Do you go to Hell if you commit suicide?

If someone commits suicide, do they go to Hell? This is a tremendously loaded question, which means there is a lot involved with giving a good answer. So before giving one, we need to pause and ask what people mean when they ask if a suicidal act sends someone to Hell. The full answer is more complicated than you may think.

First, this question often often begins with the very shallow idea that people go to Heaven or Hell based only on how good or bad they have lived their lives. This cartoon image of eternal judgment often shows a set of scales weighing what you have done right in your life against what you have done wrong. If the scales tip in the wrong direction: you go to Hell. This is a sad, small, and fundamentally wrong way to understand what it means to be a Christian.

Eternal life is a gift

To be a real, healthy, mature Christian means to be fundamentally unified with God. It means that you have realized God’s love and grace, not only that you believe in the idea of God’s love, but that you cast your very life upon this great Love, that you have faith in it. A real Christian knows the goodness of God as infinitely greater than themselves. This is life’s greatest ecstasy. Therefore, any talk about how people end up in Heaven or Hell, first of all, has absolutely nothing to do with a set of scales weighing human actions. Eternal life is first the tremendous reality that God already was before the world began, best seen in his great passion at the cross:

"But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God."
Ephesians 2:4-8 (RSV)

In short, before speaking of the connection between suicide and Hell, eternal life must first be understood as a marvelous gift. First and foremost, it is not about if someone spent their life serving the homeless or abusing children. In its deepest sense, Goodness Itself does not depend on human actions (see Jehovah Tsidkenu). Yes, we need to seriously consider whether we are going to Heaven or Hell when we die. But if our response to this concern is to endlessly worry about our actions, if it is to dwell on ourselves, then we have got it all wrong. In contrast, if our concern about our eternal destiny is met by taking attention off of ourselves and instead giving it to God, if we respond to this concern by meditating on the Creator who is grace and love Itself, then our heart is correctly oriented and we are responding in the right way.

Eternal life is also a choice

However, salvation is not only a gift. In a great mystery, eternal life also involves our freedom and actions. Granted, our eternal destiny is first and foremost the work of God. But in a lesser way, going to Heaven also requires our work. We must attend to fixing our own sinful behavior. Because the effects of sin are real, severe, and can indeed separate us from God and send us to Hell.

Is it fair to say that choosing to sin has the effect of separating people from God? Actually, we see it all the time. Let’s say a guy is raised in a healthy church, becomes an adult, and begins life on his own. At his new job, he finds that he has opportunities to steal from his employer. Temptation gets the better of him, and embezzlement becomes a habit. The habit is fed and grows into a holistic addiction. He soon finds himself taking part in extramarital affairs. A downward spiral begins and his life unravels. During this trend, his old Christian habits begin to feel forced and awkward. Fast forward ten years, and he has completely given himself over to dishonesty while simultaneously losing relation with the God he felt connected to as a kid.

In this example, note that doing sinful things led to this man becoming separated, in a real and immediate way, from the God that made him and loves him. His childhood and adulthood are not the same; the adulthood is actually worse. Of course, God’s love remains, always covers us from head to toe, even right now. As the Scriptures say, nothing can separate us from his heavenly love. God’s love does not depend, at all, on how we respond to it. But there are real consequences to not responding. Sin really does separate us from God, sending our lives toward fragmentation and death.

Saint Dismas and the beauty of repentance

So, then, how do we stop our sin from separating us from God? The answer is a very beautiful and ancient Christian word: repentance. Repentance is why, in the only prayer that Jesus gave us, he has us ask God to “forgive us of our debts” or “forgive us of our trespasses” (Matthew 6:9-13). Christ is saying that we constantly need to tell God how sorry we are for acting in sinful ways. We regularly need to stop and take time to ask God to forgive us, then receiving the forgiveness that He immediately gives, without hesitation, to all true repentance: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins." 1 John 1:9 (RSV)

If salvation was merely a gift and not also a choice, Jesus would never have made repentance so central. Repentance wouldn’t actually matter. But since the Christian life also involves the work of avoiding sin and entering into union with God’s holiness then we must regularly take time to apologize to God for our sin.

The need to regularly repent from sin can provoke serious anxiety in some Christians, since repeated sinful struggles can make people feel like they are doomed to Hell. And, in fact, the Holy Scriptures speak of going to Hell as eternally burning in fire. But as I outlined earlier, these overly anxious Christians are simply not placing their attention in the right place. Their heart is all wrong. Eternal Life must first be known as a gift that has absolutely nothing to do with our actions. Eternal Life is first God and his matchless love. It is only by focusing on God’s love that we live a healthy life, so that sin is easily repented and does not disrupt our eternal destiny. It is like Jesus said: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:29-30 (RSV)

When Jesus was dying on the cross, he was being crucified alongside two criminals. One of the criminals was full of bitterness. But the other criminal rebukes the first and expresses true repentance for his past actions, "'Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.' And he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.'" Luke 23:40-42 (RSV)

Christ responded to this second criminal: "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." Basically, Jesus says to this second thief, “You are going to Heaven.” This is an amazing story because the second criminal likely never lived a godly life. It is entirely possible his life was filled with terrible behavior that hurt other people. Yet, admitting his wrongdoing, the second criminal embraced new confidence in Christ, and this is all that matters. Regretting his sin (part 1) and choosing to entrust his whole life to Christ (part 2) is what saved him from Hell. He is today honored throughout the Christian world as Saint Dismas, a wonderful inspiration of faith.

Suicide and our humble of view of human hearts

Let’s return to the question of suicide and Hell. The great terror of suicide is that it often does not give people a chance to repent from their sin. They can’t be like Saint Dismas, where they get a chance to throw themselves at the mercy of God. As a result, suicide is a very serious sin. And since (a) sin does indeed separate us from God, and (b) suicide can indeed take away a chance to repent, then (c) people often conclude that anyone who commits suicide automatically goes to Hell.

But this belief is wrong. And it is wrong because it is not focusing its attention on God’s love. God is not only pure, holy, and opposed to sin. God is also merciful, just, and abounding in compassion. While sin indeed separates us from God, and while sin can indeed send people to Hell, God also understands that people do sinful actions with varying degrees of responsibility. Sometimes people do terrible acts (lying, cheating, etc.) with full knowledge of how evil the behavior is, and with full freedom to act or not act. A sin done with full knowledge and freedom is the sin in its darkest form. But sometimes people do terrible things without knowing how evil some behavior is, or without much power to choose their own actions.

I think about all the people with mental illness who are, right now, homeless and living on the streets. Some of these people are not even aware of where they are, have forgotten their own names and the names of their loved ones. If someone this ill jumps in front of a bus to commit suicide, are they in full possession of their actions? Are they in full awareness that suicide is evil? Certainly not. Would a loving and merciful God understand and judge this sinful act with the same severity as someone who is completely healthy? No way.

Thus, I can now answer the question of whether suicide sends someone to Hell. The answer is: we don’t know. Nobody knows (not you, not any pastor, not any priest) because nobody knows if someone who commits suicide was in full control of themselves or fully understood how serious suicide actually is. We don’t have access to people’s insides. As Scripture teaches, only Christ is the judge of hearts (John 5:22). Therefore, it is impossible to know, on this side of Paradise, whether someone who commits suicide ends up in Hell.

Since there is no actual ability to know whether any single act of suicide results in someone going to Hell, our attention, instead, should be focused on the mercy, goodness, and tremendous love of God. This is our only hope, and what a powerful hope it is. If we focus our attention only on wrong actions, either on our own sin or on the actions of others, the result is a life of drawn-out misery and anxiety. But giving our full attention to God, plunging ourselves into the tremendous mercy and love that he is, this is eternal life, both beginning now and extending into eternity.