When confiding to a Christian friend recently, I mentioned my fears about a loved one contemplating suicide. I told her that the worst thing is that he would be damned. She told me that if he is a believer (he is), then God has forgiven all his sins: past, present, and future. Yet, other Christians have told me the opposite re suicide. They say suicide is not trusting in God anymore, taking yourself and God out of the intolerable situation you’re in.
This brought me to think about Judas. He seemed to be very grieved about what he did to our Lord, he threw away the money, and then hung himself. If Judas prayed that he was sorry about what he did, and that he couldn’t physically go on anymore after realizing the enormity of his actions, and then hung himself. Would he be forgiven and go to heaven?
The Lord knew every sin of our life before we committed one of them and took them all to the cross where He forgave them. As soon ask we ask the Lord to forgive us and accept us into His family we are washed clean of all of our sins, including the ones we haven’t committed yet (Colossians 2:13-14). Suicide is no exception.
In Matt. 5:21-22 Jesus said that being angry with a brother makes us as guilty of sin as if we had murdered him. If we’ve ever done something that has caused us to be angry with our selves, are we not as guilty as one who commits suicide? And yet we know we are forgiven because we have asked.
If Judas accepted the Lord as his Savior and asked the Lord to forgive him for what he had done and for what he was about to do then the Lord forgave him, just like He would have forgiven anyone else involved in His execution who asked (Luke 23:34). Remember, it’s what we believe that qualifies us for heaven, not how we behave.