[Darris McNeely] For someone who commits suicide, what is their fate? I’ve just done a Beyond Today television program and a lot of time I’ve spent researching and talking about suicide. You know, suicide is a very complicated topic. People who take their lives are in a very discouraged, depressed state of mind, sometimes for quite a while. And they’ve never been able to shake it, and they come to a point that they make that ultimate decision to take their life because they fear living more than they fear dying. And it’s a very tragic, difficult situation.

Often the question comes up, is someone who’s committed suicide committed what can be called a sin that is unpardonable, that cannot be forgiven? Well, the answer is no, they have not. God can forgive any sin upon which a person repents and changes and seeks God’s forgiveness and mercy. Obviously, when a person is depressed and they’ve taken their life, that ends their physical life. But God has a plan for all of mankind. God has a plan for even those who are at that point where they decide life is not worth living.

There’s a scripture, actually several scriptures that point to this fact. The key thought is the truth of the resurrection. In John chapter 5, verses 28 and 29, Christ said that He is going to bring back to life in a resurrection the dead (John 5:28-29). Many, many scriptures in the New Testament speak to this eternal truth, and that is the hope of the dead in God’s purpose and God’s plan, according to what is laid out there

There’s a scripture in 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 9 that is really critical to understand in this regard and God’s infinite mercy. It says, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God will give all the opportunity to repent, and even one who commits suicide will have the opportunity to live again, and a chance – their first chance for salvation, to come to know God in repentance and live a life better than the one they had that led them to take their own life.

So as we grapple with this, if that has been something that has impacted your life, through the death of a friend, a loved one who’s taken their life, or you wonder about what is their eternal fate in God’s plan, take hope, take heart that God does have a purpose through the resurrection and that those who have committed suicide can have a chance and an opportunity for God’s grace and mercy and live a life of hope and peace, better than the life that they led prior to their death.

That’s BT Daily. Join us next time.