Is suicide a sin?
What does the Bible say about suicide?
There is only one known case of suicide, and its perpetrator was the infamous Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the Lord Jesus. A believer who commits suicide is committing a grave sin. Suicide is a sin because it denies certain things about the person and work of God. First, it denies God's power. The person who commits suicide thinks they have reached the end of their rope and that there is no more hope, but the Word of God says that nothing is impossible for God. In Luke 1:37, we read these words: "For nothing will be impossible with God."
Where human possibilities end, God's possibilities begin. Whoever commits suicide willfully denies God's intervention in their life. Second, because it denies God's purposes. God uses trials to fulfill His purposes. Trials are the chisel and hammer that God uses to shape those of us who are His. This is why God expects us to consider it pure joy when we face various trials. James 1:2-4 says: My brothers and sisters, consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
A person who commits suicide often thinks that God is unjust in putting them through the crisis they are facing, but this is not the case. When life's inevitable traumas, catastrophes, and crises threaten to throw us violently against the rocks, it is our personal faith and our understanding of God that brings us security. Knowing that God is in control of everything we are experiencing allows us to joyfully endure whatever comes our way. Such knowledge does not deny the circumstances or the pain and suffering, but it has the power to put things into the right perspective. This attitude leads us to understand that God is greater than our problems, and therefore we can be secure in Him. Thirdly, suicide is considered a sin because it denies God's promises. Notice what 1 Corinthians 10:13 says: “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”
Trials, crises, and suffering are all under God's control. Someone once said that God puts us in the fiery furnace of trials, but His hand is firmly on the thermostat, so that the temperature doesn't rise beyond what we can bear and burn us. But the beautiful promise is that God will not leave us in that fiery furnace forever, but when His purpose is fulfilled, He will bring us out. This is a great encouragement to endure trials with joy. After the storm comes the calm. After the night always comes the day. But if a person commits suicide, they distrust this promise, and thinking they will always be in that situation, they end up taking their own life.
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