Question:
Dear Greg,
When
a person has been saved, are they always saved?
If they commit suicide will they still go to heaven?
Thank
you,
Dot
Answer:
Dear Dot,
The
Bible is clear. Nothing we do earns
us the gift of salvation, which is given to us by God’s grace.
Salvation
is eternal life, given to us when we commit, believe and trust in Jesus as being
sufficient and complete for our salvation.
We are not given conditional life—but eternal life.
Not eternal life as long as we don’t make any real big mistakes—in
which case it will be taken back.
Of
course, not everyone who says or thinks that he or she is saved is saved—not
everyone who goes to church is a Christian.
Only those who have been given the Holy Spirit (Romans 8) are saved—and
humans cannot perfectly discern who has or who does not have the Holy Spirit.
So,
if someone sins who we think is a Christian--what happened?
One possibility—all of us who are Christians sin (that’s the
incredible thing about God). He
saves us even though we will continue to sin—for that’s what the Bible tells
us—1 John 1 among many other places. Of
course we do not willfully sin, or habitually sin, if we are Christians, but we
do sin—and we are still saved. Another
possibility—the person who we thought was a Christian, and perhaps who
actually thought themselves to be a Christian, was never a Christian at all
(Jesus will say, “Depart from me, I never knew you”—
Suicide
is a sin—it is not the worst sin, for sins are not categorized.
It is a sin. The
question—is it a sin that someone who is a Christian will commit?
Opinions differ on that topic; some believing that suicide is absolute
proof that a person was never a Christian.
PTM cannot make such a dogmatic statement.
Reasons a person might attempt or actually commit suicide are
varied—and no one answer fits all situations.
Thank God that God will decide—and no human, about each of us.
Christians
are not perfect, but we are forgiven, we are saved.
And since God has saved us, the bible tells us that no one can snatch us
out of his hand. The Bible also
says that He who has begun a good work in us will finish it.
In
Christ,
Greg
Albrecht