk about. It is a painful subject. There is shame and guilt tied to it. Families who have lost love ones through suicide experience loss that seems even greater or longer than other tragic deaths. In this series I am going to deal with suicide head on. I’m not going to avoid this hard subject or even soften the issues. I am going to deal with it from a biblical worldview. My opinions are only going to be injected when I can’t find an answer. But there is Good News to speak even in a case when someone takes their own life.
But I have to deal head on with some bad news about suicide. Suicide is a sin. I can’t soften that any. Biblically it appears that it qualifies as a sin. Exodus 20:13 (the Ten Commandments) says that you will not kill. There is a lot of debate on whether that is “kill” or “murder”. The best way to understand it is to continue reading in Exodus and into the book of Deuteronomy. Moses explains that if someone dies without intent on the part of the person who hurt them, there is no guilt. If the person commits an act with intention of harming and killing, then there is guilt. Suicide is an act of violence (read that as physical harm) with full intention of harming oneself even to death. Intent, harm, and death means that suicide is a sin under the law.
In the New Testament, some argue that Paul talks about harming ourselves in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. IN some translations it says that anyone who “destroys” the temple of God (our bodies from verse 16) then God will destroy them. Our bodies are the temple where God’s Spirit meets our spirits. If we destroy the intersection where we meet God, then we are cutting ourselves off from that connection. It would be an act of sin. I don’t know all of the ins and outs of that argument. But I believe we can all agree that anything that is hurtful to yourself and others is opposite of God’s will. And sin is doing what is contrary to God’s will, nature, and love.
God’s will is life. God created life. God sustains life. God rewards faithfulness with everlasting life. God heals. So anything that destroys life is against God’s will.
God is a good God. God wants good for our lives. We cannot name all of the good that God does. But suicide is not good.
God is also a loving God. God loves you. No one is so bad that God doesn’t love them. And killing oneself is not an act of love. Jesus stated that the second most important thing we can do with our lives is to love the people around us as we love ourselves. If we don’t love ourselves, we are cut off from our neighbors. Suicide is not an act of loving oneself. Suicide is a sin because it goes against God’s will, nature, and love.
So where is the Good News I talked about? Hang on. We need to hear more about sin.
We act like suicide is some greater sin than others. The church has historically refused Christian rites or burial because they took their own life. We treat those who have died through their own hand as if they are an abomination to life and to God. There are some things that God calls an abomination. The Old Testament lists some of those. I am just going to quote some of the passages where something is called an abomination. This isn’t about judging those things. It is just stating what has been called an abomination.
Leviticus 18:22 – homosexual relations
Deuteronomy 7:25-26 – owning and possessing an idol
Deuteronomy 23:18 – hiring a prostitute
Deuteronomy 24:4 – sleeping with your ex-wife if she’s left her 2nd husband
Some groups make a big issue of those abominations. They claim that God is righteous in declaring those acts abominations. Those who practice such things are rightly judged and deserving of the worst that God can do. But what do we do about these passages.
Deuteronomy 25:13-16 – dealing unfairly in business
Proverbs 6:16-19 - prideful attitude, lying, killing an innocent, devising wickedness, quick decision to evil, uttering lies, spreading strife
Did you see that in Proverbs lying makes the list twice? God hates lying so much that it is a double abomination. But we don’t go around admitting that we are abominable creatures when we tell a little white lie. No, we justify it by saying that no one got hurt. We think that it was just a little one. But there is no room for little white lies in the Proverb.
In the New Testament, Paul loves to list things. Good things and bad things. In Gal 5:19-22 we read:
19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Some of those acts we can write off and say, “I’ve never done anything like that.” But we can’t just excuse things like sensuality, doing something because it feels good. We have all broken fellowship with people because we didn’t like them. We participate in gossip. We get angry. Jealousy and envy rear their heads in our lives. And these acts exclude us from the kingdom of God
In Col 3:8-10 Paul writes that …anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,. In Ephesians 2:1-3 he calls these acts the characteristics of the “children of wrath”. Or better understood, anyone who does these things had God’s wrath directed at them.
The point that I want to make is that we cannot put individual sins on a sliding scale. The Bible reveals that sin is sin. There are no sins that are worse or less worse. All sins are despised by God. All sins are acts that put us in opposition to God’s will. And God is a just and righteous and holy God. God has no part in sin and God does not associate with sin.
Paul writes that everyone has sinned. We miss God’s standard. We have not measured up to what God wants. And because of the nature of God, sin leads to death. But God has made a choice to associate with us in a different way; through another person.
Here is the Good News. Jesus Christ died for all sins. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 says that God was in Christ reconciling the world to God. It doesn’t say just the Christians or Jews. It doesn’t say just the good people. It doesn’t say perfect people. It says that God was reconciling the world through Christ. Jesus Christ died for every sin everyone could commit.
If Jesus Christ died only for the small sins, then he didn’t die for much. If Jesus Christ died for the good people, then he didn’t die for much. Jesus Christ had to die for all sins and all people so that every one of us might be saved. And he did it one time to cover all sins and every one’s sins. The cross was a onetime event. Hebrews 9:12 and 23 state that. There is no repeating of the death of Christ. That one event covered everything and everyone who lived, lives, or will live.
And God associates with us through Christ. God reconciles us through Christ. If we are in Christ, we know that forgiveness for those sins. We experience that reconciliation. If we are in Christ in life, we know that forgiveness in life but also in death. The means of that death do not matter. In other words, suicide, even though a person cannot ask for forgiveness for it, has that sin covered under the death of Christ. It is forgiveable. I don’t know how God works that out. But God forgives. The only thing that God cannot forgive is rejecting God’s love and power through the Holy Spirit. Everything else God is able and willing to forgive.
Let me say now that there are some statements in here that may lead to other discussions. The subject matter is that suicide is a sin covered under the cross of Christ. All other topics I will be glad to discuss, but there wasn't enough time or room to go into deep theological rabbit trails. But give me a little credit. If not, we can talk about it.
I received so many responses to the comments I made about suicide in a sermon that I had to respond quickly. I have never had as many deep conversations in response to a sermon as I had after mentioning suicide. I believe that this has something do to with the history of suicides or attempted suicides in our community. In the two years that I have been here, I have heard of or known of more suicides or attempts than anywhere else in my ministry. Part of that has to do with being a part of emergency response. And I am not saying that it is more than anywhere else. I have heard of more here than anywhere else I have served.
Maybe part of that is because suicide is a subject we don’t like to talk about. It is a painful subject. There is shame and guilt tied to it. Families who have lost love ones through suicide experience loss that seems even greater or longer than other tragic deaths. In this series I am going to deal with suicide head on. I’m not going to avoid this hard subject or even soften the issues. I am going to deal with it from a biblical worldview. My opinions are only going to be injected when I can’t find an answer. But there is Good News to speak even in a case when someone takes their own life.
But I have to deal head on with some bad news about suicide. Suicide is a sin. I can’t soften that any. Biblically it appears that it qualifies as a sin. Exodus 20:13 (the Ten Commandments) says that you will not kill. There is a lot of debate on whether that is “kill” or “murder”. The best way to understand it is to continue reading in Exodus and into the book of Deuteronomy. Moses explains that if someone dies without intent on the part of the person who hurt them, there is no guilt. If the person commits an act with intention of harming and killing, then there is guilt. Suicide is an act of violence (read that as physical harm) with full intention of harming oneself even to death. Intent, harm, and death means that suicide is a sin under the law.
In the New Testament, some argue that Paul talks about harming ourselves in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. IN some translations it says that anyone who “destroys” the temple of God (our bodies from verse 16) then God will destroy them. Our bodies are the temple where God’s Spirit meets our spirits. If we destroy the intersection where we meet God, then we are cutting ourselves off from that connection. It would be an act of sin. I don’t know all of the ins and outs of that argument. But I believe we can all agree that anything that is hurtful to yourself and others is opposite of God’s will. And sin is doing what is contrary to God’s will, nature, and love.
God’s will is life. God created life. God sustains life. God rewards faithfulness with everlasting life. God heals. So anything that destroys life is against God’s will.
God is a good God. God wants good for our lives. We cannot name all of the good that God does. But suicide is not good.
God is also a loving God. God loves you. No one is so bad that God doesn’t love them. And killing oneself is not an act of love. Jesus stated that the second most important thing we can do with our lives is to love the people around us as we love ourselves. If we don’t love ourselves, we are cut off from our neighbors. Suicide is not an act of loving oneself. Suicide is a sin because it goes against God’s will, nature, and love.
So where is the Good News I talked about? Hang on. We need to hear more about sin.
We act like suicide is some greater sin than others. The church has historically refused Christian rites or burial because they took their own life. We treat those who have died through their own hand as if they are an abomination to life and to God. There are some things that God calls an abomination. The Old Testament lists some of those. I am just going to quote some of the passages where something is called an abomination. This isn’t about judging those things. It is just stating what has been called an abomination.
Leviticus 18:22 – homosexual relations
Deuteronomy 7:25-26 – owning and possessing an idol
Deuteronomy 23:18 – hiring a prostitute
Deuteronomy 24:4 – sleeping with your ex-wife if she’s left her 2nd husband
Some groups make a big issue of those abominations. They claim that God is righteous in declaring those acts abominations. Those who practice such things are rightly judged and deserving of the worst that God can do. But what do we do about these passages.
Deuteronomy 25:13-16 – dealing unfairly in business
Proverbs 6:16-19 - prideful attitude, lying, killing an innocent, devising wickedness, quick decision to evil, uttering lies, spreading strife
Did you see that in Proverbs lying makes the list twice? God hates lying so much that it is a double abomination. But we don’t go around admitting that we are abominable creatures when we tell a little white lie. No, we justify it by saying that no one got hurt. We think that it was just a little one. But there is no room for little white lies in the Proverb.
In the New Testament, Paul loves to list things. Good things and bad things. In Gal 5:19-22 we read:
19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Some of those acts we can write off and say, “I’ve never done anything like that.” But we can’t just excuse things like sensuality, doing something because it feels good. We have all broken fellowship with people because we didn’t like them. We participate in gossip. We get angry. Jealousy and envy rear their heads in our lives. And these acts exclude us from the kingdom of God
In Col 3:8-10 Paul writes that …anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,. In Ephesians 2:1-3 he calls these acts the characteristics of the “children of wrath”. Or better understood, anyone who does these things had God’s wrath directed at them.
The point that I want to make is that we cannot put individual sins on a sliding scale. The Bible reveals that sin is sin. There are no sins that are worse or less worse. All sins are despised by God. All sins are acts that put us in opposition to God’s will. And God is a just and righteous and holy God. God has no part in sin and God does not associate with sin.
Paul writes that everyone has sinned. We miss God’s standard. We have not measured up to what God wants. And because of the nature of God, sin leads to death. But God has made a choice to associate with us in a different way; through another person.
Here is the Good News. Jesus Christ died for all sins. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 says that God was in Christ reconciling the world to God. It doesn’t say just the Christians or Jews. It doesn’t say just the good people. It doesn’t say perfect people. It says that God was reconciling the world through Christ. Jesus Christ died for every sin everyone could commit.
If Jesus Christ died only for the small sins, then he didn’t die for much. If Jesus Christ died for the good people, then he didn’t die for much. Jesus Christ had to die for all sins and all people so that every one of us might be saved. And he did it one time to cover all sins and every one’s sins. The cross was a onetime event. Hebrews 9:12 and 23 state that. There is no repeating of the death of Christ. That one event covered everything and everyone who lived, lives, or will live.
And God associates with us through Christ. God reconciles us through Christ. If we are in Christ, we know that forgiveness for those sins. We experience that reconciliation. If we are in Christ in life, we know that forgiveness in life but also in death. The means of that death do not matter. In other words, suicide, even though a person cannot ask for forgiveness for it, has that sin covered under the death of Christ. It is forgiveable. I don’t know how God works that out. But God forgives. The only thing that God cannot forgive is rejecting God’s love and power through the Holy Spirit. Everything else God is able and willing to forgive.
Let me say now that there are some statements in here that may lead to other discussions. The subject matter is that suicide is a sin covered under the cross of Christ. All other topics I will be glad to discuss, but there wasn't enough time or room to go into deep theological rabbit trails. But give me a little credit. If not, we can talk about it.
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